DUTCH HOLLY INTERVIEW!

1. Would you mind giving listeners who have never heard of your band before a brief history of your band?
Dutch Holly is a band built around the songs of Jen Juniper and Tres Ike. We met one night when Jen’s band was opening for Tres band in a bar that was open for one night only – that night – and then closed because of a liquor license violation. When Jen finished her set, she pondered aloud from the stage, “Who’s gonna buy me a beer?” “That’d be me” replied Tres. She hasn’t bought a beer since. 
Since then, we’ve done a lot of songwriting, built a studio, had a child, Max, you can see him in the video to What Rhymes With You? (which we made with our camcorder), signed a record deal, and put out our first self-produced EP. When we recorded the EP, we didn’t have a live band. The drummer was living across the country and we brought in guest players We have a pretty solid live band now with some wonderful players, some of whom are on the EP and the others will be on the next record.  
2. Who are your members?

Jen Juniper - Songwriting, Vocals, Magick
Tres Ike - Songwriting , Vocals, Keys, Guitars
Steven Parent - Drums
Mark Parent - Bass
Holly Thompson - Guitar
JJ James - Violin
Ines Vitols - Violin 
Cricket Dean - Trombone, Woodblock


3. How did you come up with your band’s name?
During the the age-old and seemingly endless deliberation over what to call our band, our friend Christopher “The Randallite” Randall came to visit. He told us the tale of the origins of Randallism (his personal religion) paraphrased here:
“The Four Shepherds were tending their flock of goats one day when one goat began speaking in prophecy. They wrote down the prophecies of the speaking goat which then became the basic tenets of Randallism. The goat’s name was Dutch Holly.”
As soon as it escaped his lips, we knew that we had to name our band Dutch Holly, though no one in the band actually practices Randallism nor would any of us recognize any of the Four Shepherds should their image miraculously appear on a tortilla.
4. Who are your biggest influences? What is your favorite mainstream band featuring a female?
Our musical influences are all over the map. They generally range from late 60’s British Invasion psychedelic-folkies like Nick Drake and Donovan, to what we like to call 70’s “Golden California” rock like Gerry Rafferty and Fleetwood Mac, to 90’s indie rock/post-punk like The Pixies, to post-millenial indie folk/pop/rock like Belle and Sebastian. I think that almost ALL of our mainstream favorites have at least one lady in the group. To name a few: Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, The 1900s and The Bird and the Bee.
5 . Tell us more your songwriting process. Is one band member a key player in songwriting or is songwriting a group effort?
 We have occasionally sat down to deliberately write a song on a particular topic, but lately, the songs seem to suggest themselves. Usually, an idea starts hanging around, niggling at the back of the brain and won’t let you sleep or even conduct regular day-to-day business until it is given the attention it’s clamoring for. These days, we sit down at the piano together and work out harmonies and a general arrangement. Then usually, we record a rough draft at our home studio and get a rough mix out to the band . Typically, they fill in the parts in rehearsal. After we get a song live for a while, sometimes we wind up changing the arrangement. Still, it seems that lately, the original idea that suggests itself to us is the main drive behind the songwriting. It’s almost like the songs are already written on some ethereal plane, and it’s our job to just bring them into audible form somehow. 
 6. Any of your songs that you think are particularly relevant to young ladies and issues they might deal with?
Shine (track 3 on What Rhymes With You?) Is about remembering your connection to divinity, not allowing yourself to be fooled by worldly influences into thinking that you are less than you really are. “Shine!/ Heaven sang when you were born.” It speaks to personal sovereignty. It’s a good reminder to people of both genders not to give away your power and to remember the light that shines in you. 7. Do you have any recent releases or upcoming releases? Both. In October of 2010, we put out our self-produced EP, “What Rhymes With You?” In between playing shows around the Southwest, we’re currently working on a full-length record due out in early 2012.
8. What is the most interesting experience you’ve had while playing a show? What did you learn from this experience? (If a negative experience, what advice would you have for other bands to avoid similar situation?)
I don’t know how interesting it is to have the person at the soundboard not know what they’re doing. It happened to us recently. Probably, it’s all too common. What we learned from this experience is to just do your best to power through and make a connection with the crowd. A crowd will forgive bad sound if you give them a good performance. 
 9. How does your band feel about your local scene? Is the scene in your hometown thriving or dying? Are the venues “pa y to play”? Has a venue ever treated your female member(s) with disrespect ? How did you handle this situation? Is there any local band in your hometown that you like working with?
We live in a small mountain town in Northern Arizona, so we have never really identified with the “local scene” such as it is. The scene here is practically non-existant for indie bands. So, we have no ambition to be popular as a local band. Our focus is on regional and national success, so if we play where we live, it will only be at big festivals or outdoor stages. We stay out of bars, and generally leave that scene to the local acts. 10.Has there ever been discussion about having a girl in your band? Did the band embrace the idea? Does your band usually tell others that the band has a girl as a way to help girls connect with the band? 
This discussion has never really been necessary for us. Jen has always been part of it, and it wouldn’t even exist without her, so that would be silly. We have had discussions whether to identify ourselves as a “girl” band. Typically we haven’t gone that route, because we have both guys and girls in the band and we’re not really identified with gender issues as a band. We’re not really making a statement about it except maybe “hey, look at us: guys and girls can get along and have bands together and it can be really great.” It’s nice that we have girls in the band, though, because it gives us opportunities to be on podcasts like Pretty in Punk and Girls Rock Radio. You don’t hear Belle and Sebastian or Arcade Fire going around vaunting the fact that they have female members. They just do. 

11.  Do you have a special message to share with your fans? Someone special to thank for helping you get to where you are at the moment?
Our special message is this: What an exciting time to be alive! The old establishment is crumbling because people are waking up to who they really are. Now, more than ever, it’s time to question everything and really start to enjoy being alive. School, work, debt, politics, even illness and war are all circumstances that we agree to, either by tacit participation or expressly. It isn’t necessary for us to live in this way. We can agree to a new reality, and if enough of us do, we can change the world. It’s happening now, just look around.