Last year the intelligent, hook-filled twang of Denver's The Hollyfelds secured the top prize in the alt-country category of the Westword summer showcase. Confidently anchored by the sublime harmonies of frontwomen Eryn Hoerig and Kate Grigsby, this five-piece is continuing to impress audiences of all musical stripes. Their live shows are impassioned and the classic leanings of their fresh alt-country two-step aches with sincerity.
With Dottie the bassett hound panting under the table, the five Hollyfelds took one recent warm Sunday afternoon to discuss the history of the band, their musical journey together, and their new EP (Black Heart Blue), while sitting in a bar parking lot and barely within the laws of drinking outdoors.
Interviewed by Heather Browne, I Am Fuel, You are Friends (F/F).
Photographed by Todd Roeth.
F/F - In addition to being in the Hollyfelds, all five of you have day jobs. How do you carve out a space for creativity as a band?
Sam - We make time because the band is more fun than our day jobs! I teach art at a high school, and Katie teaches music in elementary school, kindergarten through fifth.
Eryn - I work at a non-profit called Girls Incorporated, and I go to school full-time.
Sam - So every Monday night after work we'll get together. My wife usually prepares dinner for all of us, and then we head down to the basement to rehearse for a couple hours. We play a lot of shows together too, at least usually once a weekend.
F/F - How did The Hollyfelds form three years ago? It sounds like you all may be suspiciously related somehow.
Eryn - Yeah, Katie and me are twin sisters, can't you tell? (laughter) Someone really said that to us once. Or they think that Hollyfeld is our last name, and that we actually are all related.
Sam - No, it started with Keith and Eryn being married to each other...
ErynAnd I worked at Swallow Hill, which is down the road, and Tim walked in one day and he said he was looking for people to play with.
2 A.M.
The Hollyfelds, Black Heart Blue EP - 2009
F/F - When you formed as a band, was it automatic for you guys what musical direction you would take? Your music's got some fairly classic leanings.
Eryn - Well, yeah - we get really weirdly typecast, like Appalachian or traditional old country - I think people don't know where to put us. I don't know where to put us either....but I guess that's everybody else's job. It's not our job. I think if people ask what we sound like, I'll say “do you like classic country?” Because we sound a little like that, even though people do sometimes get turned off by that word. I'll say that we're country, but the good kind, the kind that doesn't suck.
Keith - Exactly, our music is so varied. On the EP the first song is almost bluegrass, the second song is rock, the third is pop song, like Patsy Cline.
F/F - Do you all come from different backgrounds of musical loves or do you find a pretty consistent frame of reference for your music?
Sam - When we have gone on our weekend tours, it's very evident that all of us have very different musical tastes. We take turns making fifteen-song playlists on the iPod and playing them for each other and yeah, it's obvious that we all like very different things. I think there is some crossover, which is why we can all work so well together. There's enough likes that it works, but there's enough differences that it brings creativity and interest to the songs we write together.
Tim - I also think it's a misconception that a lot of people have that if someone in a band plays a certain kind of music, that that must be their favorite sound -- and that's not necessarily true. It's just that we get together and we play, and this is what comes out. The Hollyfelds is what happens.
F/F - What kinds of stuff on those roadtrip playlists can you all agree (or disagree!) on?
Sam - I think Neko Case is one we all agree on....
Keith - Gillian Welch is another one. And Blondie! Everyone likes Blondie.
Eryn - My own personal top three are probably Over The Rhine, Robert Earl Keen, Fountain of Wayne.
Sam - Tim's been getting me into Built To Spill and I'm honestly into Flight of the Conchords now.
F/F - The new 5-song EP Black Heart Blue ‾ Can you tell me about the creative process behind this collection? Or differences between this album and previous albums ‾ where are you growing as a band?
Keith - The EP was recorded at the Mousetrap Studios in North Denver by Brian Hunter, and then we mailed the tracks to a San Francisco studio called One Way Studio. A guy named Masaki (just one name!) mixed and mastered it for us - he's worked with a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on both their records for Virgin, and I've known him for a long time. We were really pleased with how it turned out.
Sam - I think this album is more uptempo than our last full-length, definitely. There is more energy, and we're tighter as a band...
Tim - And I think it's more actualized all around, more confident and self-assured. We're better musicians up here because of all the shows we've played together, and we know what we're doing this time around.
Eryn -I also think we're willing to fight a little bit more now over the development, and work kinks out in the album more.
Sam - Over the last few years, there are big things that have happened in our band, but we really do care about each other and I think it shows in our music and in the longevity of our band
Eryn - Except I don't like you, Sam.
Sam - That's cool.
F/F -Do you all contribute to the songwriting process?
Eryn - Well, usually Kate and I put together a skeleton of the song structure and bring them to the rest of the band, and everybody else fleshes it out.
Kate - I feel like our songs have gotten a little more complex now too, the more we've been writing together.
F/F - You seem to play an absurd number of instruments on this record. Can you give me a rough countdown?
Kate - I play the banjo, the 6-string, the 12-string and the autoharp. Yeah, a different instrument on every song almost...
Eryn-And I'm autoharp, ukulele or piano.
Tim - Mandolin, dobro and steel guitar.
Sam - Drums and accordion!
Keith - And I'm just bass. Oh, and yelling and stomping on a couple songs. I was trained at Juilliard for foot-stomping.
F/F - There still seems to be some aspect of novelty around being a female-fronted band; do you feel that there's any type of misconception about your music or your band because you are fronted by a pair of women?
Kate - Well...I don't know what it's like to not be in a female fronted band.
Eryn - I actually think we've been treated really kindly, and really well and some of the cliches I've heard that other female bands have to deal with, we've pretty much managed to avoid completely, not because of any fault of any female-fronted band. We haven't run in to many double standards in touring. I think if you ask for respect, and demand it, then people for the most part don't give us any bullshit. I mean, growing up Kate liked the Indigo Girls a lot and I liked the Dixie Chicks, so those are some pretty strong females, neither of those bands is classified by their sexuality. They're just strong women who represent well on-stage. We've had a lot of good examples.
Tim - I think you guys hold your own - for the most part you two have an incredible presence and are really good at controlling a room in ways that some bands totally lack.
Nate Mender (Kate's Boyfriend) - The first time I saw you girls, I mean you guys are really cute don't get me wrong, but then you get up on stage and it's evident that you can really play and know how to belt it out and you respect your audience.
F/F - There's a lyric on the new EP that says “there's no shame in singing to an empty room.” I'm sure you've played a variety of shows over the years, from the well-attended to the very sparsely attended. What have been some memorable ones?
Keith -Ha, exactly - “We'd like the thank the bartender for coming out tonight!”
Tim - Well, the first time we played with the Railbenders at the Bluebird, it was so dark on the crowd and there were so many lights on stage - you know you can't really gauge how many people are there. After our set when the lights came up, we were grabbing our equipment and looked up and just the floor was completely packed, all the way to the end of the theater. This was 500+ people. It was a very stunning feeling to feel the energy from a crowd like that. I'm just glad we didn't see that many people there before we started!
Sam - And the time we rolled into Amarillo, I was freaked out. There were all these toothless teenagers making out with each other in these cars and I was like, “Where the hell are we?” ...Toothless Teenagers Tonguing Each Others' Tooth-holes, that's our next album title (laughter). No, that show ended up being fantastic.
→ Catch the next Hollyfelds show at the Skylark on Friday, April 3rd for their Black Heart Blue EP release party. Toothhole tonguing optional.
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