Composed of five friends hailing from London, Argentina, and Launceston, Tasmania, The Holiday Collective are a dynamic quintet who have just rocked out their latest indie-pop single ‘KRIYA’. It’s high time you got to know the lovlies behind the music.
From separate corners of the Earth, The Holiday Collective recently joined together in Byron Bay to put forth their second single, ‘KRIYA’.
Featuring easy-going melodies, beautiful and dynamic harmonies, and a groovy bass line, the song flows for five-minutes, and transports you on a journey through the world of sound.
Frontman of The Holiday Collective, Jesse Higgs notes that the new single drives from a story of both personal and spiritual change, used as “an allegory and describes a figurative near death experience via the protagonist,
who at the beginning of the storyline is confronted by a huge natural storm.”
Symbolising “the uncertainty and hardship that can emerge in everyday life, in a split-
second decision,” the protagonist in the story line evolving through the lyrics “has an option to run from and avoid the metaphorical storm approaching, but he makes the conscious decision to surrender to the larger, universal force, one greater than his own ego and fear of death.”
Bringing along a story of growth, learning, and finding “comprehension of everyday life existence” the song stands as an anthem of getting through the storms we face, and knowing that our actions take meaning in everything we do.
With this new single having dropped today, we thought it was high time you got to know The Holiday Collective, more than just their brilliant tunes.
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Check out ‘KRIYA’ by The Holiday Collective:
How did your artist name come about?
Jesse: I like holidays… More specifically, I like the state of mind that you find yourself in after weeks of immersing yourself in a state of free flow; the kind of travel or extended holiday where you allow your intuition drive. You wake up each day in a new environment, with no real plan or obligation, your beginner’s mind and childlike wonder return.
After getting caught up in the rat race, stressed out of my brain and as a consequence losing any sense of purpose and meaning from a stint in the corporate world, my hilarious but wise Dad prescribed me with a sure fix and a return to self; a holiday.
He said, “Jess, what are you doing mate, no one likes you anymore, you need to go and chill out buddy.” Three months later we’re on a cruise ship to Hawaii, aloha (shaka emoji).
But, in all seriousness, this was the catalyst of a pretty significant shift for me, I ended up travelling for the majority of the year ending up living in rural Tanzania, Africa for around 6 weeks.
A pinnacle moment that still feels vivid was my reconnection to music, it came via the precious commodity of a UE BOOM and working day to day under the hot African sun. We built a school with the ‘Care For Africa Foundation’ and worked hard beside some of the local guys.
It was in those long days, reconnecting with the simple things and these beautiful people that I was reminded, music is God and the divine is always here, all around us.
How would you describe your music to your grandma?
Jesse: If Piccolo and Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z did a fusion dance, then smoked a J with Stevie Nicks, Jane Fonda, and Jimi Hendrix on the parliament lawns sometime back in the ’70s (which then leads to a mind blowing orgy).
Which then years later leads into Elon Musk’s vision of life on Mars and the inevitability of singularity. This shit is real. I have several grandmas, I’m sure there’s potential that one of them was into acid, life on Mars, Fleetwood Mac or Dragon Ball Z?
Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?
Jesse: The coming single ‘KRIYA’ is based from the Sanskrit word that literally means ‘to do’ or ‘completed action’, but a more in-depth description of Kriya from what I heard briefly described on a podcast is what triggered me to write the song.
In the podcast they talked about Kriya being the neutralisation of Karmic debt; when one has balanced their Karma in this life and it no longer has the ability to knock them off their path, they merge onto some kinda slipstream highway, via this free flow state on their way to the inevitable final destination… that’s me paraphrasing anyway.
But when I heard this, I immediately thought; What does Kriya sound like?
I envisioned cruising with the windows down via a continuous metaphysical highway, I rushed off into the garage studio and it all came as quickly. The percussive beat and driving bass-line followed instantaneously, with that guitar chorus line following with the lyrics “I wanna find, I wanna find my way to the day, I see the sunrise, I look with new eyes…” Hmmmm, that’s some life-death-rebirth shit right there.
Our previously released I’sland’ I originally wrote back in 2017 after ironically – time spent in self –isolation. The theme currently weighing heavy on the back end of the global pandemic, ‘Island’ is both an ode to existential isolation and my home state of Tasmania (the filming of the clip taking place in February 2020 – just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis).
