Holly FitzgeraldA Profile
A rising star from the West Midlands, UK, Holly Fitzgerald will be releasing her fifth solo single on 19th June, Telepathy. So before she does, lets take.a reflective look at the events and roads that have brought this talented songwriter and singer to so many peoples attention. Where better to start, but at the beginning.
“….I took Music at GCSE on a sort of whim, I had no idea if I could sing or play anything well enough but just went with it….” Holly
It wasn’t too long however until this whim turned into a love of all things musical and would set her on to the road that would take her in many different directions.
“….I fell in love with music from that point on and then took it further, doing A Level and University, but at that time I was into more heavier stuff than a typical teenager, like Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch….” Holly
Discovering her talent for singing and combining it with a love of all things Hard Rock and Metal, Holly began to perform in originals bands in local venues in and around the University in Manchester.
“…I did find a bit of judgement when performing with a band, people would take one look, see a female lead vocalist, and almost write you off…there was one time when a guy came up to me after a gig and said ‘When I saw you I thought you weren’t going to be able to sing, but then you started and I changed my mind’….” Holly
Taking these comments in her stride, Holly continued to perform, growing in confidence and also in her writing ability. Sadly finishing their final year, circumstances sent the members of the band scattering to their homes and found Holly travelling back to Birmingham.
“…I thought I could use this opportunity to build up a new band in Birmingham and continue playing, but then I realised that I was capable of doing this myself so just went with it….” Holly
At this point Holly had honed her instrumental abilities along with her technical ability which allowed her to record and produce her first release, Running up that Hill a Kate Bush cover. After releasing it she began work on her own, completely original releases. First up was Time.
“….Time was one of my tracks that I did most of the production on my own, but then I was lucky enough to meet a great producer and from that point was able to call on him for help refining things I’d put together….” Holly
A self confessed perfectionist, Holly was thrilled to find a producer that shared her vision.
“….I like anything sort of dark and moody, classical music, things like that, but I’m also a huge fan of Jazz and Soul inspired music too, so it was great to find someone who could get on board with it….” Holly
Moving forwards her tracks could be dubbed Cinematic/Gothic Pop. Rather than letting this sound define her writing however, she would use it as a base and just allow the song to evolve as she wrote. In doing so resulted in the brilliantly performed Kaleidoscope and Weight of the World, both great and different tracks that still carry Holly’s style in their elements.
“….recording and performing these original tracks, I got to play with some great musicians who brought their own title things to the song, making it different each time….” Holly
Taking to the stage, armed with a growing catalogue of original music and reworked covers, Holly began to build a fanbase and be included on line ups at some big festivals in the West Midlands.“….I had a great opportunity to open up the main stage at the Lock Stock Music Festival in Wolverhampton, it was just a great experience….” Holly
With this growing buzz and freqeunt airplay on local stations it wasn’t long until it caught the attention of popular garage artist, T8PES.
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“…It was a great opportunity, I got to do vocals on one of his tracks, Hope and Pray….then we got to perform a great version of it at his album launch where we were in the midst of the crowd and just had a guitarist, Grant and a cellist, Julie playing with us, just purely acoustic….” Holly
T8PES
and Holly got to repeat this arrangement of the song when they performed live on BBC WM. Riding high off the success of the single, Holly got hard at work penning more tunes and beginning to plan her next release.
“….Telepathy, I’d recorded the guitar with Mitch before the Lockdown but then finished up the coals and editing during the Lockdown, and I just really wanted it to be minimalist and atmospheric….” Holly
So coming full circle Holly is still hard at work, creating and improving endlessly and hoping to get back on to the live scene as soon as possible. Plus, something exciting….
“….I’m actually writing my first proper love song, so that’ll be something different….” Holly
Social Media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hm_fitzgerald
Listen Here:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/holly-fitzgerald
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