An interview with Holding Poison

An interview with Holding Poison

What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?

We were on the hunt for a name for a few months, the EP was recorded around October time and we got to December last year and was ready to go with no name. I think we went through around 30/40 names and annoyingly all had been used so one night Matt was reading an article on Foo Fighters new album which was coming out and saw the name ‘Holding Poison’ – It sounded good so we went with it (not to mention we are always holding pints which is effectively poison). Our influences are quite varied which will hopefully show in our music. As time goes on and we bring out more tracks this will become more apparent.

How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?

It usually starts with the music, build the track to a point where its in a good place and then the layering starts! In regards to what the song is about and lyrics, that is quite late on in the process, finding the right pockets in a song and getting a good melody is key and sometimes you can play off different instruments/parts.

How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?

It usually starts with the music, build the track to a point where its in a good place and then the layering starts! In regards to what the song is about and lyrics, that is quite late on in the process, finding the right pockets in a song and getting a good melody is key and sometimes you can play off different instruments/parts.

Why do you write the sort of music that you do?

fundamentally because we enjoy that style of music. First and foremost we have to enjoy what we are playing and writing so the main thing was to always write what wed like to listen to!

How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?

The good thing with our music is it isn’t overly busy in terms of not being hard to take to the live setup. We are old school in that sense. Guitars, bass, drums and vocals with the occasional keys part thrown in.

How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?

The good thing with our music is it isn’t overly busy in terms of not being hard to take to the live setup. We are old school in that sense. Guitars, bass, drums and vocals with the occasional keys part thrown in.

What plans do you have for the future?

The plan is to play some gigs and keep writing music. We love doing this and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!