1. Tim and I met whilst volunteering to teach English in Thailand. We were sprightly young 18-year-olds. We thought we were saving the world. In reality, we were just feeding our own fantasies. And having a lot of fun too.
2. Tim and Oscar have never (ever) lived in the same city together. This might seem incongruous, seeing as there is this whole ‘band’ situation going on. Somehow, we’ve made it work commuting between cities – and using the powers of email and mp3 to write material. It kinda focuses you more anyway, and I suppose absence makes the heart grow fonder.
3. Tim can speak Swedish. Pretty much. He’s good at languages (he was not bad at Thai also). He has spent a bunch of time living in Sweden with his Swedish partner and gets a perverse pleasure out of a sub-zero winter, a lack of vitamin D, and meatballs.
4. A lot of the Holy Holy material was written in Berlin. By today’s standards, this sounds like a whole heap of pretension and a complete lack of originality. But it wasn’t like that. We weren’t spending all night in ex-WWII bunker raves nor were we living in a squat. We also weren’t whiling away weekday mornings drinking cheap beers in parks whilst growing our hair and solving complex global issues. I’m not convinced anybody does that in Berlin (well, they definitely do the drinking-in-the-park bit) and if they tell you otherwise, then punch that person in the dick.
5. Ryan Strathie (ex. Hungary Kids Of Hungary drummer) and Graham Ritchie (from Emma Louise’s band) fill out the full Holy Holy lineup. I used to play in a band called Dukes Of Windsor. Tim – he never had another band before. Too bad. He is still figuring out which end of the guitar cable goes in the amp. We’ll get there someday.
