Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanner Bednar, Brandon Couture and Rafe Soto.
Tanner, Brandon, and Rafe, please share your story with us.
We’ve all been friends since high school or even before and have played in bands together since 2007. After the breakup of a few of our previous bands, we began to gravitate towards a distinct sound and lineup, which ultimately created Holly. A lot of this group has to do with our chemistry together and our multiple influences not just in music, but in culture and what we’re passionate about in all creative spaces. Building on that, we’re sort of unique in the sense that we essentially created this group by hosting a large-scale benefit concert and performing at it. Being able to make a difference with our music in the community is a pretty nifty thing I think. We’ve found a voice in Holly, by creating soul-pop music that is drawn from love, travel, heartbreak and impactful life experiences we’ve garnered throughout our short(ish) lives. It’s honest, it’s vulnerable, it’s raw and it feels really good to be ready to drop a little 7 track record very soon.
It has been a blast to play around the Chicago circuit for the past 10 months. Truly, some of the best memories have been made playing around Chicago’s never-ending list of music venues and getting to meet some of our local heroes as we do it. We plan on pushing more and more content for a long time to come and we’re certainly excited for what we have coming up. We will be dropping our debut EP at the end of summer which we’ve worked really hard at creating over the past 10 months. The record itself tells a story, and it sets up a new norm for many more albums and projects to come. We became Holly, (comma intentional but not pronounced) as sort of a quirk to ambiguously lead into all of our projects. Sort of like finishing the sentence. or an unfinished thought? I can’t say, Holly, is the name of an ex-girlfriend or meaningful mentor from the past of ours. Rather, it’s our fictional soul girl with a beautiful name and beautiful ideas we base our creativity and songs off of now.
We’ve also had the pleasure of working on a bunch of incredible projects lately that we’re thrilled to be dropping in tandem with our mini record. We’ve created a pretty awesome music video with the help of some childhood friends from One Mind Studios who flew out from LA for a week to film. We’ve sat in at a couple of local recording studios and played live sessions, as well as spoke on some local Chicago podcasts, caught some airtime with our currently released music, and set up more shows to come. Overall, we’re a bunch of goofy guys with vibrant personalities, big hearts, and big dreams. We catch inspiration from the old soul greats such as Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, but we also love the new wave of soul, indie, and punk with groups like Whitney, Leon Bridges and The Smoking Popes.
As artists, we just aim to stay genuine and to continue to build this brand we’ve created, while being able to continue to help out the community where we can the whole way.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Playing music is our absolute favorite thing to do and in that sense, it has been effortless and smooth. The time spent away from music, mostly during college is what was hard and truly what brought us back together as a unit. One day, during my senior year of college, it came to me clear as day that I just needed to get back to it, and luckily, all my best friends played music still so it was an easy transition. Unfortunately, as time moves on sometimes people fall off the train a bit. We’ve lost some members to miscellaneous bits and pieces that life throws at you over the course of a year. That’s sort of been a blessing in disguise I would say though, as it’s brought our current unit closer and solidified our image and direction.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Holly, story. Tell us more about the business.
We’re a 3-piece alternative soul band called Holly. We love to bring out our chemistry & showmanship on stage when we play. We definitely pride ourselves with putting heart and soul into every energetic live performance and changing up our sound every show with new songs. I think it’s cool to know that we’re a unit that drops the creative content of all spheres, however. We work with our friends to create videos, drawings, pictures and tons of collaboration in music. We love making shows become larger scale events too that have a purpose or a cause. I don’t see a lot of other local artists doing that, and if I do I think they’re automatically DOPE!
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
As a unit, I think we’re pretty lucky in the sense that we’ve grown up together in the same neighborhood and have (somehow) never gotten sick of each other despite the countless days we spend together. We come from good supportive families too, so we’re just a pretty lucky bunch all around. We’re excited to keep dropping content and playing shows, which when you work hard enough on things I think we all believe that luck finds a way to you in one way or another. We’ve had some cool musical experiences over the years that have been super cool to look back on and be a part of. In terms of bad luck, I can only think of one incident, ask us about the battle of the bands show we played years and years ago against a death metal band and how that turned out when we accidentally took one of their guitars home in our van!
Contact Info:
- Website: bluemarketmusic.com
- Phone: 847-707-6302
- Email: holly.band.boys@gmail.com
- Instagram: holly.band
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thereverendselgin/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1sUnKWAdbSY7cQpYVtzEVW
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