The clip features my backyard, the beautiful northeast Tassie and captures some of the ancient forests and picturesque beaches in all of their glory.
As the storyline follows Holiday – the protagonist – from the reflection period of self-isolation onwards on a quest for deeper truths, finding his team along the way (Kimi, Marquee, Isaac & Jade) we are eventually confronted by the corruption and destruction that Government and society are regularly capable of.
That, which is at large systematically ignored and which in this case is sadly portrayed via the real deforestation of Tasmanian Old-growth forests. The film clip was shot and directed by one of our own, my bro and talented Tasmanian film producer and THC drummer, Jade Higgs.
Check out ‘Island’ by The Holiday Collective
What do you love about your hometown?
Marquee: I love the city of Buenos Aires at night. I really love the feeling of getting lost during the night, it is a beautiful city with such a vibrant and unique cultural mix.
I used to enjoy walking around and allowing myself to just get lost, wandering in between buildings that created really diverse environments. Buenos Aires has so much influence from European architecture that you can easily find yourself walking around feeling as though you could be in a European city, like Paris or somewhere.
It’s a bizarre feeling if you allow it, because at the same time everything that is happening around these buildings is clearly not Paris. It’s a beautifully unique mixture of culture, which I always found very inspiring.
I used to just put my headphones in and wander around the city, trying to get lost and then trying to figure out my way back home – all the while listening to wild psychedelic rock albums, I could be walking for hours before heading in the right direction.
Career highlight so far?
Jesse: I’ve spent the last 8 years running Tassie festival favourite Party In The Paddock with a bunch of my best mates, this year we sadly retired PITP. It was a fairytale finish for the festival, emotionally charged to say the least.
It also happened to be the festival birth of THC. I’ve played a bunch of festivals before and nothing really beats the feeling of performing on the big stage, but for it to be at the final PITP ever (the festival that I founded when I was 22), for me internally there was a lot riding on the set…
Sleep deprived, emotionally stretched, the surge of anxious/excited energy I felt before the set was immense. Isaac’s partner Ash is a brilliant yoga teacher and now has the role of a mindful moment before every THC set, Ash pulled us together on side of stage, we huddled as THC and it’s extended family, all linked together we took a moment to breathe in unison, in that moment all of the bullshit cleared, we were one.
It was literally like the most zen I’ve ever felt, we then went directly out on stage and fucking killed it for an 11AM slot haha. The zen wore off towards the end of the set and I came very close to smashing my favourite guitar, instead I threw it off the stage, no shit, it was about a 25 meter throw to one of my buddies Tommy Franklin (that great dancer guy).
Thank God Tommy caught it and it all looked like a part of the show – a definite career highlight.
Fave non-music hobby?
Isaac is passionate about turning waste into beautiful functioning objects, check the action out on instagram via @isaacwilliamsdesignobjects.
Kimi’s big into dancing, getting next level at her dancehall classes on Wednesday nights, Megs a proper foody and loves a lighthouse run, Jade’s a film buff, and Marquee and Jesse both have a love for film photography, rocking their 1970’s 35mm’s whenever they can.
What’s on your dream rider?
Papaya, chips with 3 kinds of aioli, a bottle of Jameson, and a side of Kevin Parker.
Dream music collaboration?
Being produced by Rick Rubin (full stop)(.)
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Living in a commune. All together, potentially nudists, growing vegetables and recording our 10th studio album (via our own, dope, commune studio).
Preparing for our 5th world tour and being tired of being continuously referred to as the millennial love child of Fleetwood Mac and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Kimi:Growing up in a filipino community, we spent most weekends at my aunt’s houses eating food and singing karaoke. For me, anything ABBA and if I wanna show off my rap skills I’ll chuck on D12 ‘My Band’, haha.
Meg: ‘Grease Melody’ – a mashup of all the best songs from Grease. It’s a sure way to get the crowd going.
Jade: Ooh man I love karaoke!! There’s really something else about getting sideways and dropping a knee while belting out your all-time faves that you can’t sing for shit, in front of a bar full of complete strangers! Who now love ya and know ‘Jaja Ding Dong’ – The Story Ff Fire Saga off by heart. Fcking love that song.
Jesse: Jade also did a fucking brilliant version of ‘Kickapoo’ – Tenacious D at my 30th, really got the crowd fired up!
Check out The Holiday Collective:
