HOLLY HEBE
Holly Hebe is quickly becoming one of the most popular emerging artists of 2020 out of Melbourne. Holly has recently released her second single “We Are Fine” on the 20th of November. Writing, recording, producing and mixing everything herself, she has an unbelievable connection with her music and we are big fans of everything she is doing this year. Hazy Days Music would like to thank Holly for taking the time out and having a chat.
Holly, you have been playing music for pretty much your whole life, do you remember your first experience learning an instrument? Starting uni this year would have been an interesting time, how have you found it? Where/how did you learn to produce everything yourself?
I started playing the piano at a super young age. When I was about four my mum was given an antique Pianola for her birthday. My sister was learning the recorder at school, and when she practised at home, I would listen to her play and try and work out the melodies/notes on the pianola. After a while, my parents decided to get me piano lessons throughout primary and high school, by the time I was in year 9 or 10, I started writing a lot more music and getting into the production side of things. I started out messing around on GarageBand and moved to Logic not long after, and it has grown from there. In year 11 and 12, I started to really get into writing and recording my own music, whenever I had free periods, or spare time at school I would go to our little studio and practice producing, mixing and writing songs for hours.
All those experiences throughout high school have led me to what I am currently studying at UNI - Interactive Composition at VCA - I've loved my first year! It's a mix of film scoring, music production and arts music. It's a big collection of all different types of music, and it’s great to explore all these niche avenues of creativity.
This year has been a very interesting year to start UNI, I was able to go to classes for the first three weeks and meet most of my classmates, then COVID and lockdown happened, and it's been online since then. We have been able to organise a few online jam sessions and that, which have been really fun but makes you wish you could do it in person.
This year has forced me to learn more about technology and streaming. One of the benefits of studying this course is that you are allowed to borrow the equipment from UNI, but I live pretty far away and with Victoria bringing in the kilometre radius restrictions I wasn't allowed to utilise and take advantage of their equipment, so lockdown has allowed me to invest and upgrade my bedroom home studio setup, which isn't a bad thing.
Your first single "Sink" has been blowing up since it was released on the 12th of September, it’s all everyone seems to be talking about! It must be great seeing all this positive feedback for your first single. Could you run us through the writing and recording process and how "Sink" has changed from the first idea to the finished version? Did you run into any issues release this single?
Towards the end of year 11 was when I started working on "Sink". I was fiddling around on Logic and cutting up these iPhone drum samples I had. It turned into this kind of weird kitchen beat thing that I really liked the sound of and the song grew from there. Throughout the whole writing processes, I was working on the lyrics. On the production side, there was a lot of trial and error. I was trying a lot of different mixing techniques and playing around with the panning, levels and all that.
I finished writing and recording "Sink" in year 12, but then I didn't really know what to do with it. I just let the song sit there for ages and didn't come back to it till about the time of Melbourne’s first lockdown. There were a few things with the song I wasn't fully happy with and during that time between when I last touched it and the start of Melbourne lockdown I had gotten significantly better at using Logic, I re-recorded and changed a few things to how it sounds now.
When I finally decided I was going to release "Sink", I was a bit scared. I was pretty sceptical of what people were going to think, and I never thought it was going to be as well-received as it has been.
From the producing side of things, it was really scary for me. This was the first time producing music that is going to be released to the world, I was really nervous and wasn't sure if my final product was going to be up to scratch. It was a big leap for me to take, backing in my own work and music, being proud of my song and that the final mix was up to the standard.
It was a great challenge learning how to release your own music independently. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on the best ways for a solo artist to release their music independently, and I picked up a lot of tips from friends from UNI. They gave me great advice on the way I should go about releasing this single.
"We Are Fine" is your latest single that was released on the 20th of November. Comparing it to "Sink", how did you find writing, recording and producing this song? Were there any new musical influences for this song? I feel like you have upped your production style on this song and are starting to find your own sound, how hard have you been working on improving your production knowledge and skills? Will you release a music video for "We Are Fine"?
"We Are Fine" was actually a really quick writing process. I wrote this song during Melbourne's first lockdown. I was playing around on the piano and came up with that opening riff that starts off the song and thought it was really cool. I feel like if I think too much about a song that I am working on, or if it starts to take a long time to get that sound I'm after, in general, just overthinking the song, it never turns out how I would like it. For "We Are Fine" I worked on it for a few days and didn't push it too hard, just let it happen, and by the end of that week, the song was pretty much finished.
I sat on this song for a little bit as well. I decided that "Sink" was going to be my first single and was happy to release that song first and see how it goes. Over the second lockdown period, I just cleaned up the song a little bit, I upgraded my home studio with better microphones and monitors. I was feeling more and more comfortable being at home in my little studio space and I think that is really important when being creative, it's great having that comfortable space to be in.
I feel like I moved away from sampling and I'm more into making things out of my voice, I experimented a little in "Sink" with manipulating my vocals, but in "We Are Fine" I took that to a whole nother level, I like to record random sounds and use my vocals to manipulate them into almost another instrument and just see what new sounds I can create, it's a great challenge and a cool way for me to experiment with my music.
In terms of the process for each song, I feel like I had a clear idea for where and how I wanted "We Are Fine" to sound, whereas with "Sink" that was a very long process and the vision for that song was more making it up as I go.
Haha a music video would be cool, I really haven't given it too much thought though. Maybe something I can look into over the summer, I'm not too sure where I would start though, I'll talk to some film student friends and see if it's a possibility.
I have been listening to a lot of different music this year. I feel like I am listening to songs in a lot more critical way these days. Looking from the production side, I'll listen to a song and think about how I would go about recreating that sound or try to figure out what they have done to do this, just try and figure some new techniques or sounds I could try and use. Youmi Zouma, Maggie Rogers and Gracie Abrams have been big influences, but I feel like a lot of music is creeping into my music and helps me shape my sound.
What do you have planned for the rest of the year/start of 2021? Do you have any plans to release an EP or album in the future? With shows slowly returning, when playing live is Holly Hebe going to be a solo project or will you have a band accompany you on stage? Would you ever produce or work with other artists?
I'm keen to play a lot more live shows when I get the chance, I gigged a bit before Covid, but not really as Holly Hebe. I'm really looking forward to debuting this project in a live setting.
I'm supporting Tulliah at the Corner Hotel on the 31st of January - Event info here. I have a couple of small gigs lined up that should be announced soon as well. For live performances, I play in another band, and we have talked about how fun it would be for them to accompany me on stage. Over the Covid period, I have been getting my solo setup pretty compact and ready to go, so if there is no room for a band or for whatever reason, I can play solo.
I had this residency spot before lockdown that should be opening up again soon, it’s at this little cafe not too far away from me. Hopefully, that'll start up again soon. I'm looking forward to playing there again and chilling out.
I think it will probably be an EP at this stage. I have a lot of ideas and shells of songs living in my laptop. I have a couple that are almost finished, I spent the majority of my lockdown working on these songs in between uni assessments. I'm keen to use the summer to finish them off and organise something to release early next year.
I would love to work with as many people as I can! It would be great to start producing other artists' music and help them out. I am pretty comfortable with my own sound now, so working with someone else's music would be a great experience and challenge I'm looking forward to. I'm pretty self-taught when it comes to producing and I like learning from other people, so there's a lot more I can learn and would be great to pick up quicker ways on how to do things when it comes to producing.
Stay up to date with Holly Hebe on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.