Photo by CJ Benninger
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Looking for something different in your Detroit rock 'n' roll? Look no further than The Holy Fire.
While the crafty quartet of Sean Hoen (vocals/guitar), Ryan Wilson (guitar), Nathan Miller (bass) and drummer Nick Marko have only been together for three years, The Holy Fire has achieved what many bands dream of: A national record deal with The Militia Group label, working with a member of one of music's most creative bands (producer Michael Ivins of The Flaming Lips) and the chance to tour America, playing such notable gigs as the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
With a full-length release in sight, The Holy Fire continues to tour its debut release for The Militia Group, the In the Name of the World EP, with a homecoming show at Alvin's in Detroit Sunday, June 6.
Go&Do Editor Nick Brandon spoke with Hoento preview the band's return to the D.
NB: It's been quite a year for you guys — you get signed to The Militia Group, put out your first EP and I caught you guys at South by Southwest. You're a young band, but things are falling into place.
SH: Yeah, we started it about two-and-a-half years ago without many expectations; we just started enjoying doing it a lot. We were feeling like something cool was going to happen, we had quite a bit of interest, going around playing for a lot of label-type people who wanted to see us. We were working towards something, and those guys at The Militia Group seemed like the best fit for right now; after that, the year has been figuring out how to shape all of our lives in order to be able to do this. All the stuff that's come along so far with The Militia Group has been pretty fun work.
NB: You, Nick and Nathan came from different projects around Detroit. One thing that's cool about The Holy Fire, right now in Detroit there's a stigma about what a band's supposed to sound like; you guys don't sound like that at all.
SH: Nathan and I have been playing together for about 10 years. We come from a different background, making the kind of music we were feeling — when we started this, I had totally given up on the idea of being in a loud, guitar rock band. I was working on a lot of acoustic stuff, songwriting-based, lyrical stuff. Nick ... was this monster rock drummer, and it all came together pretty naturally. At the time we were starting, there was a lot of attention to the '60s throwback thing, and we weren't into that at all. It has more to do with our tastes, it didn't have to do with the clicks going on in Detroit — it wasn't any kind of screw you thing, we were just playing what we knew.
NB: It didn't stop you from getting the deal with The Militia Group and have In the Name of the World out. What did you want to achieve with the EP?
SH: Our first EP, I like that record 'cause it's sort of a cool, live, that kind of flavor. With this newer stuff, we had a period where we got real serious about wanting to become a tight, tight band, so we were practicing to a metronome and going crazy as far as trying to be really clinical and orchestrating everything. It sounds pretty crisp — what we learned from that, with the album, we're going to take song-by-song how to approach it. Some stuff will be going for a looser, live ragged thing, and other songs we'll really focus on which way we're picking each string every second. We've learned to do two things.
NB: My favorite song is "Dreams to Spend," I think it's very unique song, it doesn't sound like a lot of things out there.
SH: It's one of my favorite songs I've ever been a part of. The guitar line that's the center of the song, and the lyrics, fell into place well, just trying to be a hopeful song. It seems like that's the song some of the radio stations have picked it up, and one people call out a lot, which is cool cause it's not a verse-chorus-verse-chorus thing. It's cool we can screw around with structure like that and still have it be the song people like. That's the one that catches me first, I like that about it.
NB: Tell me how this Michael Ivins connection came about — the chance to work with anybody from The Flaming Lips must be interesting.
SH: The year we started working with him, two years ago, Lollapallooza was cancelled that summer. He's got some thing for Detroit, and he was asking ... the Tempermill (Studio) "Is there a cool Detroit band I can work with?" (They) suggested us, and we were, of course, sure. He comes from a little bit different place — those guys are all about going into a studio and just screwing around until they get the weirdest stuff, and we're more a band that goes and practices guitar songs and wants them to sound something like when we play them. So there was a little bit of back and forth between him wanting to take it into outer space and us being like "No." There's things buried in the mixes, headphones moments.
NB: You guys have been playing all over the U.S., and you're playing at Alvin's this weekend — what does it mean to still play shows for the hometown audience?
SH: I still like playing here best because people know the stuff and people are there for us. The support around here, I still get most excited playing around here for sure. It's comfortable, and cool to have support. We're looking forward to that for sure.
For more, visit www.theholyfireband.com.
Contact Go&Do Editor Nick Brandon at 734.246.0861 or at Nick@GoAndDoMichigan.com.
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