Holly Hebe on her singles “Out of the Blue”, “Hat Hair” and her upcoming EP “Ruby”
On her first dream of wanting to be a film composer. Early influences in life including Kasey Chambers, James Blake and Maggie Rogers. Blue margaritas. Performing at Big Sound 2024. Touring the East Coast of Aus, playing NYE on the Hill and more.
Fuzzer: Thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions! First of all, how did you get started in singing and making your own music?
Holly: I started out playing the piano when I was really young, then moved into producing when I was in high school. I was at first really into writing orchestral music, and my first dream was to be a film scorer! I've always loved poetry, and this transformed into songwriting and singing throughout high school. Naively I thought that artists had to produce their own song to get music out there so I started on garage band and began making tunes from there!
Fuzzer: Who were your main musical and creative influences growing up?
Holly: I grew up in the country and loved Kasey Chambers when I was really young. Throughout my teen years I discovered James Blake, Chet Faker and Maggie Rogers and these artists really shaped how I produced and wrote early on.
Fuzzer: So good! And congrats on the release of one of your latest singles "Out of the Blue"! How did that collaboration with ioakim come about?
Holly: Thank you! After the first release of “Out of the Blue”, my team and I didn't want to quite put the song to bed, and we thought finding a feature on a 2.0 version would be perfect. We were so lucky to have ioakim join the song and add some of his own musicality and creativity to it. We had a zoom call to talk about the direction, and I just let him have a mess around with the track to see what would happen. So happy with out it turned out.
Fuzzer: What were some of your main highlights working on this song?
Holly: I really loved the writing process of this one. I hadn't written a lot on guitar before, as I mainly write on piano, so experimenting on guitar was really fun. My guitar skills are limited but in a way this made me work with what I had and gave me boundaries to navigate.
Fuzzer: One thing we’re doing with each of our interviews is customising a cocktail recipe in relation to a song or project we’re talking about. So if "Out of the Blue" was a cocktail, what do you think it would be or what flavours do you think it would have?
Holly: What a great question! I think by default because of the name, we would have to have some Blue Curaçao in there for sure. Maybe some sort of blue margarita - something sweet, that also has a salty tang. This song is definitely bittersweet in it's messaging so I think that would work well.
Fuzzer: Love that! Plus we absolutely love your single 'Hat Hair'! Can you tell us about the inspiration behind that track?
Holly: “Hat Hair” came about one afternoon when I was writing on guitar again! I love strong descriptive imagery in writing, and I was scrolling through my notes app for lyric inspo and found 'hat hair' written. I knew I must have noted it down as a potential song starter/ hook idea. The song honestly just grew straight from those two words and a story line emerged.
Fuzzer: What music are you listening to at the moment and are there any new artists/songs you would recommend?
Holly: I am absolutely going Clairo's new album “Charm” at the moment, which definitely isn't a hot take but it's so amazing! I also love Phoebe Go's album 'Marmalade,' especially the song 'Stupid' and '7 Up' - those are on repeat at the moment.
Fuzzer: Awesome! And you're going to be performing at Big Sound in September! What are you looking forward to most about your performance/s and who are you most excited to see live?
Holly: I am super pumped for Big Sound! I'm most looking forward to the community aspect of it - I was able to attend a few years ago while I was playing keys for an artist who was a part of the festival, and the biggest thing that struck me then was how festive and fun the atmosphere was. I'm looking forward to just walking down the street in Fortitude Valley and seeing everyone with travel cases, catching up at the pubs, going to gigs. I'm excited to catch as many gigs as I can, but especially keen to see Underlay, Heleina Zara and Juice Webster!
Fuzzer: What's next for you in 2024?
Holly: I've got a EP coming out on the 20th of September which I'm really excited for. It's called 'Ruby' and it's got some of my favourite songs that I've written on it. We are heading on tour for the EP in October along the East Coast of Aus, and then gearing up for NYE on the Hill to round out the year. Cannot wait.
Keep up with Holly Hebe on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify or Apple Music.
