After spending the last few months building and cultivating their sound, emerging duo Hollow Stare are now ready to introduce themselves to the wider world with their explosive debut single 'Sleep'.
Conjuring a bold and driven alt-rock aesthetic for their initial offering, 'Sleep' makes for a dazzling introduction to their sound so far. With its raw and emotive textures set to some impactful vocals throughout, they are kicking things off with a wildly enjoyable opening number here.
So with the new single available to stream now, we sat down with them to find out more about their origins and what has been inspiring them most over the years.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
It was obviously the saxophone. I’m kidding, I am a guitar player at heart, ever since my parents bought me a child's learner guitar and forced me to take lessons when I was six years old. To be honest it actually took me until high school to really develop a passion for it though. Around that time is when I got pretty obsessed with it.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
Funnily enough I remember not really being into music at all when I was really young. I just didn’t really see the appeal for some reason and kind of just listened to it because everyone else did and loved it so much. That’s obviously changed by now, I think it was actually Daft Punk that really made me fall in love with music in the first place with the Tron Legacy soundtrack and then I remember playing Guitar Hero 3 on a cruise when I was really young that exposed me to a lot of rock and started to open up a taste for a kind of music I wasn’t being exposed to all that often. Now my entire life revolves around music and production and pretty much rock/metal.
What was the first album you remember owning?
I think it was a Kansas album I bought, Leftoverture. I really loved Carry on My Wayward Son and wanted to hear the whole record. Now that I think of it, maybe that was when I really fell in love with listening to music.
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
Oh man, this one is pretty niche, but the song Who Bit the Moon by David Maxim Micic is an absolute masterpiece of composure in my opinion. I think you need to listen to the whole album though because it’s a project where he creates a bunch of really subtle songs and motifs that take you on a really emotional journey, and then Who Bit the Moon at the end brings all of these motifs and ideas together into an epic 10 minute masterpiece in the best of ways. I really love that album so much. I used to study it on a loop in college.
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
Absolutely, there is one particular habit I have for every single song I make. So I practise guitar a lot, I try to play for at least an hour every single day and am proud to say I’ve managed to keep that going consistently for around 20 years now, though some vacations here and there have made me take a break. To put it in perspective how consistent I try to stay, I went to New Zealand for a month with my family once a long time ago and bought a cheap, shitty acoustic guitar there just to keep practising while on my trip. I went to the Rockville music festival recently and spent a pretty good amount of time in the guitar tent.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
I’m a die hard Periphery fan. That band inspired me to get into music production in the first place, and I kind of owe a lot of my inspiration to them stylistically as well. I’ve been listening to them pretty often for many years now. Another band I find myself listening to a ton, and this is pretty different from what you’d expect from me, is AJR. They’re a pop boy band but hey man their lyrics are really deep and relatable, it’s catchy music, and it’s well produced. I just really like their music man. I really dig that last big Sleep Token album and that last Polyphia album too. I still pop on Aesop Rock’s Impossible Kid pretty often as well.
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
Definitely Periphery or Slipknot. Periphery is my favourite band of all time and Slipknot is Slipknot.
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
For me personally I think it’s when you’ve finished a mix for a really technical and GOOD song, take a few days from it, and still like the mix. Then you send it off for mastering and get it back and it just melts your face. I love that feeling so much. It’s just one of those feelings that HAS to be well earned. Taking shortcuts to get there just doesn’t give it to you.
And what is the most frustrating part?
The worst part is definitely the way streaming and social media have affected the industry. Streaming, and I know streaming was originally a response to piracy, but streaming has kind of devalued music to a detrimental state. Because you can just pay one of the music platforms a monthly subscription to get everything, unlimited at your fingertips, it has devalued individual songs to almost free and it makes it really difficult to make enough from music to support yourself unless you find good ways to diversify your income. Album sales don’t really exist anymore and streaming revenue isn’t gonna be helpful unless you’re getting millions of streams every month. The social media aspect sucks because it’s kind of made musicians forced to take on every role in and surrounding the music industry. We don’t want to make Instagram reels and TikToks and we don’t want to be video editors and stuff like that, you know? We want to make our music but things have changed and gotten really complicated. It sucks man, but we gotta do what we gotta do I suppose. At the end of the day I just want to make my music and get it heard, and produce/mix music for other artists who like my stuff enough to hire me. I really don’t like social media these days but hey the memes are pretty great.
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
”If you like it, it’s good. Move on.” I got this advice from Kevin Paul who is one of the best mixers and producers out there. He taught some of the courses in my Masters program and I learned a lot from that guy, and that advice solved my overthinking problem.
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Hollow Stare's new single 'Sleep' is available to stream now. Check it out in the player below.