NASHVILLE |DT: MAY 29, 2014
FM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/MARCEE RONDAN/MIKE GOWEN
MSO PR
HOLLAND GRECO
TUESDAY, JUNE 17
RELEASE DATE SET FOR
‘VOLUME ONE’
ON ZAPPA RECORDS
FIRST ORIGINAL ARTIST SIGNING
TO ZAPPA RECORDS THIS CENTURY
“Holland Greco has a split personality. The first half (dubbed Tunnel Vision) of her debut disc opens with electro-pop-synth strings, electronics and propulsive Latin vibe. Subsequent tracks brim with sensual vocals amid infectious hooks. Layered in born-again ‘70s flair-cheesy organ lift, hovering strings, jazzy spacing-songs carry from dance floor to bedroom. ‘Stuck!’ breaks the mold, all kinetic dance energy of horn blasts and slap drumming. . .Greco dubs the disc’s latter half Murdergram: Songs of the Misfits as she revisions a handful of classics, moving from brooding surf punkishness to horror-esque melodrama. With irrepressible sultry tone, Greco’s voice carries in captivating fashion-like a cat toying with a mouse in its final moments.”
–Glenn BurnSilver, RELIX, June 2014
A Tuesday, June 17 release has been set for the first-ever original artist signing to Zappa Records not named Zappa this century, and HOLLAND GRECO lives up to the honor with an eclectic musical palette that is in full effect on her two-pronged album VOLUME ONE (Zappa Records on 180-gram audiophile-quality vinyl disc, including digital download card and iTunes). VOLUME ONE presents GRECO’s musical diversity in two sides: Tunnel Vision is a lighter collection of GRECO’s original tunes and Murdergram: Songs Of The Misfits is an array of Misfits cover songs. Both sides allow GRECO to showcase the duality and diversity of her interests. VOLUME ONE will be available at the Barfko-Swill shop online.
“Volume One is basically an elegant double E.P.,” says GRECO. “The idea to release both of them as one album wasn’t in my heart or mind when I recorded them. It’s a lucky accident. I’m relieved to release them both together because it better describes my interests and intentions right out of the gate.” (**See full Q&A at bottom of release.)
GRECO recorded Tunnel Vision with keyboardist Lisa Harriton [Ke$ha, Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Lambert], bassist Joe Karnes [Fitz & the Tantrums], frequent drummer princessFrank and a horn section including ace musicians like trombone player Ryan Porter and trumpeter Brian Warfield. The results feature HOLLAND in her Norah Jones/Maria Muldaur/Cyndi Lauper mode, a seductive crooner capable of the buoyant samba beat of “100 Proof” and the horn-driven New Orleans by way of Mary Wells stomp of “Stuck!”
HOLLAND says, “Writing and recording a pop song that captures the ears and imaginations of many people is a very high form of societal contribution, in my opinion. With the songs from Tunnel Vision (Side A of Volume One), I’m seeking to establish myself as a recording artist and songwriter who has the potential to do that.”
Murdergram: Songs Of The Misfits, her tribute to Glenn Danzig’s horror-core punkabilly band The Misfits, was inspired by the exploitation flicks of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez and the fuzz-toned guitar sounds of Link Wray. You can hear those cinematic influences in the wide-screen “American Nightmare,” with a bowed bass solo that sounds like “a crying Orca, a wail of pain and anguish,” with HOLLAND’s declamatory style recalling yet another rock poet in Patti Smith. There’s a bossa nova beat in “Die Die My Darling” courtesy of princessFrank, while “Vampira” is straight-ahead monsterbilly in the classic crash-and-burn style of The Cramps. In her spare time, HOLLAND also plays keyboards, rhythm guitar, banjo, accordion and background vocals for similarly styled The Stripminers, featuring The Donnas’ Brett Anderson, The Radishes’ Paul Stinson and X drummer DJ Bonebrake. “The Misfits rock hard and rude,” says GRECO. “The songs are fun to play and have great lyrics.”
