Hello friends,

In March’s in-between episode, I try my hand at the storied art of the interview, with Austin-based musician & dear friend Ali Holder.

I was lucky enough to meet Ali Holder in 2014, when she was touring on her first full-length album, In Preparation For Saturn’s Return. Since then, she’s released two great EPs, and her second full-length, Uncomfortable Truths. Ali’s songs are dark-sounding, with fuzzed-out guitars and often mystical lyrics. And her voice is silvery and sweet, but it has an edge to it that keeps it from ever being saccharine.

tl;dr, she’s amazing, and you should listen to all of it.

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When did you start writing songs? What were your first songs about? 

I started writing songs around fourteen years old. I remember one called Blue Orange Skyline, one about an alcoholic, one about a friend's wedding where she ran from the altar, another about my grandfather's old work bench, another about old photos of my grandparents’ hallways and my family lineage. Now that I think about it I was writing at a much higher level back then! Well, not higher… but I didn't have life experience, so I was just making shit up which tends to be more creative. 

How do you envision/describe your writing process from start to finish? How does it feel when you’re writing and it’s going well?

It depends. Sometimes I get hits of channeling and I have to catch it. Other times I make myself sit down and write so I can finish something. I do a song per month with this technique called translitic which is taking a poem from a different language and slowly changing it into a song. When it's going well, it's just a state of flow. I'm either showing up more often to do it or it just comes to me. I haven't been in that state for quite a while to be honest [Ed. Note: me either, given the entire world around us].

All of your work has a strong thread of mysticism and spirituality through it. What draws you to these themes? 

I have always been kinda obsessed with mystic magical things. I think it's gotten darker as I've gotten older, but still in the same vein. I’m not sure what it is but I think it’s the element of fantasy or just a different universe/multiverse. The idea that there is more. I feel like I’m a neptunian creature floating around between dimensions sometimes. 

I love your sound on the records —lots of fuzzed out guitars and vocals, great drum parts. How do you get from writing on acoustic guitar to that more fleshed out sound? 

I am really lucky to have a great band that I trust. I’m able to tell them this is what I want, make it happen. They are also incredibly talented without my direction, so sometimes I just let them take the reins. 

Tell me about your uncomfortable truths project & what you’ve been working on during pandemic! 

I released an album last year all about my uncomfortable truths in hopes that others would feel less alone in their own. I never got to have a release show or tour it - so I am having a "release show" for the one year anniversary as well as releasing 4 animated music videos. They are from the four vignettes off the album about different kinds of privilege. The songs focus on violence, poverty, mental/physical illness & women's rights. Each song has the same structure and melody but is recorded in a different genre. [Ed. Note: So cool!] Each video will also match the theme of each topic. I received a small grant from Black Fret here in Austin so I have had the money to pay for the videos as well as get PR for them. I plan on using the rest of it to do some recording in the fall - hopefully have singles or an EP to release by 2022? 

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Thanks for talking, Ali! I personally can’t wait to gobble up more songs, whenever they are ready.

Readers, thank you for reading. If you liked this, please consider sharing it (and if you hated it, keep that to your dang self!). I’ll see you in two weeks with another song ;)

xoxoxoxo Lauren