At home with Holly

With the launch of his most recent EP, Avenal 2500 on Deadbeats and celebrating the release upon a rooftop in New York, Holly delivers a mixed genre project to the applause of his eagerly awaiting audience.

In this outing, we see Holly aside a list of collaborators, delving deeper into his forward thinking sound. Shunning musical convention, for a complex amalgamation of noise. I caught up with the man amongst his busy schedule to talk us through the collaboration’s on the record, his workflow and his ventures of late.

Hey man, firstly thank you to yourself and the team for arranging this to happen. How has this past year treated you? It looks like you've had a busy few months!

Hey! Thanks for having me. It's been a good year! Just had my first bus tour, some festivals in the US (Coachella + EDC), and dropped my first project in a while!

'Avenal 2500' is an ambiguous and intriguing title, how did that come to be?

Avenal 2500 is the name of the neighborhood where I grew up in Portugal. The artwork itself is the house where I lived with my parents and this project is just a tribute to the place where I come from.

That's cool, nothing better than a personal touch. Talk us through the collaborations, how did you go about working with each artist? (i.e In person/internet)

We worked just through the internet. Most of them I've never met in person actually (for example - Little Snake and Nasty Nasty). They were just random collaborations that I was working on during the last few months and when I was putting the final project together I thought that they all made sense together. I'm really happy with the people that I worked with because everyone has a very unique sound that represents their own world.

You have built up a vast volume of work over the years. Each track continues to push the boundaries of 'rules'. Saying this, is there a certain approach you have when starting a project?

I just think about having fun when I start a project, nothing else.

Talk to us... How did the DMX link occur?

I saw him at the backstage in Coachella during Murda Beatz performance and I just went to talk with him and asked for an email to send beats. I ended up taking a picture with him just for fun.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

You'll know!

Nice. Is there anyone on your radar at the moment that we should look out for?

Yeah basically everyone that I worked with on my EP: Little Snake, Young Lyxx, and Slow J. $K, DJ Ride, Stereossauro, Jaron, Rome In Silver are doing great stuff as well.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, anything extra to add?