Following
his 2017 double CD masterpiece Prayer To The Energy, electronic
music innovator Hollan Holmes reemerged in early 2020 with
Milestones. Hollans seventh album, and
first for the Oregon-based Spotted Peccary label, the 65-minute Milestones
offers ten tracks of atmospheric, electronic synth-based instrumentals
that takes the listener into the depths of inner space. A gifted
composer, musician and painter / photographer that also designs his
own album covers, Hollan and his music has long been favorably compared
to well known German electronic music legends Tangerine Dream and
on Milestones the Texas-based artist doesnt disappoint.
Coming from T. Dreams Berlin school style of electronica, Hollans
music is best described as a mix of synthesizer soundscapes and otherworldly
space music that combines an intricate network of kinetic rhythms,
pulsing tones and spiraling musical spaces. The sheer depth and sense
of his recording expertise has always separated Hollan from many other
present day music practitioners. On Milestones, Hollan reaches
yet another sonic plateau on what is certainly bound to become a choice
classic of the 21st century synth music genre. For those keeping score
of those things, the Milestones album also benefits from expert
album mastering by two esteemed electronic music artists in their
own rightSpotted Peccary founder Howard Givens and Hollans
long time musical associate Chad Kettering. Theres all
kinds of technical data listed on the album packaging, while Hollans
artwork adorns the cover art, adding more to the albums sense
of wonderment. Highly regarded in the electronic music world for the
past decade, synthesizer music maestro Hollan Holmes will please his
long time fans, while bringing in a lot of new ones, with Milestones.
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mwe3.com presents the 2020 interview
with
HOLLAN HOLMES
mwe3: How has being an artist on the Spotted Peccary label
changed your musical outlook and compositional style and how did you
work with Howard Givens on your new Milestones album? Is there
a story behind joining the roster at Spotted Peccary?
Hollan Holmes: It's really too early to say, to be honest,
because so much has yet to happen, with regard to my first release.
However, I can say that Howard Givens had no small part in how this
album was brought to fruition. I met briefly with Howard at a Steve
Roach concert in Tucson Arizona in 2017. We got to talking and both
of us were interested in my joining Spotted Peccary. In December of
2018, I turned in the music to Howard. What happened next is crucial
to understanding why my new album sounds the way it does. Howard listened
to the new material and I could tell he wanted to say more than he
was initially telling me. I think he was afraid of hurting my feelings
musicians can be a thin-skinned lot sometimes, so I assured him that
I was okay with an honest critique, no matter how harsh, I just wanted
his unvarnished perspective. From there forward, Howard gave me a
thorough critique and that conversation changed everything. For the
first time, I had a professional in my corner, very gently guiding
me in a better direction and making suggestions on how to improve
the final music on this project.
He noted that the project lacked any cohesive direction; there was
no theme; some songs were too repetitive; some sounded unfinished
and some just simply didn't belong. This was, of course, a bit hard
to hear, since no one had ever offered such a critical take on my
musical efforts before. Howard really fulfilled the job of producer
on this project and it was this advice that changed everything about
how I moved forward on the music. I took what he said to heart and
four months later delivered Milestones. There was now a common
theme, tying all the music together. Some songs were heavily edited,
some were tweaked just a bit, entirely new songs were written and
some were removed altogether, because they simply did not fit. Had
it not been for Howard's careful attention to the details, the music
simply would not sound the way it does. Any success that this album
enjoys is due, in no small part, to Howard Givens and his expertise
for which I'm deeply thankful. The entire team at Spotted Peccary
has been in my corner from 'Day One'. Howard stressed that he did
not want to interrupt in any way my creative process, just that certain
elements needed my attention. I don't know if he knows just how important
his observations were to this album.
mwe3: Also is there a reason you call your first album of the
2020s Milestones and is the cover art for Milestones
one of your photographs? What does the 8 stones in the art signify?
Also have you been painting a lot these days? The Milestones cover
art looks more like a photo than a painting!
