Holy, Holy, Holy Lord

By Scott Tweedie on September 25, 2015 in Arts

Having initially met while working as volunteer English teachers in Southeast Asia, before reconnecting in 2011 while leading transient lives in Europe, the foundations of the collaboration between Brisbane’s Timothy Carroll and Melbourne’s Oscar Dawson, now known as Holy Holy, were eventually laid in Sweden. Now back on home soil and with an established band around them, they have recently released their debut album, ‘When The Storms Would Come’. The Beast caught up with frontman Carroll during the month…

My earliest music memory is… playing pots and pans and Tupperware with a pair of wooden spoons in my room in a pair of underpants while listening to a cassette of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It blew my mind and I really didn’t understand it.

The idea for the name Holy Holy came from… a night where I had half a hash cookie with my piano teacher. I was very pleased to be able to locate my house later that night.

We’d like to think that our music is… going to connect with some people and not others.

Our new album, When The Storms Would Come, could be described as… being both an incredible challenge and privilege to make.

The most exciting thing about the local music scene in Australia is… the never-ending stream of interesting and progressive new projects. My latest favourites are Methyl Ethel, Crepes and D.D Dumbo.

Our biggest fan has got to be… the guy who gave me a beautiful guitar after a gig in Dunsborough, WA last year. It was a mint condition American made Fender Select series – beautiful sunburst colour in a tweed case. I play it all the time and I love it.

There was this one time when we were starting out that… we thought it was time to bring our own smoke machine to a gig. We played in a venue on a Sunday night to about 50 people and Oscar was trying to operate the switch to the smoke machine while playing. We must have looked like morons. Perhaps that’s because we are…

If we could have written any song, it would have been… ‘I’m On Fire’ by Bruce Springsteen. There’s something about that track; it’s just perfect.

One person I’d still really like to record with is… Nigel Godrich. As well as having produced Radiohead’s albums, I loved the ‘Here We Go Magic‘ record he did. It’s a masterpiece.

If you come and see us at the Oxford Art Factory, you can expect to be… out and about in the real world being part of the night and seeing some musicians you may never have seen before and may never see again. You might like one or all of them. You may not. But you’ll probably have a good time regardless.

We never want to get to the point where… we’re not on speaking terms. The tour van chat is the best bit.

Our dream gig would be… Glastonbury. For mud and for glory.

Holy Holy will be playing at the Oxford Art Factory on Saturday, September 19. For tickets, visit www.moshtix.com.au.