NE AOTY 2022 Holly Rees

[ Holly Rees ] [ Holly Rees ]

In this issue of NE Online Magazine, the 2022 NE Online Artist of the Year, Holly Rees, takes us on a little trip down memory lane. After all, ‘Our Holly’ has actually been around for quite a while, whether that be in the world of art, or in music, she’s tended to keep herself busy, one way, or another – so, we head back over the hills, into them there wilds, and over Weardale way, for a chat with the songstress we’ve all come to love. With Holly, as with most things in life really, there are at least two sides to every story, Holly though, she’s more complicated than that and probably has at least half a dozen sides to her story, her blossoming persona. We all know that she has a love for music, but, there’s also a love for art as well, and, with her upbringing coming from those wilds of Weardale, how does one find their way into those two worlds. “I think I’ve always loved music, (doesn’t everyone really),” began Holly, and isn’t she right, irrespective of what you listen to, surely everybody listens to some form of music, “I just don’t think that, when I was younger, I ever really thought it could be a career, at least not for me. “I played in the school brass band when I was a teenager (I played the cornet), and I even took some music theory classes, and wanted to learn the guitar, but I didn’t really properly start playing until I took my sister’s acoustic to university with me.” In fact it’s probably that guitar, and the one she bought with the sale of her first piece of artwork, that perhaps began paving the way for Holly Rees into the world of music.

Continuing, she added that: “I think they bought it off ebay but it just sat gathering dust so I took it with me. “It filled up my spare time, a proper escape from everything else; I learned chords and structures just by playing covers, learning to play songs that I heard and liked, and started writing my own bits and pieces. “During my final year at uni I sold my first painting, and, instead of doing anything sensible with the money I made, I spent it on a beautiful (second-hand) Martin guitar. “That in itself just accelerated everything I think, because I just loved playing it and it’s really gorgeous to play. “After I graduated, I moved back up North, got a studio in Newcastle, painting mostly, and playing for myself in the gaps.” This next part, Holly has touched on in interviews elsewhere over the past few years, and it is about those first, tentative, tender footsteps in which she made from just playing in her room at home, to putting herself out there. Why? Well, she made a New Years’ resolution to do so? “It’s an odd time for me to look back on because it was both a great time in my life, but I was definitely struggling too,” continued Holly about that spell between finishing uni, and plunging, headfirst, into musical performance. “So, in January 2017 I set myself the New Year’s Resolution to do things that scare me, to make me feel alive. “One of those things that really terrified me was the idea of playing in front of other people, so I took myself to an open mic night, and it was brilliant, and I was a mess, but I went back the next night, and the one after, and then got invited to some showcase nights, and it just built up and up and somehow turned into this wonderful career I never saw coming.” Did we mention that there are always two sides to everyone’s story, sometimes more? Yes? Well, that’s okay then, because, with Holly, as alluded to already, there’s also an artistic side to her as well, that from the world fine art, painting,

and the like. The university in which Holly mentioned, that was to the Wimbledon College of Art, where she would earn herself a BA Hons in Fine Art – there’s some very fine talent running through them there veins that’s for sure. A curiosity though does spring to mind, as to whether there has been any kind of crossover between her two passions, or inspirations from one into the other. “Yes, I studied fine art painting, and I still love painting, even though I have a lot less time for it at the minute,” explained Holly when asked about her love of artistic masterpieces. “Music has won me over for now, but, I always feel like painting is still there waiting, “I think it’s a lot more patient than music. “In terms of a crossover though, it’s interesting and, for me, they’re both about exploring how we see the world, and reflecting it back at the viewer/listener. “So yes, there’s overlaps, and I think I learnt a lot from painting about the process of making, and all those lessons apply to making music. “For example; I think I have a tendency to be a bit of a perfectionist, which is a bit of a double-edged sword really.