“I started hard listening to Top 40 radio, was and am still incubating in tiny rooms and out on the mean streets,” GRECO adds. “This truly is my first Volume. I’m thrilled with the package and music. The vinyl album looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. Come to a live show for further exploration of its artistic parts, parcels, and visions of what’s to come.”
The track listing for VOLUME ONE is as follows:
Tunnel Vision (Side A)
1. 100 Proof
2. Bedford Stuyvesant
3. Stuck!
4. Butterflies
5. Flashback
Murdergram: Songs of the Misfits (Side B)
1. Hollywood Babylon
2. Halloween
3. American Nightmare
4. Die Die My Darling
5. Vampira
Complete Q&A with Holland Greco:
Q: Growing up you were a big fan of R&B and Pop (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, George Michael, etc.) and talk about listening to pop radio with your mom, did you draw from those early influences while composing this album?
HOLLAND GRECO: Writing and recording a pop song that captures the ears and imaginations of many people is a very high form of societal contribution, in my opinion. With the songs from Tunnel Vision (Side A of Volume One), I’m seeking to establish myself as a recording artist and songwriter who has the potential to do that.
Q: As a multi-faceted musician, you play a lot of unusual instruments, particularly the banjo, accordion and ukulele. What does incorporating these instruments bring to your music?
HOLLAND: The sounds that different instruments make evoke different moods, so I use them as appropriate and desired. For example, an acoustic ukulele tends to sound light, whimsical, and happy. A Farfisa keyboard tends to sound surfy, spazzy and wild. Tape echo sounds psychedelic. These are the audio “paints” that I use to color sonic space.
That said, it’s important to note and explain that my use of banjo and accordion happened mostly within the framework of playing in The Stripminers, and supporting that dark, alt. country sonic world. Learning to play parts on those instruments also really reflects my personal willingness to branch out, try new things, and accept the musical challenges that are offered to me. We (The Stripminers) recently wrote and recorded a new album, and I mostly played and wrote for keyboards on it…multiple crazy freaking keyboards…from nasty and mean sounds to angelic etheric sounds. I suppose that I’ve got my fingers in a few sweet fruity pies.
Q: Exploring the diversity of your musical interests, you chose to cover songs from the Misfits catalog. Why the Misfits, what drew you to pull from that particular collection of songs?
HOLLAND: When I hear the Misfits, I feel like a mean alley cat womanimal. I like the mood, the attitude, absorbing it, and being a conduit for it. The Misfits rock hard and rude. The songs are fun to play and have great lyrics.
Q: Your Misfits tribute, Murdergram, draws inspiration from the exploitations flicks of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. What about these cult films inspires both your sound and your image?
HOLLAND: Some of the aspects that I dig about those films are the clever characters, a bit of shock, wordiness, boundlessness, female table-turning (Tarantino’s movie, “Death Proof”! omg.), DIY indie anything goes attitude, and those soundtracks! The images of dusty desert landscapes, bizarre situations, alt stylishness, underground communities, pouty lips, leather jackets, vintage decor, getting sh*t done, tremolo–those movies are like the cinematic equivalent of the whammy bar. I feel “whammy” like that.
Q: Being the first non-Zappa artist to release an album on Zappa Records this century, did you find yourself impelled to ask yourself “what would Frank do?” in a particular composition situation or were you able to be completely free in terms of showcasing your artistry?
HOLLAND: I think that being completely free is what Frank Zappa would do! I find myself connecting more and more with my perception of Frank Zappa as an artist, and the ways that it is showing up in my work are mostly conceptual. For example, I’ve been experimenting with having a bigger band with more instrumentation at my live shows. I also see myself offering much musical diversity with each album release. That freedom is attractive to me, and FZ was a pioneer in doing that. I’m also inspired by FZ’s international home business, the Barfko-Swill mail order catalog, his creative business deal making, his staunch authenticity of character, his interest in and advocacy of artists’ rights, his work ethic, and immense creative output. I look at his work and feel the permission to be a strong individual, a unique artist, and empowered professional person.
