I recently reviewed Holding Poison’s debut EP By A Thread and I found myself suitably impressed, especially considering the young age of the band. I decided to find out a little more about them – read on below to find out more and make sure you check the EP out!
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a new EP titled By A Thread. How has the reception been so far?
It’s been good! Off the back of the EP we decided (as we couldn’t do a gig) to do a filmed live set which can be found on our Youtube Channel!
For those who haven’t heard the EP yet, what can you tell us about it?
It’s a 5 track EP – it has a hard rock/commercialised rock vibe and is full of grit and catchy choruses. Big guitar tones and female harmonies.
Do you have any plans to release any more EPs, or a full length album anytime soon?
We’ve spoken about getting another EP out next year, its all written so it will just be a case of building up the funds to go and record it!
Will you be releasing any singles at any point in the near future?
Funnily enough we just started work on a new single which will be coming out hopefully around October time. It’s a bit different to our EP stuff but its going to be a cracker!
You got together as a band late in 2020, making it even more impressive that you’ve managed to produce an EP so soon! How did you get together?
Me (Matt) and Jack have known each other for years. It was kind of an impulsive ‘I need to do something during lockdown and I have some tracks ready to go’ kinda thing. I dropped Jack a message and he knew a drummer (Joe) and it all came together in the space of a month or 2 (COVID restrictions providing).
How was the writing and recording process for the EP?
Matt had the EP demos at near finish point. The thing is once you bring other people to songs that are close to an end point, getting them over the line means allowing that individual to put their own stamp on it, whether it’s the drum part or the lead guitar part or the harmonies. It allows the song to breathe that little bit more and come into its own with fresh perspectives.
In regards to the recording process it was quite quick and easy – Jack engineered the drum session at his studio (Pocket Factory). Then we went over to Highfield Studio and did all the guitars, bass, backing vocals and lead vocals. Once that was finished it was sent over to Marc Urselli who has worked with bands such as Foo Fighters, U2, Beck, Elton John etc for mixing and mastering
Has the pandemic hindered the work of the band much? I imagine it must be hard to create music under lockdown!
We’ve been quite busy this year – releasing the EP, shooting a full live set in a warehouse and we plan to wrap the year up with a brand new single.
Do you have any gigs planned for the near future?
Gigs are a tricky one because of the rules around COVID. We have stayed clear of them somewhat just because we didn’t really want to be committing to gigs and having to cancel on people or rearrange. So instead we wanted to bring our live performance to the people in a safe way and a way they can actually see what we are like live. Hence the live set we shot.
What sort of music are you influenced by, and what have you been listening to recently that you can recommend to our readers?
We actually started a playlist up on our Spotify page where every Monday we will take suggestions (via our social pages – Instagram/Facebook) and every Tuesday we update it with 20 new tracks. We’ve had a whole host of different artists suggested to us so we’ve actually just been using that as it’s opened us up to bands and artists we may never of heard of otherwise.
Any last words for the fans?
Just keep listening to us and telling your mates about us! We have more stuff on the way and cannot wait to get it out to you lot!