“Painting taught me that there’s no one perfect painting that says everything you want to say. “Each painting is just a step towards that, each is part of that dialogue, and I think the same is true for songs. “Nothing can be perfect to everyone, it’s an impossible task; you just have to make something that you’re proud of. “In fact, a fun crossover between the two happened a few years ago. “Matt (Dunbar) suggested a skills swap - I made him a painting in return for him producing my sophomore EP, ‘Slow Down,’ and that painting then became the album artwork for his EP, ‘This Room Burns Bright.’” ‘Slow Down’ – quite an apt pair of words for Holly there isn’t it, only the recent wafts of a global pandemic have managed to do that, otherwise, stardom may have already whisked her away. Since arriving on the scene, musically that is, she mentioning that her painting has taken a firm, back-seat, for now anyway, for her other love of music, Holly went gut-bustingly full-steam ahead with a handful of releases being fired out in quick succession. If you’ve not got them, listened to them, then we implore you do so, she’s great – fact!! From her debut, ‘Ilex’ in 2017, through ‘Slow Down’ the following year, and quickly followed up with ‘Text Me When You Get There’ the following year, 2019, Holly was super busy, ever being afforded plaudits on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring Canada (last issue) the year of her third EP release. Of those, three, EP releases, Holly

would say the following –ILEX (2017) “So ‘Ilex’ came about pretty quickly after I started playing live in 2017, just shows how quickly it all snowballed. A really good friend of mine surprised me with a voucher for a day in Loft Music Studios, and we went in and recorded the whole EP in one day. Just acoustic guitar and vocals, very raw. There’s not really any production on that EP at all, what we left with at the end of the day is what I put out into the world. But it was amazing, to have someone go – “These songs are good. You need to put them out into the world.” I’ll never forget it, and I’ll always be grateful for them. Then somehow ‘Toast’ from that EP got some radio play on BBC Radio 6, and I remember because I was out gigging that night, and came back late, I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and absentmindedly checked my twitter and saw it had just exploded. It was very surreal, but I think that was the turning point for me because now I had a stranger on a big radio station thought a song I made was worth listening to, and more than that, worth sharing. I bet Tom Robinson doesn’t remember it at all; but I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. That gave me the confidence to really believe in what I was doing.” SLOW DOWN (2018) “’Slow Down’ came very differently - I’d met Matt (Dunbar) and we’d cooked up our skills swap plan, and we recorded the whole EP in the living room of my old flat in Heaton. I remember that time with a lot of joy, a lot of coffee, and I really learned so much from Matt. He’s absolutely brilliant. We went on tour together that year too, which was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Recording ‘Slow Down’, we were able to take our time a bit more (more than the rush of a single day in the studio for Ilex anyway!) and I think you can really see the step up. That EP really felt like progress, which I think is always the goal. I remember feeling so excited that year. The new EP, and I played some festivals for the first time that year, we went on tour. 2018 was a bit of a golden year I think. It’s funny you mention Magpie, because that’s the oldest song on Slow Down. I wrote that the year before, and almost wasn’t sure about it going on ‘Slow Down’, but I’m so glad we did it. It’s still a favourite now. I love ‘Slow Down’ ending with ‘Missing Out’ too, because I feel like that leant into where I was going to go, before I knew it.” TEXT ME WHEN YOU GET ARE (2019) “I think ‘Text Me When You Get There’ might have been Matt’s idea too - by the end of 2018 I had planned to tour Canada in 2019, so then came the plan to have a big goodbye gig. I asked some friends to play with me, as a “one-off” makeshift band, ‘The Breakfast Club’. It was such a joy. The rush from playing these songs with my best friends, I just fell so so in love with it. I knew then that this wouldn’t be a one off, and this is where I wanted to go next (just had to go off and tour Canada solo first..). So we played this brilliant goodbye gig, and Matt recorded it on the night, and mixed it, and there was born the live EP! We released it while I was on tour - I ended up using the release to help fund me flying over to play Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto, during my BC dates (right across the other end of the country!). Absolutely brilliant.” Therefore, during a spell of around three years, Holly had both released three EPs, and been and toured Canada, for a number of months, not bad going at all for a young girl from the wilds of

