OFF the back of the online Be Hear Now festival, singer songwriter Freya Hollick is keen to kick off the new year with some regional live shows.<\/p>\n
Booked in at Ballarat\u2019s Volta on 30 January, the local artist said after a long hiatus from playing gigs it\u2019s great to be back at it, particularly in her home town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t played in Ballarat since January last year aside from Be Hear Now but that wasn\u2019t a live audience, so quite a different experience as much fun as it was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to being in my hometown and playing, and I\u2019m glad the venue\u2019s able to reopen after this COVID stuff because venue\u2019s in particular have been hit hard by this thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s just so excited to be out watching live music and we\u2019re just excited to be playing, it\u2019s even more special now than it\u2019s ever been before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The genre bending musician describes her music as \u201cdesert, cosmic country\u201d, incorporating elements of rock, country, blues and soul with raw, climbing vocals to produce her signature sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started out doing old time and classic country stuff and playing a lot of country festivals, but I got bored of that so we\u2019ve been playing more rocky shows for the past couple of years,\u201d Hollick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour sound evolves across time and you get into all different sorts of music often as a result your music changes a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the next couple of months, I have single coming out from the record I\u2019ve been working on, hopefully the record won\u2019t be too far behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although some found inspiration in the darkness of last year\u2019s pandemic, Hollick said lockdown for her was a particularly difficult time for her creativity and productivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn March, I had just finished playing at a couple of festivals and headline shows, and was getting ready play a couple of other shows and they all got canned when the COVID news broke,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was meant to be going into the studio to finish off a record that I\u2019ve been working on and the pin got pulled even going to Melbourne to do that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot touring, seeing different landscapes or meeting new people like I usually am, I found it a lot harder to write music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although lockdown proved to be a challenge, Hollick said she\u2019s felt supported by the region\u2019s venues, musicians, local councils and even the State Government to continue performing.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil, venues and even local businesses are all super supportive of music here, it\u2019s wonderful, and I\u2019ve been well supported by Music Victoria and Creative Victoria,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupporting local artists means that the culture of the town is always progressing and that there\u2019s always fun and exciting things happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to support local artists means you\u2019re keeping them in a job, it means that they will want to come back to their home town when they make it\u2026 it\u2019s good for tourism, and it\u2019s good for local business, accommodation and eateries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OFF the back of the online Be Hear Now festival, singer songwriter Freya Hollick is keen to kick off the new year with some regional live shows. Booked in at Ballarat\u2019s Volta on 30 January, the local artist said after a long hiatus from playing gigs it\u2019s great to be back at it, particularly in […]<\/p>\n