Q&A: Vlad Holiday Marries Hope and Intensity on ‘My Favorite Drug’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY LENA FINE ☆
Photography Credit: Ogata
WITH HIS HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DEBUT RECORD — Vlad Holiday is bending time and soul to his will with My Favorite Drug. The Nashville-based artist originally came to the US after fleeing Romania, an intense and intricate geographical history that can be sonically traced throughout his work. Evident is the challenge of leaving home, the edge and grit of New York, and the storytelling and expansiveness of Nashville.
A connoisseur of vintage gear, Holiday has filled My Favorite Drug with rich sounds and instrumentation, their respective histories working in tandem with his own. Also having spent the past year with collaborators such as Kacey Musgraves and Cage The Elephant’s Matt Shultz, Holiday has built a robust body of work, all culminating in his personal debut.
My Favorite Drug is intense, rich, and surprisingly optimistic. It leaves listeners accepting their heartache and finding strength to move through it. We caught up with Holiday while he was on tour with Declan McKenna to learn about the project.
Photography Credit: Nicole Mago
LUNA: Many parts of My Favorite Drug are surprisingly hopeful. What were you reckoning with that gave the album this hopeful undertone?
HOLIDAY: I guess there was always a light at the end of the tunnel that I was chasing throughout the writing process.
LUNA: You were able to collaborate with Kacey Musgraves on “I Don’t Wanna Party Anymore,” what was that like?
HOLIDAY: It was very chill. I had a feeling our voices would mesh well, so I was excited to have her on the song. She's a pro in the studio so she just came by my house and it took maybe an hour and a half to finish the song.
LUNA: You’ve just wrapped up a tour with Declan Mckenna. What’s it like being on the precipice of a major release while constantly in motion?
HOLIDAY: Motion is a good thing, so I feel lucky to have been out performing in any capacity.
LUNA: “My Favorite Drug” feels like an old Beach Boys demo. What was the inspiration for this track and its production?
HOLIDAY: The production was inspired by older 50s tunes. I wanted it to feel raw and small and personal. I had a bottle of wine open and barely any lights on in the studio, and played take after take until it felt right. I also normally don't sing and play guitar at the same time in the studio, but I wanted to really mess with the push and pull of the tempo and make it as live as possible.
LUNA: You said you never imagined releasing a full record. What was the turning point that led to My Favorite Drug?
HOLIDAY: I was a few songs in when I realized they were all tinged with the same feeling, and that this should be a cohesive thing.
LUNA: How do you marry these more tender feelings of love and hope with your signature moody, sultry sound?
HOLIDAY: To me it's all the same, I just try to get into a certain state of mind when I write and record.
LUNA: How has your recent past of major collaborations and opportunities shaped the way you approach your own music?
HOLIDAY: They haven't affected the approach. If anything, getting to do cool things with people I admire, or seeing any form of success in general, is only a reminder that being true to my music and myself is the right path and everything else is just noise.
