The Holly Springs Disaster
interview by Livia
Regina, SK, Canada
The Holly Springs Disaster have taken Canada’s music scene by storm since their formation in December of 2006. Multiple tours, fantastic shows, and great music have attracted a large fan base, and everyone is brimming with anticipation for their debut album Motion Sickness Love, which is set to hit stores at the end of the summer. Barely giving themselves time to recuperate after their tour with Protest The Hero, the band is getting ready to get back out on the road, with a string of dates across Canada in mid-late August and hitting south of the border later in the year with their CD release tour. Big things are coming for this young quintet, and I was able to squeeze a bit of time with lead guitarist Tony to talk a bit about what the band is all about!
Livia: First things first, introduce yourself!
Tony : Hi everyone, I’m Tony, and I play the guitar in THSD.
L: Tell me the story of The Holly Springs Disaster. How and when did it all start, and how did it progress?
T: Well Josh, and Mike got it all started. They were from other local bands and they just formed as them two to start the band. They asked me to join. I was down. Then we just asked Andy and our old drummer and we were all one! We just wrote a set and said, “now we can tour.” So that’s what we did. We have a new drummer now, Dan, who is unreal.
L: Why The Holly Springs Disaster?
T: Sounded cool, and we went for like a Rock n’ roll feel and thought it worked pretty sweet.
L: For anyone who hasn’t heard your music before, describe your sound.
T: Hmm, We just like to blend everything from our roots together, like Rock, Hardcore, but with still bringing a really nice melodic tone to it. I guess Rock N’ Roll!
L: Your tour with All That Remains & Protest The Hero is about to begin, and another is already in the works, what can fans expect from these future shows?
T: We’ll we’ve just been working on a solid tight set with little dark and crazy things in between songs which I’m pretty sure a lot of people will think is pretty sick. And of course, going nuts because it wouldn’t be a THSD show without spit, sweat, and heart.
L: Is there anything else new and exciting happening for the band?
T: We’ll we have a photo shoot and a video shoot coming up for the song “Up In Smoke”. And we have a lot of other things that are pretty exciting and people will find out soon enough.
L: You have a new album coming soon, talk about that!
T: STOKED!! We’ll we couldn’t really be any happier with how it turned out. We were so excited to make our way up to Cali and record with Zach, and the outcome was great. I think people that know Holly Springs, and enjoy, are going to be really fuckin’ stoked on it! Trust us, you won’t be let down.
L: Motion Sickness Love, huh?
T: FUCK YEAH! Listen to the record, and you’ll get the idea why we named it that.
L: Where does the band draw its inspiration from? What influences the kind of music you play?
T: Honestly, it’s mostly where we grew up playing music. Here in Sask. Most of the lyrics Mike writes are inspired by real life events. And no bands around here had done what we wanted to do. So we just wanted to write music people could get drunk or fucked up to, and have an amazing time singing along with, so far so good. Our new Drummer is from the Toronto area, so we are really stoked to see what he has to bring to the table when we start writing again, and we know we won’t be let down. He’s an incredible musician. WE’RE ALL PRARIE BOYS AT HEART THOUGH!! Dan loves his PILSNER! HE’S DEFINITELY BECOMING A PRARIE BOY! Hahaha!
L: I wanna hear a really good tour story, go!
T: Ahhh! Ummmmmm…. We’ll a scary tour story was when we were traveling with a band called Straight Reads The Line. We were just driving down the highway on a beautiful sunny day. LIFE WAS GOOD! And then all of the sudden the breaks slammed (I was listening to a new Gorgeous track) and our old drummer had said that straight reads had flipped their van and trailer behind us. So we all got out and started running towards the wreckage. When we got there like their merch guy was bleeding pretty badly from the head, and the guitar player was fucked up, he got thrown out of the van while it was flipping! Fuckin’ nuts! None of the other guys were really hurt that bad. All in all, after we went to the Hospital everyone turned out to be okay and life went on. But let me tell you, THAT WAS ONE HELL OF A DAY!
L: What question has never been asked in an interview but you wish it had?
T: I guess how old we are. We are all pretty young dudes. Mike and Joshie are the older ones and they're both 21. Andy is 20. And Dan and I are 19. We're just trying to do this young while we can, and make the best out of it!
You can find more on THSD at http://www.myspace.com/thehollyspringsdisaster, find a show near you, and keep your eyes open for Motion Sickness Love, you wont want to miss it!
