Hollow Coves: Hostel Guitars
Back in early November, 2018, I got on the phone with Matt Carins of Hollow Coves (other half of the band being Ryan Henderson), and we talked all things travel, new music, home, the Australian music scene, and - gasp - new music? Somehow, the interview got buried in the back of an old SD card, and I only rediscovered it a few days ago. So here it is - the words that should’ve been shared with you last November. 4 months to the new album? I’ll just sit over here and wait.
How are you going? How’s life been for you guys recently?
Yeah, pretty good. We’ve been demoing some stuff today and we go away to England this Sunday, which is going to be lovely. It’s been a really busy year for us. We’ve been doing a lot of touring in the states and in Europe, and then just trying to sort out this album, which is hopefully gonna come out, maybe august next year (2019)?. But yeah, we’ve just been non-stop - like we pretty much left home in April to go tour overseas, came back to Australia for a month and toured here, and now we’re heading overseas again. We just got back 2 weeks ago and we’re off again!
That’s crazy. Did you get a lot of time for rest, or…
Not really, hey! We’re constantly just working and constantly just tired, but it’s alright. After this month we’re gonna have a few months off which is gonna be good. Few roadtrips, surfing with friends… just chill out.
Yeah, nice. So you’re both from Brisbane, right? What was growing up there like?
We grew up in the Redlands, yeah. It’s about an hours drive out of Brisbane city, towards the bay. I did a lot of surfing over on Stratbroke island when i was in school, like on the weekends. We’d catch the ferry over and then the bus to the other side of the island. We did that a lot, and a lot of roadtrips and stuff. There wasn’t a whole lot to do around there. But I’ve lived down the Gold Coast for - 9 years, now?
And you two met up there?
Yeah, so we had a mutual friend, and we got connected through Facebook. Ryan only lived half an hour down the road, but he went to a different school. I was - I was actually doing music with another guy called Ryan (laughs). It’s so funny, there’s so many Ryans in my life. Like my brother, his name’s Ryan, my brother-in-law is named Ryan, the guy I used to do music with, my old best friend, his name was Ryan….. and now obviously the other half of Hollow Coves is the new Ryan!
That’s so weird!
I know, it’s so strange. But yeah, anyway, so my first music thing fell apart because that Ryan, he went to play with this hardcore band, and I was kinda just left by myself. I wasn’t really doing music seriously, but I got connected with this new Ryan after that. I went over to his place and we just started playing together. It literally worked from the start, like I had a few songs that I was working on before, and then we wrote The Woods together and recorded it in a friends garage. Then we went travelling… kind of left it all for a bit… and maybe a year later we were like oh, maybe we should finish those songs. So Ryan, he was in Canada at the time, he flew back and finished the songs and then we released them back in 2015. We were kinda thinking, oh, it’d be cool if we got 10 000 views or something. Really low expectations, didn’t really think anything of it, and then…
It blew up.
We went on Soundcloud one day and it was going crazy. We were like, oh, maybe we should keep writing music.
(laughs) I mean, yeah, possibly, that might be good. So it sounds like you’re both pursuing music full time, then? When did you decide to go all in?
Originally I was a Carpenter, and Ryan was an Engineer, but we both worked at Bunnings a bit recently. We’ve actually only been able to go full time since the start of this year, just because we’ve been so busy and things are finally starting to kick off.
So, for me, your music absolutely ignites this wanderlust within me, and this love for travelling and the coast. I just wanted to know how do you think your love for travel seeps into your music?
Yeah! So, both Ryan and I have done so much travelling. Ryan did this Europe trip in 2015/2016, and lived in Canada for 2 years, and I was travelling a heap around then too. I guess just through that, seeing incredible places and meeting heaps of legends, it kind of cames out naturally in the music. We actually wrote the EP Wanderlust, or at least half of it, while I was in Europe and Ryan was in Canada. I was travelling through hostels, writing on these hostel guitars, and sending the recordings through dropbox to Ryan over in Canada. We kind of wrote like that for a few months, so I guess being on the road had to inspire the music. It’s just what came out.
