Gordon Holland likes to explore, and his latest EP, Skipping Stones On A Salt Lake, explores blending genres. Gordon Holland played for many years in The Naysayers, a band he formed in 2010, bringing garage rock to the mainstages of Australia. After, he collaborated with singer-songwriter Charlie Lane on her successful track, "The Darkest Time," featured on Spotify's Badass Women playlist. His single "Melbourne Bitter" also became a semi-finalist in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition. Now, Gordon Holland is exploring his solo career, being a regular on the Melbourne music scene, and performing his alternative country, Britpop Fusion. His 'debut' EP is influenced by artists like Carole King, Gerry Cinnamon, and Bob Evans and inspired by his infatuation with melody and catchy hooks.
Skipping Stones On A Salt Lake
Songwriting: Gordon Holland
Engineer: Harrie Kingston
Recorded: Harrie Kingston
Mixed: Digby Gillings
Mastered: Liondance Records
In the words of Gordon Holland: "I had set myself a challenge to write a bunch of new songs that I could perform either alone or with a band, and I wanted to write more narrative songs and explore that side of songwriting, which isn't something I'd really done too much of. I also wanted to write by instinct rather than agonizing over every chord change or lyric. I wrote these all over the course of a few months, and "Half A Tank" was written with an old friend and songwriting partner.
"These are four songs that I wrote as a bit of a challenge to myself, I wanted to make some songs that would work at the simplest level - just me and a guitar or piano - but could still work with a full band too. And I had been thinking about writing songs about characters; I usually write from my own perspective or some variation of that, so it was a new thing to me to write all of these from other points of view. And afterward, I noticed there seemed to be a few recurring themes, things like travel, the nature of change or absence of change, and family, amongst other things. I recorded it with Harrie, my bandmate from The Naysayers, and had it mixed by Digby Gillings and mastered by Liondance Records. The cover photo was taken by my wife Cassie, and it's one of my favorite photos!"
"I hope people can take their own meaning from the stories in the songs; in the past, I hadn't really written narrative songs quite to this level, and I was cautious about saying "this song means this" or "this song means that"because music is never that straightforward. Especially these kinds of songs. You might interpret something in these stories that means something very specific to your situation; I think that's amazing and encourage that."
LONG STORY SHORT: We were pleasantly surprised with each track on Gordon Holland's Skipping Stones On A Salt Lake. It took us on a journey through the rock diaspora. His "Departure Lounge Blues" is a classic singer-songwriter acoustic track highlighting Holland's alternative rock vocal timbre. "Half a Tank (And They're All Counting On Me)" sounded like a page right out of Bob Dylan's songbook, while "Midnight At The Karaoke Bar" sounds like a modern-day Billy Joel "Piano Man." His most vulnerable track, "Palm Tree Wallpaper," is a nostalgic reminiscing of childhood. Each of these tracks are captivating in their own way—no skips on Skipping On A Salt Lake.
Stream Skipping Stones On A Salt Lake below!
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