Hollan Holmes: This album had no title when I turned the music
in to Spotted Peccary and it was clear that the project had no theme.
While working on an album cover concept with some river rocks, the
idea for Milestones hit me. After that, everything began to
come together very quickly. I now had a cohesive theme and I began
tying everything together. The song names changed, the music changed
and the visual development concept was solidified. The eight stones
don't necessarily mean anything, other than the connection to the
Milestones theme. I was especially pleased with the pattern
of the stones, though. I must have taken several hundred photos of
various arrangements of river rocks for this project. Daniel Pipitone,
Spotted Peccary's in-house graphic designer, took my photos, listened
to the album and put together the final design and layout for the
custom CD wallet, insert and CD. This is the first time I've not done
my own album art from start to finish, but I must confess, Daniel
did an amazing job of carrying through the Milestones theme
and tying all the visual elements together in a very unique and beautiful
way. I'm very happy with the final product. Because my art career
is my primary income, I've been spending the vast majority of my time
painting and traveling to locations in the Desert Southwest to paint
and gather reference material for future paintings. Juggling these
two careers makes for an insane amount of work, but I love what I
do, so it's a rewarding job. I will probably incorporate some actual
paintings into the next album's design.
mwe3: Tell us about your frames of mind while recording Milestones
and is there a way to compare it musically to Prayer To The
Energy and your earlier albums? Seems like theres a lot
of diversity on Milestones, considering there are ten tracks
that clock in a seven minutes or less per track. Did you want to include
a variety of different electronic music styles on Milestones
to maximize the amount of potential listeners?
Hollan Holmes: That's a good question. I think it's tough to
compare this album to Prayer To The Energy, because it really
is a different album. I really wanted to explore a more electronic
feel this time around, leaning into the EDM realm, with regard to
the sound design and melodic structure of this new music. I don't
know if I'll do much more music like this, but I really needed to
explore it for myself, just to see what I could do. Also, I kept the
tracks fairly short, because the shorter songs are a bit easier to
digest, but in the future, I do want to explore longer form song structures.
I know that deviating from my usual style is a risk and that I might
lose some of my audience, but taking risks is how we grow.
In fact, the last song on the album, Ayyappan, is about
growth. My mood was always upbeat, except at the end of production
when I wrote The Truth Laid Bare. That song was written
the day after we had to have our sixteen year old Boston Terrier,
Delilah, put down. I was so utterly distraught emotionally when I
wrote that piece. Losing her destroyed me for weeks and I'm still
dealing with it. To this day, I cannot listen to this song without
being moved to tears. It's the most emotionally charged music I've
ever written. I loved her so much. The song deals with the ultimate
truth that life is finite. We're here for a very short period of time,
so it's important that we do something valuable and meaningful and
share as much love as possible with the time we are given. That was
the last song written for Milestones and it just poured out
of me like a river when I wrote it. This album does have a lot of
diversity to it. It wasn't intended, I just create whatever ideas
come to me and if I can tie them into the album effectively, I do.
mwe3: When was the music for Milestone written and recorded?
You said there was a three years wait between Milestones and
Prayer To The Energy so did the music come in bursts of creativity
or did it take time to formulate and conceptualize it?
Hollan Holmes: The initial concepts were written between March
2017 and December 2018. The album was completely reworked from there
to April 2019. Due to Spotted Peccary's release schedule, it would
be ten more months before release. I was laid off from my job in the
film/animation industry in October 2016, at which time 2017 became
a rebuilding year, where I switched gears into that of full-time artist,
so that was my priority. The music got moved to the back burner, so
production took longer than normal. I worked on music as often as
I could, but it was secondary to other responsibilities. That and
Spotted Peccary's production schedule resulted in the longer gap between
releases. That gap will be dramatically shorter moving forward. My
next release will likely happen around a year from now, perhaps a
bit longer, but not too much. I signed a three-record deal with Spotted
Peccary.
mwe3: What else did Howard Givens and Chad Kettering bring
to the sound of Milestones and can you cite anyone else who
helped get the sound right on the album?