You talk about some incredible experiences on your instagram - would you be able to share a story or two from your travels?
Yeah! So, we went to Norway one time, I think back in 2017, and visited this place called Bergen (?). We wanted to do this hike - it’s this insane hike that takes six or seven hours, and we really didn’t research it at all, but it turns out you need proper hiking gear to get up to the top. But, of course, we literally rock up wearing nice, neat, going out clothes… and vans and stuff.
Oh no (laughs).
It was just insane. The first km was just these massive steps in the wet mud, and it was freezing cold, and we literally thought we weren’t gonna be able to do it. We got to the top of those stairs, a km into this 5km hike, completely wrecked, everyone passing us in this professional hiking gear… but we got past that section and then the rest of it wasn’t too bad. And the view…. it was worth it. It was insane. It’s this massive rock that just sort of hangs over the valley and you can hang your feet off it, it’s crazy. Best thing I’ve ever done.
The photos looked amazing.
Yeah, yeah. And I guess the other big thing was seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland and Norway. That was just next level. Amazing. When you look up at it you just... you just feel like a little kid jumping up and down with excitement, it’s so cool. I Norway, actually, we stayed in this little surfing town, and we’d surf all day (with snow on the beach, mind you), and then at night we’d set up camp and just watch the Northern Lights.
Oh my god. That sounds incredible.
It was crazy.
After seeing so much of the world, then, where would you dream home be?
(long pause)…… Australia. (laughs) Definitely.
Really?
Yeah. It’s just - it’s home. It’s unbeatable.
So tell me - what’s it like being on tour with you guys?
Um, it’s very basic at the moment (laughs). We’ve just been getting a small hire car and doing it as cheaply as we can, and trying to squeeze in as much as we can in between shows. Usually, if we have any time we’ll stop off and see something cool while driving between countries and cities, but this last tour, it was literally - we only had 3 days off in a month so it was really hectic. We’d get home super late after the show, go to the hotel, wake up super early and drive all day. So it’s not all glamorous or anything (laughs), but you meet so many people. It’s fun. I just can’t wait for the day when we can get a tour party and actually do it with a few more people, and share the experience. Hopefully next year when the album drops!
Matt asked about my own travels at this point, and the interview dissolved briefly into an exchange of stories and a dot-point list of recommendations I just HAD to check out in any country I was going to. Listening back, I’m convinced he should drop the band and start a travel agency. Not really. But it was impressive.
I do just wanna talk about the Australian music scene a quickly. I feel like, recently, we’ve had a lot of strong new music coming out of here - Cub Sport, Eves Karydas, Ziggy Alberts, Skeggs, Hockey Dad, Tash Sultana, Ruby Fields… and I was just wondering what your thoughts on the Aussie music industry were.
Yeah, yeah sure. I haven’t really been up to date with how Triple J and stuff are going, but I’ve heard they’re starting to a play a bit more acoustic stuff which is cool. Usually, obviously, they do the whole indie rock garage psychedelic stuff, so I guess it’s a bit harder for us to get on to triple J. Our music doesn’t really fit their vibe at the moment. But yeah I know Ziggy Alberts has been getting a bit of play time which is cool! I guess if that keeps growing and acoustic music comes back onto the radio stations, I’ll be a massive fan. I don’t know, in general I feel like you just kind of have to do whatever you’re happy with, and if you’re enjoying it who cares what the scene’s doing. I don’t know what’s going on, to be honest. I just play music.
I actually love that, just focus on your own stuff.
Yeah. I mean, be super grateful for other people, of course. But just don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to others, or everything else that’s going on.
My last question was if we could expect any new music any time soon, but I guess you sort of already touched on that, with the new album out in august!
Yeah! We’re very excited about that. And there should be some singles coming out at the beginning of 2019. We’ll see.
So exciting! I genuinely cannot wait.
It’s been too long, for sure.
