Holly Hebe Interview

Mitch: Your new EP, Mood Ring, just came out on July 17. Do you mind sharing a bit about it and the themes that can be found throughout?
Holly Hebe: It’s really a summary of the emotions and experiences that I’ve lived through in the past year.

I came up with the Mood Ring concept pretty early into planning the EP. I’ve been really focused on colour and music, and how different soundscapes make me think of different visuals, motifs and drawings. So it felt really natural to put that into the concept of a mood ring and have each song represent a colour. As soon as that clicked, it felt so right for the direction of everything. The idea of a mood ring has that whimsicality about it, but also some nostalgia, and I wanted that to seep into the sound world as well.

The whole concept for the EP came from the title track. It’s basically about placing all your trust, belief and sanity into external objects because you don’t really have much to cling to and you’re just looking for any sign. It’s been cool how it has all fallen into place from that.

Mitch: What do you hope people feel while listening?
Holly Hebe: All of the songs have really potent and direct emotions for me. I’m excited to see how people interpret that themselves, which colours they gravitate towards, or whether a song represents a different colour for them. I would love people to dive into the world of it like that, think about the whole emotional range of the songs and pick out the one they feel the most connected to.

I also just hope people sit with it from start to finish. I’ve really thought about the tracklist. There’s a song in the middle called Maybe I’m Growing, which is really untouched from how it was when I first wrote it, and I’m just so attached to that song. It was one of those songs where I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to release it because it was such an emotional release and became an important song for me to process a lot of emotions through.

I hope people are able to feel that and attribute their own experiences and emotions to that song in particular. It feels like a real anchor of the EP that sits in the middle.

Mitch: If the EP was turned into a movie, what would the plot be? What would the movie look and feel like?
Holly Hebe: It would have to be some sort of coming-of-age situation. A couple of these songs were born out of my early twenties rite of passage, completely life-changing heartbreak. That would definitely be a big part of the storyline. Maybe that’s where the movie starts, with the protagonist in the pit of her despair.

Sometimes when you write, you’re writing from a scar rather than a wound, but a lot of these songs were written from fresh wounds. They are verbatim what I was feeling. So the movie would have some real rawness in a cinematic indie movie kind of way.

Mitch: What’s your favourite memory from making the EP?
Holly Hebe: A lot of these songs started with me doing the production on my own in my room. Then I take them to someone I feel very trusting towards, who will do the executive production.

For a lot of the tracks on this EP, Alice Ivy did the executive production. We locked ourselves in her studio for three days in January, and I genuinely had some of the best days of my life in the studio. It was just so much fun.

We had these songs and they were already there, and then we went in and amplified the ideas that I had. It was like adults having the most fun. I genuinely felt like a little kid again. There were pianos and synths everywhere, and there were no right or wrong answers. That’s something I really learned. If we wanted to try something, she was like, “Just try it. Just do it.” There were no limitations on what we could try, and the discovery was so much fun. Those three days I’m always going to remember so fondly.

Another favourite moment was the day I wrote Nineteen, which is the lead single from the EP. I was really in my pit of despair and had a session booked with Rob Amoruso. I was really excited for it, but I was so sad at the time that I almost didn’t do the session.

I went in and wasn’t really myself. I probably wasn’t giving much, but there was a piano in Rob’s studio which gave me so much comfort. He read the room really well, got the vibes and let me sit at the piano and sort it out.

Nineteen came out of that session and it was a real turning point for the EP. When I wrote that song, I thought, “This feels so right,” and that song has helped me in so many ways.

Mitch: You’re heading on tour across Australia and New Zealand this month. How are you feeling leading up to it?
Holly Hebe: I’m excited. The excitement has started to kick in. For a while, I was in a state of frazzledness because it’s so hectic planning a tour. I’m very lucky that my manager and booking agent are such weapons. They’ve been the best the whole time.

I feel like over the past year or so, I’ve started to work out exactly what I want a Holly Hebe headliner to look like. There are little rituals we do, like trinket trading, hair clips and all the little Hebe-isms I’ve been able to build through the amazing fans who have been coming. So I’m really excited to see that happen in a concentrated space and have all of that work come together. There are a lot of familiar faces I’ve been seeing in the crowds, and I’m excited to be reunited with those lovely fans.

I’m also excited to be with my band. They’re the best, and travelling with them is like travelling with best friends, so I’m feeling super excited!

Mitch: Why should people come? What can they expect from a Holly Hebe set?
Holly Hebe: First and foremost, I want to highlight the musicians I have playing with me. My band are some of the best musicians I’ve ever come across. We’ve been talking about this a lot in rehearsals. I want to have moments where we’re really sitting in the music. They’ve been really good at guiding me through that. We’ll have brainstorm sessions where I’ll ask, “What’s the best way to transition from this song to this song?” Ben is great because he’ll say, “I think we should sit in this stillness for a bit.” Then we’ll vibe off each other, do some improvisation and see where that naturally leads into the next song.

People can expect musicality and storytelling on stage, which I’m really excited about. The community is also so fun. Everyone is so lovely, and I love meeting people afterwards. We do little merch desk hangouts with trinket trading. I’ve been making so many hair clips, and my mum has been helping me make them.

She has honestly saved the day because I’ve been so frazzled trying to get everything done. She lives quite far away from me, but we’ll have our calls and she’ll say, “I’m just making hair clips and watching TV right now.”

Mitch: What is the best way for people to support you?
Holly Hebe: Listening to the EP and getting a CD or vinyl if you can.

I also love hearing from people about which song they connected to. When I released the song about my dog on my last EP, I received so many beautiful messages with photos of people’s pets and the stories behind them. That is the best part of it.

It’s also a really great metric for me to know whether something has connected with people. You can see the numbers and listeners, and it’s easy to become attached to those figures, but it all goes away when you receive a message from someone saying, “I really love this song. It helped me through this.”

Mitch: Who are some emerging AUS/NZ musicians that people should get behind?
Holly Hebe: We’ve got Sammi Heaney on the tour. Her songwriting is insane. I’ve been so lucky to be in the studio with her, and she’s so much fun. Her music is so heartbreaking.

We’ve also got Lucy Gray on the New Zealand show. I’m so excited to see her because I’ve followed her for a while. Her new stuff is so cool, and her video editing is awesome.

RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS!!

Mitch: Favourite track from the EP?
Holly Hebe: Probably Mood Ring.

Mitch: Favourite lyric from the EP?
Holly Hebe: “I’m wearing my mood ring but it’s always the same.” But I also like, “Maybe I’m growing without you knowing.”

Mitch: If you could feature any artist on any track from the EP, who and on which track?
Holly Hebe: I would love to get Nikki Webster on Birthmark or something that feels a little more Y2K. That would be so cool. I can picture the music video.

Mitch: Finish the sentence! Holly Hebe is for fans of...
Holly Hebe: Going for a walk and listening to music, or sitting on some grass and picking a four-leaf clover. Those moments where you’re outside, fiddling with flowers and four-leaf clovers.