The super talented singer-songwriter gives us a track-by-track rundown of her brand new EP, Slow Down
Singer-songwriter Lots Holloway blew us all away with her live performance on the Radio DIVA Women's Stage at Pride in London. If you couldn't make it on the day, check out this clip of her in action.
Now the rock goddess is back with a brand new EP. To celebrate the release of Slow Down, we asked Lots to treat us to a track-by-track breakdown of exactly what moved her to make such beautiful music.
Slow Down
"Slow Down is a song about being present in every moment; about not rushing or wishing your life away by continuously trying to reach a new destination. The idea first came to me at a house party, in the early hours of the next day, still awake, still holding those same conversations that should’ve ended well before midnight. I looked around the room and pieced together snippets of all the conversations being had, and in one way or another they all seemed to have their roots in the same place – and it wasn’t in the moment. Phrases like “I’ll be happy, when I get that job”, “I just want to get married and have kids”, “I’ll be happy as soon as I own my own house and a car”.
I realised that, trying to find happiness in the attainment of material possessions or by reaching significant milestones in our lives, we miss every other opportunity for happiness along the way. Life, as we know, only happens once for each person. I was hit by this intense notion of fear that I’d be disappointed looking back at my life when I’m older, if I didn’t capture every single second and every experience and just savour it for what it was.
I wrote the song as a reminder for myself, and for everyone else that time is fickle, life is a gift and happiness is a state of mind."
Berry Bones
"This is the first song I’ve released that’s written about love, or my opinion of love.
Humans have an incredible tendency to be selfish, but that’s not what love is, love isn’t selfish. I think loving someone, really, truly loving someone comes when you don’t need to be loved back, when your love doesn’t depend upon reciprocation, and this song tells that story.
'Just to love you is enough for me.'
When I was producing this song, all of the components seem to fall together so gracefully. The story is about the love for a 'little dancer', so I wanted to give it elements that would create that funky dance feel, and so came the Nile Rogers/Sister Sledge inspired guitar lines, and African percussion that gets inside the bones."
Love Me, Though I’m Not Right
"This song was a latecomer to the rest. The other songs on the EP were written around a year ago, but this one cropped up and was jumped to the front of the queue by my label. Despite its jolly nature, there is a twist to the story. The song is about someone asking you to love them, knowing that someone isn’t right for you, for whatever reason, but falling for lust anyway. Perhaps the person is in a relationship, or you are, or they’re madly in love with you but you’re both aware it’s not reciprocated… it’s all about the human struggle between right and wrong. The strange and lucid places your mind takes you in these kinds of situations is reflected in the music – the pace is calmer in the verses but picks up in the chorus, where there’s a feeling of excitement and momentum. The middle eight is built around swirling synths that make you feel like you’ve lost control, until the last chorus where the lyric changes and the story has ended; "we’re loving, though we’re not right". Human compulsions give in.
I produced this song three different times, and in the end used bits from each and just patched them together."
Between You & Me
"This is the oldest song on the EP. It was written well over a year ago in the middle of a sleepless night. It can be interpreted and adapted into multiple different fashions for different listeners, but its origin will remain with me and a mystery for everyone else.
The version you hear on the EP is the very original demo recorded in the middle of the sleepless night. When we came to re-record the song for the record, it became very apparent that there was a real raw and honest expression in the original recording that couldn’t be faked, or replicated. We decided to keep it as the mysterious and vulnerable silhouette it’s always been."
Lots Holloway's Slow Down EP is out now. Listen here: hyperurl.co/ehmg59
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