In Conversation With #284 - Holly Blair
LA-based multi instrumentalist, songwriter and film maker Holly Blair released her new EP ‘Then Comes The Lightning’ at the start of September.
For fans of Japanese House and Art School Girlfriend, Holly's new EP explores themes such as AI, gender, sobriety, neurodivergence, add.iction, love, grief and many more, and really highlights her natural gift as a songwriter and storyteller. As a gender fluid artist, Holly is interested in exploring environments that challenge fixed definitions, creating cinematic, sonic, and lyrical worlds that explore the messiness of being human.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Holly Blair, how are you? So your EP is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
I'm doing well! I’m actually out in rural Denmark alone right now doing some writing. I've been visiting family in Copenhagen so it’s been nice to have this time to write and reconnect with music for a bit. And yea, it’s been great to have it out there. It's always a funny thing releasing something that's been with you for so long. I’m never sure what I should feel exactly, but I definitely feel a sense of freedom that I can now let go of them and just focus on what's next. For me, the songs feel like they are no longer really mine once they are out. I set out to make them and now they are in the world and whoever they find and resonate with, they are kinda theirs now.
It is called ‘Then Comes The Lightning’ – what is the meaning behind that?
The title is from the lyrics to the first song on the EP called “Used to Dying.” The EP was written from a place in life at the start of a lot of change. I was in a tough spot, I was at the precipice of what felt like a ground up rebuild of the foundation I had built my internal life around. I had been living for so long in the same cycles of attachment and shame, of trying to numb out pain I didn’t want to look at, from really just being honest with myself. So when I say “Then comes the lightning” it’s referring to that moment of being jolted awake by something larger than yourself. It’s that little whisper in your gut telling you what the right thing is, that one I had avoided listening to for so long only until it became a scream and I could no longer ignore it. It’s interesting because when I wrote that song, I wrote it from the perspective of an AI becoming self aware for the first time. But now when I think about the story of the AI in the song, I see my own life path and what felt like waking up in a body I had been disconnected from for so long.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
The EP was recorded kind of all over the place. A lot of it was recorded out in my friend Kyle’s studio in Altadena, a little back house studio at the base of the mountains filled with as many plants as there was music equipment. Kyle has a green thumb so working out in his studio provided a nice little oasis from the city of LA. The rest was generally either in my studio at my house in Highland Park, or at a couple other studios around LA. I think my favorite moment of recording this EP is when me and my friend Charlotte made “Line Again.” We stayed up all night producing it and there was just this really special energy in the room. It’s always empowering when we produce our own stuff being two women in the room, not to mention she’s my best friend so it feels really comfortable and safe. It was a really hard song for me to write emotionally, and I definitely cried through moments writing the lyrics and Charlotte just kinda sat with me patiently and quietly as we crafted the song.
What are the key influences behind the EP?
Oo that’s a tough one. I would say it’s a combination of personal moments I could only begin to process through writing about it, and also just a reflection of the world around me at the time. There are themes of identity, Artificial Intelligence, queer culture, substance abuse, modernity and grief I would say. All of those things were mirrored by the world around me and also within me and I think when I look back I can see how that all influenced my emotional state when writing these songs.
If the EP could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
The first thing that comes to my mind would be a film like Ladybird. Perhaps like if there was an A24 sequel to that film and she's in her mid 20’s. Something that is coming of age, a bit unconventional and maybe lives somewhere between happy and sad. For me, my music exists in contrasting emotions and sonic landscapes, there's playfulness and grief, electronic and organic sounds, personal experiences and completely imagined truths.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
I think a line from the song “Slow” sums up a lot of what I was going through at the time and what this EP represents for me. I say, “Slow down, burn yourself out just to make em’ proud//Spit the rocks out my mouth so I can make a sound.” This was a period in time where I was finally learning to use my voice, and coming out of a period where I had physically lost my voice for a year due to a medical condition, so I was really trying to get in touch with not only making sound, but what I wanted to say now that I had my voice back. This EP is the beginning of me actually starting to come into contact with those parts of me that have been scared to be in the light for so long. It's about honesty. Not just with others but most importantly with myself, and I think “Slow” really captures my fear and desire to just be more whole in this world.
Now the EP is out there – what next for you?
I have already begun working on my next body of work, I think it will either be an LP or record. Right now I have 7 or 8 songs I feel really good about, all of them self produced with my friend Charlotte. Once I get back to the states we are going to dial in the record and also I’m going to start playing some more live shows. It’s something I feel ready for and excited about, may even have a little tour in the works so more on that soon!
