What are the band's influences?

Although the band shares many similarities when it comes to influences, we're also quite different as well. Therefore, I can only speak for myself in response to this particular question. Here's a glimpse into my window of influences. I am highly influenced by the Autumn season and everything Autumnal, My Baby Doll Muse, anything and everything by the Small Faces, 60's upbeat soul 45's with ridiculously over compressed drums, booming bass, crazy Hammond organ swells, and manic fuzz guitar, Al Richards Chocolates over in Bayonne, NJ, The Pill Versus The Springhill Mine Diaster by Richard Brautigan,That Clavioline solo in that song, "Runaway" by Del Shannon(it's rather haunting, isn't it?), Second Street Bakery in Jersey City, NJ, A really good bottle of Barolo wine, Os Mutantes, Spacemen 3, "Hey Joyce" and "I've Got Just The Thing" by Lou Cortney, Hoegaarden White Ale, "I Wanna Be Adored" by Stone Roses, Brocolli Rabe sauteed with roasted garlic and olive oil, "Hard Times" by Gene Chandler, Trout Fishing In America by Richard Brautigan, "The Only One I Know" by Charlatans UK, Ranch Style Beans, "Plum Nellie" by Booker T and the MG's, "It's Only A Northern Song" by the Beatles, "Summer Madness" by Kool and the Gang, "Turn Into Earth" by the Yardbirds and many, many more. 

What are your favorite records of 2009?

Nouvellas- self titled LP.

Where does your band name come from?

Despite the fact that some people out there consider our name to pulled from another band performing under the moniker, "the Hollies", our name is actually street slang for amphetamines and speed. http://www.uatests.com/drug-testing-information/drug-slang-terms.html 

How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?

Yes, our sound has managed to evolve into something we actually never really planned out. Initially we started playing together as an attempt to fill various voids however, it became quite clear early on, that we were creating something unusually interesting. As we moved forward, we would apply various elements that we absorbed while listening to old 60's soul 45's. We never wished to stay inside one particular box therefore, each one of our records document mutiple manic episodes infused with pop art textures.

How was the writing process for your latest CD "Softly Towards The Light" ?

We returned home in late June from being on a six week tour and had only a handful of local shows booked throughout the remaining days of Summer. Two of us were able to return to our day jobs and two of us were jobless with nothing on the horizon until September. Although our rehearsal space was paid for for the next month, the two of us without jobs had roughly one hundred dollars to lead us into future propects. Jon and I would devote 12-14 hours a day to working on these new ideas that would fall out of my head almost every hour on the hour. There were some real magical moments and some over the top lows. Jugs of Carlo Rossi would sit in on every session and there were several different kinds of vehicles that would transport us to our creative destination. At one point while driving through the Greenville section of Jersey City, Jon and I actually debated whether or not to buy crack. After tossing the idea back and fourth for a while, I decided to buy two slices and a coke from Prince Of Pizza over on Bergen Avenue instead.

The owner of the building where our space is located, clearly had issues with PSE&G. This resulted into two of our analog 4-track cassette recorders suffering ninth degree burns(r.i.p.). There are close to one hundred ideas documented on random cassette tapes prior to the Great Power Surge of '08. Any ideas documented on these tapes that weren't stored in my mental memory back were forgotton. There were times when we would begin capturing an idea and then slowly the christmas lights decorating our space would begin to fade. One day were moving along quite well on this arrangment i had come up with and then out of nowhere, the power comepletely cut out, Wiley, Jon and myself relocated to the hallway and continued to work on this idea while candles provided guided light. Eventually we switched to a different recording device, Wiley's digital 8-track recorder(top of the line for 1994). From that point on, we plowed through recording demos and re-recording new arrangments of the these demos up until almost the last couple of days before we were officially scheduled to record. 

Do you guys feel recording your record outside of your own studio for the first time impacted the recordings at all?

Well, recording in a proper studio this time around enabled us to not only record to 2" analog tape,  it also allowed us to utelize old keyboards inside the studio like the Hammond B3 and the Mellotron. I personally appreciate the warm sounds captured on analog tape.

How did you guys hook up with Ernest Jenning Recording Co.?

 We were trying to figure out how to release our first single. A close friend of ours, who also happened to be playing drums in Pete's(Ernest Jenning) band, suggested Ernest Jenning Recording Co. 

Our original drummer, Scott  T. Bolasci, mailed out a rough demo of one of our early compositions to Pete and within minutes, the Ernest Jenning Recording Co. had a fleet of Rolls Royces, containg recording contracts and bottles of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin  champagne, dispatched over to each of our residences.

You guys just toured with Benjy Ferree. How did that go?

I can honestly speak for the entire band by saying, we had a lovely time on that run. Benjy and Drew instantly became close family members. We experienced some rather interesting moments together and when we parted ways after the last show of the tour, some report that they witnessed tears falling from Wiley's eyes.

What are your plans for 2010?

For the moment, I plan to bunddle up underneath an anorak because all signs are already beginning to point towards a long and cold winter.

The Black Hollies - Gloomy Monday Morning

Music & Tour dates Here