Sydney-based pop producer & singer-songwriter Holliday Howe today releases her hotly anticipated debut EP god in maine; alongside a new video for the title track. Including previous singles never meant, scarz, kamakarmic, and 1 2 3 4 (i just want my stuff back), the poject sees her traipse through the wreckage of a doomed relationship; telling the “tale of two cities – of L.A., of Sydney, of the hope of forever, and of the pain of never meant to be.” Melding the hyperpop beats she is known for with the trappings of classic midwest-emo, Holliday is carving a new niche for herself in the global pop scene with her distinct ‘hyperemo’ direction.
To celebrate, Holliday has curated a live god in maine launch party in Sydney at The Burdekin on Friday 13th October, with an all-femme lineup of friends and collaborators – Cherry Chola, Crescendoll, Eko Atari and Cass Lee.
Describing the title track, Holliday says: “Long distance is tough. It’s tougher when your partner goes on a 2 month road trip back home & isn’t as communicative. It’s even tougher when your partner keeps telling you you’re paranoid for wondering if they want to be with you anymore. I now know I am not built for long distance relationships. I wanted to paint a picture of what it’s like to be gaslit, where the responsibility of the relationship fell solely onto me. My ex had gone on this road trip to rediscover his life’s purpose and I wanted to ask him if it was worth it. If he really did find it in his lakeside cabin up in Maine.“
Holliday Howe is Sydney’s finest cyber-hyper-popstar, producer and songwriter. A graduate of Goldsmiths’ Bmus Pop Music course, Holliday spent years drinking in the influences of London’s ultra-inventive club scene whilst honing her own particular melancholic brand of hyperpop. Now back in her hometown of Sydney and hot on the heels of her revelatory debut mixtape My Friends Live In My Pocket, Holliday returns with a new musical & aesthetic twist on debut EP god in maine.
The heady bangers & shimmering sentimentality reflected on Holliday’s debut EP, inspired by the likes of Charli XCX and PC Music, blends seamlessly with the music bubbling under the surface of her childhood memories: hints of The Postal Service, Bon Iver, and even midwest-emo revivalist Brakence are present in her new direction. Kicking her ‘hyperemo‘ era off with a rousing cover of an American Football classic – already garnering ardent praise from the TikTok set – Holliday pays no heed to classic genre markers like hyperpop & glitchcore: this is post-genre music for the post-internet age. Melding twinkly midwest emo guitar riffs & garage breaks one moment with ASMR glitch beats & distorted 808s the next; Holliday’s fresh direction combines all the music she’s obsessed over for the last 15 years in one glorious emotional burst – a sound unique to Holliday, with her delicate production doing as much storytelling heavy lifting as her lyrics. Appropriately for the artist with one of the strongest claims to the hotly contested origin of the genre name ‘hyperpop‘, Holliday is again blazing her own path.
Previous tracks including Digital Affection and 2000 have featured on triple j, FBi Radio playlist, Fresh Finds (Spotify), Music Feeds, The Music, AU Review, AVYSS, Dummy; 20+ editorial playlists across Spotify, Apple, TIDAL & Deezer (including the coveted Hyperpop playlist), and Holliday has played shows in London, New York, L.A., Chicago, Austin, Sydney, Brisbane & more. With the hyper-tide rising in Australia, Holliday is ready to step into the spotlight.
Elaborating on the EP, Holliday says, “god in maine came about at the end of 2022 when I was in the midst of a pretty bad breakup. The whole “relationship” had began that spring when I was visiting LA. We made the decision to be long distance with hopes that we could reunite in Europe later that Summer but after 3 months in the US I was broke, back in London for the first time since COVID and depressed. So I moved back to Sydney. The pacific ocean proved to be too vast a distance for us both. He kept promising to visit but was voluntarily unemployed, so the prospect of him visiting got weaker and weaker and so did my mental health. In a last ditch effort to save whatever we had, I booked expensive last minute flights to see him back in LA. 4 days before my departure date – we broke up.
Back in Sydney, mourning the relationship and then a loss in my family, I just poured myself into music. I write all the time but this was a new burst of production that I hadn’t really had since 2014. The souvenir I got from that boy in LA was a newfound love of Midwest Emo, which I began to listen to all the time as a weird kind of therapy. The heartbreak had also rekindled my appreciation of Bon Iver’s for emma, forever ago and then right around the beginning stages of the breakup, brakence released hypochondriac. I was so inspired by all these works and I just wanted to create something even half as beautiful. These songs are my first foray into this new sound for myself and a new chapter as an artist. The EP, to me, tells the tale of two cities – of L.A., of Sydney; of the hope of forever, and of the pain of never meant to be.”
Tracklist in full:
1. scarz
2. god in maine
3. kamakarmic
4. 1 2 3 4 (i just want my stuff back)
5. never meant
6. …so this is it
TOUR DATES
Tue 4 Oct – w/Kavi @ Atomic Redfern – Eora / Sydney
Fri 13th Oct – god in maine Launch Party w/ Eko Atari & Cass Lee @ The Burdekin – Eora / Sydney
Sat 14th Oct – w/Chela @ Low 302 – Eora / Sydney
Wed 18th Oct – w/Chloe Dadd @ Oxford Arts Factory – Eora / Sydney
Sun 22nd Oct – w/Chloe Dadd @ Oxford Arts Factory – Eora / Sydney
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