Hollan Holmes: Kettering always brings his A-Game. He has mastered
my last five albums and co-mastered Milestones and always makes
my work sound so much better than when I give it to him. However,
this time around, Howard Givens found room to make some subtle, but
important improvements, due to possessing some unique hardware that
Kettering simply did not have. Between the two of them, they did an
amazing job in making my music sound as good as it possibly could.
With regard to my end of production, I have a small core of trusted
individuals whose opinions and observations I trust and I relied on
them to give feedback on my works-in-progress. They, too, contributed
to how I wrote the final arrangements on this album.
mwe3: Tell us about the variety of synthesizers featured on
Milestones and also about the computer programs and software
featured on the album. You also list the ADK music computer and the
speaker monitors used as well, so tell us how it all serves to enhance
your music and were there any new additions to your rig this time
around?
Hollan Holmes: In 2018, due to our taking in my mother-in-law,
so that we could care for her, I had to move my studio to a much smaller
space, so that dramatically limited the number of synths that I could
set up. Also, I ran into some midi issues that will require some hardware
upgrades that I'm not currently financially prepared to make, so once
again, in the interest of expediency, I went with an all-software
approach this time. My original ADK computer was getting quite long
in the tooth and was experiencing some issues, so I upgraded to a
1200 watt ADK Pro Audio system, running an Intel Core i9-9900K 8-Core
3.6 GHz processor, 5TB worth of SSD Hard drives, 64 gigs of RAM and
a GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 graphics card. I can stack a hundred
soft synths and this machine doesn't so much as blink! It's amazing.
ADK builds a great machine, optimizes it for music production and
provides the best tech support I've ever experienced from a computer
company. I'm running Propellerhead's Reason 11 as my primary DAW,
but I also use Presonus Studio One IV. Both are killer DAWs, but there
are aspects regarding synth automation programming within Reason that
make it my go-to environment for creating music. I've been using Reason
since Version 2 and it's just mind-boggling how far they've come.
With regard to synths, wow, where do I start? There are so many. Oddly
enough, one of the synths I use most often, is the among the simplest
of all. Reason's Subtractor hasn't changed much since V2, but it's
still one of my favorites. Stupid simple, but very powerful if you're
willing to dig deep and experiment. I think I probably have over 300
patches by now for that synth. Europa got a workout on this album,
as well. Can't say enough good things about that synth. Another favorite
is Rob Papen's PredatorRE. Omnisphere plays a prominent role on Milestones,
as well. Many others, including a lot of Kontakt based sounds,
found their way into my work, including a number of Heavyocity plugins,
which are very useful for dramatic risers and epic, hull-rattling
hits.
At some point, my studio will be back in a space where I can have
my full set-up and the next album will see heavy use of my analog
synths, which include a Moog Prodigy, Oberheim Matrix 12, Synthesizers.com
Portable 88 modular system, Sequential Prophet 600, Dave Smith Instruments
Pro-2, Prophet 12 and OB-6, two Korg MS2000s and a Korg Wavestation.
I monitor my mixes using a pair of Focal Solo-6 monitors and a pair
of Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones. Both have a nice flat response
and are plenty accurate for my needs.
mwe3: Will you release another album on Spotted Peccary next
year and what other hopes and wishes are on your timeline and wish
list for 2020 and beyond?
Hollan Holmes: I will. My next release through Spotted Peccary
should take place in mid-2021. I signed a three-record deal with them
and I'm already done with about 2/3rds of the next album. I'll be
sharing some of that with Howard in about a month, but I want to get
some hardware up and running for that project, before I complete it.
I also have a couple of side projects that I want to pursue, which
are collaborations with other artists, but I'm keeping that on the
down-low, for now, because I don't like announcing things until they're
solidified. I'm definitely excited about the future.