After 250 million streams of their catalogue were accumulated during 2021, Hollow Coves might be the most unassuming local musicians who call the Gold Coast home.
It’s a rainy day and after a stranger answers the door of the townhouse in suburban Varsity Lakes, I walk through the home to what appears a small two storey granny flat in the backyard, mounting the external staircase and peering through the glass door on a small balcony to find the duo, Ryan and Matt, in full song, rehearsing their catchy folk tunes for their upcoming European tour.
“Hey come in! Yeh, it’s a bit tight. We learnt pretty quickly that drums weren’t gonna be a thing in here, I think we got two complaints in the first day since we moved in here, but it’s pretty well soundproofed now with just our guitars and voices,” Ryan and Matt laugh a little at their cosy suburban practice and recording space, as they invite me in.
Surprisingly perhaps, the boys recorded the majority of their ‘Blessings’ EP in the mini booth studio located in the Varsity Lakes upstairs practice room, and some of those songs have gone on to be popular throughout the world. ‘Blessings’, the EP namesake, appeared on global TV series ‘Greys Anatomy’ and soon-to-be-released Judd Apatow produced romantic comedy ‘Bros’ will feature ‘Evermore’, a track actually written for the wedding of Matt’s sister as she walked down the aisle.
The irony of that fact will only be evident in the fullness of time, as the relevant scene from the movie is eventually revealed. We agree to keep that moment a secret for now.
With popular TV shows and movie licensing deals a big part of the 2022 plans for Hollow Coves, it’s not looking like their online streaming growth is going to diminish any time soon. Selling out their scheduled May gigs in Vienna, Munich, Bratislava, Paris and London is certainly not going to limit momentum either.
While the boys might not be that well known in Australia, even a cursory glance through their instagram profile reveals packed shows in bigger venues across Europe and North America (where they will travel to again in September 2022). They’ll also support Passenger on his Australian tour later this year, apparently lined up after a successful touring experience with Paper Kites not long ago.
Bouncing back after COVID lockdowns has not been too much of a challenge for Matt and Ryan, who made the most of the time away from gigs, recording that popular ‘Blessings’ EP after constructing their own studio and shipping it away to multi-Grammy award-winning Patrick Dillett (Sufjan Stevens, Mary J Blige) for engineering, who is based in New York. The focus now though is getting back to touring and preparing for the 1500-2000 seat sell-outs they’ve become accustomed to across Europe.
“It is a bit surreal when we’re overseas. Australia hasn’t really caught on to us yet. Funnily enough, COVID saw instagram go crazy as people used our music all across the world for reels and stories on social media. I feel like now we’re building our live set, incorporating rock elements even, and we’re a different band than we were.”
There’s no doubt the coming year will see Hollow Coves reach new audiences, here and abroad. Follow them @HollowCoves