Q: Explain the importance of releasing your debut album with two distinct parts. Can you classify your artistic style by genre (or genres), or does this dual album introduce you as an artist that can’t be categorized?
HOLLAND: My artistic style is broad, but I promise that it can fit in your ear holes. For now, I imagine that you’ll be able to find this album under my name in the Pop/Rock section.
If I break it down a little more, I could say that Tunnel Vision is Indie Pop. I like to call it Soul Pop Nouveau, but there I go making up my own phrases and categories again! Murdergram is Rock or Cinematic Horror Rock….I might choose “Alternative and Punk” in a drop-down menu. You can handle it. We’re going to get through this together. Haha.
Releasing my debut album in two distinct parts is paving the way for me to write and record whatever I want to! Flow and honesty are important to me. I need that room to further discover what art and truth I can create and share with the world.
Q: The decision to explore the duality with Volume One was a brave move for a new artist. Why did you choose to do both now, rather than focusing on one style?
HOLLAND: Volume One is basically an elegant double E.P.. The idea to release both of them as one album wasn’t in my heart or mind when I recorded them. It’s a lucky accident. I’m relieved to release them both together, because it better describes my interests and intentions right out of the gate. I’d like to do it again next time around. I write in many “popular” styles, but am not solely a writer in the “pop music” genre. Reinvention and exploration can now be expected from and associated with my work. I can creatively walk through a dark forest or delight on a sunshiny beach. It feels good.
Q: Let’s talk about songwriting, where do you get your inspiration?
HOLLAND: I have this urge inside to make stuff. I feel compelled towards emotional description. When I hear music that I dig, I want to learn it, luxuriate in it, and respond to it. I get a lot of inspiration from the desire for participation, unity, and to give to others the pleasure that I feel from music.
Q: You are a Los Angeles native, yet one of the titles (“Bedford Stuyvesant”) on Tunnel Vision is distinctly New York influenced. What led to that track?
HOLLAND: Bedford Stuyvesant is where my co-writer on Tunnel Vision, Clark Dark, was living while we were writing together. I lived in New York for a while, and then returned a couple of times to continue writing with Clark. The song is from his perspective. He had written most of it, and played it for me during one of my visits. He was really shy about it, but I loved it, wrote the bridge for it, and, and insisted that we make something of it. All of the other songs on Tunnel Vision are solely my lyric and melody writing. “Bedford Stuyvesant” is special in that it originated in Clark’s “voice”.
Q: If you record a duet with an artist outside the genre of music for which you are known, who might that be and what song what you cover?
HOLLAND: I’ve got two. One, I’m really feeling the indie psychedelia that MGMT is putting out there these days. I’d do a totally twisty journey of “Indoor Games” (by King Crimson) with them. Or two, I’d like to do “Penthouse Serenade (When We’re Alone)” with Bruno Mars. Mr. Mars and I share musical sensibilities, but “Penthouse Serenade” is a jazz standard. That would be hot.
Q: If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?
HOLLAND: Geez! This question! It’s massive! I would like the opportunity to speak with audiences all over the world through my music. I’d like to travel, spread a positive message of joy, you-can-do-it empowerment, mirror-to-the-heart songs, responsible freedom, fair intellectual property rights & rates for songwriters and performers, health & sustainable artistry. I want to talk to you…to the people in the crowd…to the citizens of Earth! Why? To improve my life and the lives of others now.
Q: What is your biggest guilty pleasure (film, album, or other)?
HOLLAND: Fart jokes, but I don’t feel too guilty. Really…from the bottom of my fart.
http://hollandgreco.com/
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http://zappa.com/
http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/
(Album Available 17 June)
PRESS RELEASES & ASSETS:
http://www.msopr.com/n/client-roster/holland-greco/
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