Weardale. But, three EPs so quickly in succession, madness, surely, more for a novice like Holly was back then, but I suppose it’s a little easier, less time consuming, than releasing three albums in such a short, timeframe. “The three EPs in quick succession was something I was really pushing for,” explained Holly. “I had this idea in my head about wanting to get a new EP out every year, and we would have tried to stick to that in 2020 if the pandemic hadn’t derailed everything. “The pandemic forced us to a standstill and I think that now, there’s no rush to just push things out, I’ve started trying to fight that urge a bit. “I released ‘The Lost Songs’ EP (he fourth) last year, making that my 2021 release, and now we’ve released a new single ‘English Bay,’ which I’m really proud of. “I think that song alone shows where I am, and as to where we’re going as a band, and that’s really exciting. “Now though (SPOILER ALERT), I want to make sure the rest of the new EP, when it comes out, is because it’s where it’s meant to be, and not rushed. “We’re busy recording, we have the drums done for most of the tracks now, working on guitars and bass and vocals, and then I get to stick my teeth in and get mixing. “It’s exciting, and I’m trying to lean into that excitement and push away the pressure that I think everyone feels post-lockdowns to just go-go-go. “I don’t want to rush it, I want it to be the best thing I’ve made yet.” To finish with, we asked Holly a tough, tough question, concerning that of love, life, and where one lives. With Holly, she’s certainly enjoyed the best of both worlds throughout her, still young, life. Born in the wilds of Weardale, residing in the bright lights and big cities of London, and Newcastle, then there’s the crossovers of both art, and music. Therefore, we put to here, as how her music has been inspired, motivated, or even hindered, by such scenarios. “Although that is a big question, I do think there’s definitely something to it,” philosophised Holly. “I think because, like a million others, I write about life, and that maybe feeds my natural urge to want to experience everything. “I’ve always had that desire to say yes, to find ways to go and do big daft scary things. “I’ve always thought to write about life you have to go live it. “So many songs came out of my Canadian tour that wouldn’t have if I hadn’t gone, but equally I wonder what I’d be writing about if I hadn’t gone. “Life happens to you wherever you are; the pandemic too shifted my writing I think. Like everyone else, I really struggled being stuck. Not just physically, inside, but mentally, and in my career, in lots of ways. Just treading water and having no power to break out of that, completely powerless. “A lot of that frustration came out in some of the new songs we’ve not released yet. “I think as well like you say, a lot of musicians write about love, and I’m no different, I have a lot of angsty songs about heartbreak. “I think what you also write about changes as you change too though, we’re all growing and changing all the time. “I’ve never sat really sat down and gone “Okay now I’m going to write about THIS,” I just play and write and see what I catch. “So I’m not really writing so many of those kinds of heartbreak angsty songs anymore, just because that’s not where I’m at. “It’s harder to write about heart-

break when your heart is happy. “What I’m finding comes out in my writing now is more political. “I guess the heartbreak I have now is of a different kind, the frustrations and hurt and anger I feel and see in the world around us. “I don’t think this is a massive change either - I think there’s always been a thread of this in my songs. “’Back Of My Hand’ for example, the b-side to ‘Stick Around,’ that song is all about the scars the Tory party have left (and continue to leave) on my home, on the North East. “I think the difference is just how I write about it now.” 6 C’mon then, MUNROOOOOOO!!!! Let’s go there - looks like it was a festival that excited you to perform at, tell me more, and how was it looking back, how was your music received by the masses? Finally, a promise for this feature, and in a way, bringing things right up-to-date – who knew Holly had done so much; we promised that she could this issues feature with her appearance at a recent, favourite festival of hers – MUNRO! “It was the best and I feel like I really needed it too,” beamed Holly. “We haven’t played to a new crowd in what feels like ages, so it was such a buzz. “I also didn’t expect so many people to come down early to catch us, so that was really lush, and we’re so grateful to everyone who came to catch our set! “We had such a gorgeous reaction too, it was a class crowd; it’s always amazing to play to a hometown crowd of familiar faces, but playing to a busy room of new people is something a bit different, it’s a new challenge and I really loved that. “It’s something I did all the time on tour and I’ve really, really, missed that kind of feeling, so it felt really good to be getting back to that, especially doing it with the band, that’s even better. “Every time we play live, I feel like something inside me gets realigned, it all falls back into place, and everything makes sense again. “We played a lot of new material too, so I’m even more excited to get these new songs finished and out into the world.” Keep up-to-date with all things Holly Rees via her socials on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ hollysounds and Twitter https:// twitter.com/hollysounds and via her website http://www.hollyrees. co.uk/

[ne 2022 artist of the Year]