Do you love bass music? Holly has you covered. The Portuguese young-gun producer has been making waves in the bass and trap scene for the past 2 years with releases through Buygore, Fools Gold Records and Elysian Records among others. We caught up with Holly after his recent Australian tour and here is what he had to say..

SR: You recently finished your first Australian tour, playing 5 shows in total. How’d that go?

Holly: It was awesome! It was the first time i’d been out of Europe so it was cool to see a scene completely different to where I’m from. I met a lot of homies that are going to be in my mind for my whole life. It was a mind blowing experience for me.

SR: Thats great man, I’m glad it went so well. Which set was the most memorable in your eyes, any specific highlights of the tour?

Holly: Every set was special and memorable, I cant really compare them, but I can say that the Perth show was the biggest one in terms of crowd and energy. I played after GANZ at Villa and the venue was sold out so people were going crazy. That was one of the most energetic gigs I’ve played.

 

SR: Fair enough! So let’s talk about your life before music. From what I know, you were a skate champion in Lisbon but due to an injury you had to stop, which eventually led you to making music.

Holly: (Laughs) basically I was a kid from when I was 13 to 16 I was skating everyday. I didn’t have a big social life so it was rare I’d go out. I would wake up at 8am and skate til 10pm, skating gave me freedom and peace. So yeah I went to a few championships in Portugal but when I was 16 I broke my arm in 4 places so I had to stop for 4/5 months because of operations. I realised life was fragile so I stopped skating so much and started going out at night and listening to music which I found was a new freedom.

SR: Damn! I guess that could be seen as a blessing when you consider how successful your doing in music. So when you started going out, what sort of music were you listening to? What kind of music inspired you to start producing?

Holly: Definitely. I was really into Punk Hardcore, Hip-hop, electronic music such as Dubstep, Drum n Bass and some of the beat masters like Lapalux & Flying Lotus. I was going to a lot of punk hardcore shows because my city had a great movement for punk hardcore. I used to go to a lot of Hip Hop concerts in Portugal too, my brother is a DJ so at that time I was also going to his gigs which played a lot of Dubstep, Drum n Bass and Hip-hop. A few artists that inspired me to start producing would probably be XXYYXX, Rustie, Clams Casino, Evian Christ, Shlohmo and TNGHT among others.

SR: So you could definitely say growing up in Portugal has had a big influence on your music?

Holly: For sure. I’m from Caldas Da Rainha, a town about an hour from Lisbon. In my town you have people making all types of music, from jazz to techno. I was exposed to a variety of music backgrounds which I think helped a lot.

SR: What’s next on the agenda for you in terms of upcoming music/collaborations? Whats your plans for the year?

Holly: At the moment i have a few gigs in Portugal, and outside of Europe. I’ve got releases with Big Makk, DUCKY, Woolymammoth, Tascione, DJ 4B and Daktyl. Some of them are on Dim Mak, Circus Records, Divison and a few others yet to confirm. My plans at the moment are just to keep making beats and travelling to share my art, and of course keep being happy!

SR: Some huge releases, very keen to hear those. Any shoutouts?