STACK March 2017 Issue 149

70 / 97

HOLY
HOLY
INTERVIEW
Sometimes a body of artistic
work will inform its title: the
artist will do their thing, then
look at what they’ve created and
choose an appropriate name to
baptise it. More unusually it’s the
other way around, which is how
guitarist Oscar Dawson describes
Holy Holy’s second full-length
release. “It was Tim’s idea to call
it Paint,” Dawson says. “He had
that idea completely independently
of having a collaboration with
any artist whatsoever. [The title]
affected the way that we wrote
and recorded, too. It was this
ping pong match between us and
the title; the title would kind of
communicate back with us.” Pretty
soon, the fascinating Painting With
PAINT project was conceived. "We
were trying all these [cover art]
ideas out, and then I suggested,
‘Why don’t we speak to James
Drinkwater?’ I thought it was a
yourself heard. It’s like speaking – I
think it’s important not to mumble
when you speak. That’s not to say
you can’t put heaps of effects on
[your instruments] and make it sort
of washy at times, but I think you
have to pick and choose when you
do those things. On this record I
really wanted not to use as much
washiness, and I think that means
you have to know what you’re
saying. When people mumble, it’s
like they do it ‘cause they don’t
know what they’re trying to say.
Actually stop and think and decide
what you want to say – it’s more
economical, you know. You don’t
have to say as much to [get out]
what you want to say. I was always
really bad at being succinct when
speaking. I probably still am, as you
can see by how much I’ve crapped
on here. Maybe I should try to use
this as a learning experience.”
continued
08 MARCH 2017
visit MUSIC NEWS
ALL OUR EXES LIVE IN TEXAS
INTERVIEWI t’s really hard not to want to start a band
with your best girlfriends after seeing All
Our Exes Live In Texas. The four women of this
fierce folk act were indeed friends before the
band’s formation; just one month prior to an
all-star show to celebrate the music of the film
O Brother Where Art Thou , Elana Stone,
Hannah Crofts, Katie Wighton and Georgia
Mooney were each pursuing solo careers, but
long shot because he’s off doing
openings in London.”
Oscar’s friendship with artist
James Drinkwater began back
when the former was living in
Newcastle. Dawson wrote a long
email explaining the cover art idea,
and Drinkwater promptly
"replied with one line: ‘Yes.
Great. Love to do it.’" Then
came its rapid expansion,
via Drinkwater himself.
“The idea was to get four
different artists, [James]
included, and have each of
them paint a piece based
on one of the songs of the
record. Four songs, four
artists. And they do it in the
moment."
All filmed in Drinkwater’s studio
("it's a shed in his backyard – it’s
a lovely spot in Newcastle") by
Charlie Ford, the artists involved
are Charlie Horder (painting to
Shadow with bleeding watercolour
and Indian ink), Ben Kenning
(painting to Send My Regards with
his intricate patterns of black and
white acrylics), and Lottie Consalvo
(painting to WillowTree with bold
strokes of acrylic and her own
earthy, mixed powder pigments).
Drinkwater chose to paint to That
Message , with bright acrylics,
aerosol, charcoal, conte and mixed
media, and often using a palette
knife, his fingers or a pretty vicious
right-arm slug to apply
the paint.
What about the
music? Well, Paint is
beautiful – exultant
guitar lines that fall into tiny
patterns around Tim Carroll's vocal
melodies, powerfully cinematic
synths, and lyrics both sage and
curious – but its main success is a
solidification of ideas, its precision.
Oscar says even the title was a
reaction to the band’s first album,
When The Storms Would Come. “It
had this slightly more ambiguous,
soft title – I guess we wanted
to try and be more bold and a
bit less sentimental,” he says.
That comes through in Dawson’s
particular approach to guitar,
for which he comes up with an
excellent analogy. “I think it’s really
important to be able to be clear.
It’s important to be able to make
Paint by Holy
Holy is out now
via Sony.
decided to pick up new instruments and put a
group together.
Elana Stone grabbed the accordion.
“Hannah calls it ‘The Devil’s Backpack’, but
it’s actually like a frontpack,” she says. “It’s
annoying to carry and lug, but once it’s on you,
it’s pretty ergonomic. Look, I’m anticipating
some serious back problems when I get older.
But it’s a beautiful and fun instrument to play."
After that first show, suddenly the women
were booking more gigs together than as
solo performers, and they began writing
songs. How does that work with four lead
singers? Stupidly smoothly, it turns out. “It’s a pleasure
because it’s such an easy band to work for,” Stone says.
“It’s so much easier working within a team of ambitious
ladies rather than working for yourself and going, ‘I’m
great. Listen to me.’ There’s a huge amount of respect
in the room with the four of us,” she continues. “I think
everyone recognises that everyone has a lot of talent and
is very intelligent. In most other bands that I’ve been in,
that’s always the hardest thing – making everyone feel
heard and happy.”
They certainly look happy. Take a gander at the video
for Tell Me, one of the funniest clips we've seen in
donkey's, in which the girls are lined up in a soccer
match against their fictional (and famous) exes. The
video for single I Took The Devil’s Part, by contrast,
is absolutely dreamy; it’s a reflection of the otherworldly
harmonies these women are capable of.
Writing is an “incredibly diplomatic” experience.
"Everyone in the group, on the album, has three songs
each. There really isn’t any arguing. I know that sounds
like it must be bullsh-t, but it really isn’t.”
The primary take away here is that Stone and her
compatriots enjoy discovering things about one another
– “you learn the things that make them tick musically,
and that andvances your musicianship” – but she asserts
that as soon as musicians put themselves under too
much pressure, the fruit dies on the vine. “There were
no egos to begin with because of the way the band
started – it was a fun project and it wasn’t intended to
go this far,” Stone says. “It’s really always been about
the friendships, they’re the most important thing. And if
everything else goes well, then that’s great.”
When We
Fall by All Our
Exes Live In
Texas is out
March 3 via
ABC/Universal.