The Guardian Motueka and Golden Bay caught up with Brendan Alborn from Holly's Hat Trick during New Zealand Music Month to talk songwriting, live performance, and the story behind one of Motueka’s enduring live acts. Blending indie rock with soul, funk, psychedelia and post-punk influences, the band remains a familiar presence on the local music scene.
ELISE VOLLWEILER
Tell our readers how Holly's Hat Trick first came together.
Holly's Hat Trick formed in 2017 when three of us – Bryre Arnott, Michiel Overweel and I – discovered that we were all musicians and were looking for people to jam with. After hours of experimentation and improv sessions we started to find a sound that we all liked, so we began to craft some songs. Our first live performance was played in my lounge to a small bunch of friends, and we recorded an album, Somebody's Treasure, in 2018. Just after its release, Denise Ward joined us on vocals and keyboards, so that filled out our sound and gave us more elements to work with.
How would you describe your sound to someone hearing you for the first time?
Art-rock would be our musical style, I reckon. Over the years we've developed and refined a sound that we think is distinct and original. Both drummers that have been in the band, firstly Michiel Overweel and more recently Tim Wraight, are really skilled and amazing technically, so that means our music is quite rhythmically dynamic and interesting.
If someone could only hear one of your songs, which would you choose and why?
That song would be Day Job, from our second album, Visitors. That's the song that seems to appeal to most listeners, which I think is because it's a bit of an uplifting, dance-y number with a few surprising twists.
What’s been your most memorable live show so far?
That was probably our gig at Golden Bear in January 2021. We were on the elevated stage, there was a big crowd there and, being in the midst of the uncertainty and unease of Covid, people were really enjoying being out in the sunshine experiencing live music. We got a great reaction from the audience and then that seemed to lift our performance too. Nobody asked us to play Wagon Wheel, so that's always a good sign.
How do you navigate artistic differences within the band? Is there much of a tug of war within the creative process?
We write songs as a collective so there needs to be a lot of give and take. Somebody will usually come to practice with an idea and we use that as a starting point. We all have quite different music tastes so that ends up taking us in some unanticipated directions.
What's something that people might be surprised to learn about the band?
The majority of our listeners on streaming services such as Spotify are from countries overseas. In the last month we've had 3.7k individual listeners on Spotify and 546 of those are people who live in Brazil!
Help us make sense of the name - how did you arrive at Holly's Hat Trick?
We started out as a three-piece, hence the 'hat trick' and I think Holly was a mythical singer that would have been the vocalist. Then we did get a wonderful vocalist, but unfortunately her name isn't Holly. It was too late to change the band name to Dee's Hat Trick and Dee didn't seem interested in changing her name to Holly by deed poll.
Is there a song by another artist you wish you’d written yourself?
Mine would be Let Down by Radiohead.
What’s next for Holly's Hat Trick? Tell us where people can find your music, upcoming shows, and the latest EP.
The EP is out there on Bandcamp and other streaming platforms now, and we've got about 10 more new songs that we performed at a couple of gigs over the summer just gone. We'll be busy jamming and writing more new music over the winter ready for the next summer gigging season.
