For Your Ears Only: Hollerado

Hailing from Manotick, Ontario, Hollerado are an indie rock band that craft catchy melodies with witty lyrics infested with a 90s’ vibe. Not only have they shared the stage with Jack White, but as the band explains, they are all about releasing CDs in plastic bags and picking up singles at hot dog stands.

How did you come up with the name Hollerado?

Jake Boyd: We spent two days doing nothing but thinking of names. A beer or two may have been involved.
 
If Hollerado was a physical being, what would it be and what type of personality would it have?

Dean Baxton: It would probably be a pineapple that got lucky and was taken in by a monkey, brought up to know the ways of the jungle. The other monkeys would treat it just like family. It wouldn’t be able to enter back into the pineapple society because of the obvious social interaction skills it would lack. It’s personality would be jovial; it never gets mad, and because in the end it’s still just a pineapple, it has an extremely curious and experimental mind, like forcing itself to try pizza for the first time
 
When did you first get involved in music?

Nixon Boyd: When I was five or six I started playing the violin.

J. Boyd: Pots and pans for me.
 
How did the band first come about?

Baxton: The summer Jake and I had finished high school, Nick came home from school in Montreal. The three of us started jamming together, throwing in a couple of originals in a whole whack of covers we were to play at Kelly’s, the only bar in Manotick, Ontario. Menno had lived three doors down from the Boyds so he came to hang out at Kelly’s the night we played and we called him up to play with us for the last song.

It was fun, but I don’t think anyone really thought much of us becoming a band from there on in, you know? It wasn’t until later that night at a friend’s house where the four of us were easily convinced by a box of beer to pack our stuff, move out of our parent’s houses and start a band for real.

Which artists influence you the most?

J. Boyd: David Cross.

N. Boyd: George Gershwin, The Who, Neil Young and Bill Murray.
 
Steve Miller Band or Weezer?

Baxton: Excellent question!!! That’s my answer!

J. Boyd: Daniel Johnston backed by the Steve Miller Band playing Weezer songs.
 
How would you describe your music?

J. Boyd: Bam bam shee-bop ba doo ba doo waa.

Menno Versteeg: That answer changes all the time without us even realizing it. Like riders on a subway.
 
It’s been announced you guys will be releasing your debut record in store next month and it will come packaged in a plastic bag. Is this true?

Baxton: It’s true, but its not a new idea by any means. Not to us anyway. We first started handing out our demos after our first shows in brown paper bags. We called them Demo In A Bag. We soon switched to clear sandwich bags for the obvious reason of it looking more professional. When time came to put out the record, the only thing that really looked and felt like Hollerado, was having it in a plastic bag. So despite difficulties at the beginning with this idea, we managed to get it cleared and look forward to tricking record stores into carrying it.
 
What’s one unique thing you bring to the table that other bands don’t?

N. Boyd: Neil Young sing-a-longs.

J. Boyd: Plastic bags, but that’s just to steal from the buffet.

How was it opening for Jack White and the rest of The Dead Weather?

J. Boyd: It was cool! I learned that Jack White is very tall and an awesome drummer.

N. Boyd: Each member of that band is an outstanding musician and it looks like they’re having a blast rocking out together.
 
What’s missing from the Canadian music scene and what does it need less of?

N. Boyd: It’s missing rock ’n roll experimentation and it could use more radio stations that aren’t afraid to play unique content. But it could definitely have fewer songs about Alberta.
 
Favourite place in Toronto to hang out at?

Baxton: Menno’s grandparents’ house is the best place to hangout. A few of our friends from Toronto or wherever have been lucky enough to stay there and eat some of the best food Toronto has to offer. Also, any street meat stand is a great place to meet singles.
 
What does music mean to you?

J. Boyd: It ain’t important like my friendships with the guys in the band, but it’s bloody close!

N. Boyd: Music is the fifth member of Hollerado!
 

[What do you think of Hollerado?]