thePULSEBy Tine Roycroft
Hollis Brown, a band that’s a little bit classic pop, a little bit Americana, and a whole lot of sweet rock n’ roll, is proud to announce the release of their full-length debut album, Ride On The Train, via Alive Records on March 5. If you’ve yet to grab an earful of these talented boys, get a taste while the album is fresh!
With Mike Montali as lead singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jon Bonilla as songwriter and guitarist, Mike Graves on drums and Dillon DeVito on the bass, the band delivers melodic sweetness with each song. They’ve been playing together for a number of years, starting with Montali and Bonilla jamming together in their New York high school and then bringing Graves into the fray after seeing him perform at a shared gig. The band was completed when Dillon, who moved from Cleveland to NY, joined them. They had the talent, they just didn’t have a name.
“We were throwing around ideas,” remembers Montali. “We’re big fans of the Rolling Stones and they got their name from a Muddy Waters’ song. Finally we said, let’s just find a song title that we can all live with and that happened to be Bob Dylan’s song ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown.’”
The boys of Hollis Brown, all in their twenties, put their hearts and souls into their first album. But even with that kind of passion, there were challenges along the way. According to Montali, one of the hardest songs to perfect was the title track “Ride on The Train.” The inspiration for the song came as he was riding the New York subway, listening to a Mariachi band playing nearby.
“We thought [“Ride on The Train”] was really cool, but when we went to record it in Nashville, it just seemed to fall short of our expectations,” Montali says. With the guidance of producer Adam Landry and a lot of hard work, Hollis Brown got the song to where it needed to be.
“It really took all day and a lot of hard work because we record everything live. We don’t have the opportunity to overdub or add things in later. It had to be done on the spot,” Montali says.
According to the lead guitarist, long days of hard work and intense collaboration are easy for the members of Hollis Brown.
“First and foremost, we’re friends,” Montali says. “We’re passionate about this band and playing music. We make time for it like anything else. It’s like being married to 3 other people. We’re very committed and we basically work the rest of our lives around this band.”
And these good-hearted musicians are always ready to give props to bands they like. According to Montali, right now they’re digging Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring for My Halo and Middle Brother’s self-titled 2011 debut album.
Hollis Brown will be focusing on their extensive tour schedule for the next couple of months, hitting cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Nashville. But between gigs, they’ll be writing new songs in the hopes of getting back into the studio before the summer.
Listen to “Down On Your Luck” now!
Hear “Nightfall” MP3 on Rolling Stone!
Debut LP Ride On The Train Out March 5th via Alive Records
For more info, visit hollisbrown.com.
Special thanks to Dana Cooper of Girlie Action Media
