HOLY HOLY’s Evolving Sound on Display In New Single ‘Darwinism’

HOLY hell! Australian alt-rockers HOLY HOLY have released the first cut from their as yet untitled sophomore album (due early 2017) just over a year since their debut album, ‘When the Storms Would Come’, which broke into the iTunes Top Ten and became a triple j favourite.

Darwinism sees a significant departure in the band’s sound. Where before HOLY HOLY’s songs were built from the ground up, an intricate house of cards where introspective folk-tinged guitar was layered with soaring harmonies and rolling percussion, Darwinism sees the band come together with much more urgency.

The vocal harmonies still form an essential part of the track, but they are now allied to a more urgent buzz-saw guitar sound and percussion that is much higher in the mix. If there are shades of early Jake Bugg in this heavier guitar sound, then the extended outro is pure Bloc Party, all reverb and crescendo.

Thematically, songwriter and  lead vocalist Timothy Carroll (alongside guitarist Oscar Dawson) mine similar ground to that of ‘When the Storms Would Come’. Carroll’s muse for Darwinism is a relationship characterised by coldness and acrimony, judging from evocative lyrics such as “I did the dishes and found peace in the sink / just for twenty minutes I did not have to think”.

The song came together in the same ad-hoc manner as most things HOLY HOLY do, its members being scattered as they are across Australia’s Eastern states. Timothy Carroll retreated to a hotel bathroom so as not to disturb his bandmate’s post-alcohol slumber one night on tour, recording on his phone the basis of the track. A couple of weeks later the band found time in between dates to lay down the full track in London. You’d never know from the finished product though, would you?

Since their inception in 2013, HOLY HOLY have become a fixture both at home and abroad. Their debut album coincided with an invitation to play Splendour in the Grass 2015 along with international festivals Primavera Festival in Barcelona, and Amsterdam’s London Calling.

The band will be embarking on their third tour of the UK/ EU in September and October 2016, before a triumphant homecoming tour running until November 2016.

Read our past interview with HOLY HOLY’s guitarist Oscar Dawson HERE