Hollow Everdaze on their beginnings and the future of Bacchus Marsh
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Hollow Everdaze on their beginnings and the future of Bacchus Marsh

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But apparently the town was named after an English settler, Captain William Bacchus.  That’s disappointing, though Hollow Everdaze bass player Jackson Kay sees great things afoot for the town of his birth. “Bacchus Marsh is the new Ballarat,” Kay says.  “Actually Ballarat is going to be the new Philadelphia and Bacchus Marsh is going to be the new Manhattan.” 

Hollow Everdaze was conceived ten years ago when Kay and Hollow Everdaze guitarist Daniel Baulch convened for a jam while both were attending the same high school. Baulch was already playing guitar; Kay’s musical experience had peaked with guitar lessons in primary school and a forgettable stage concert. Despite the relative scarcity of alternative music in their hometown, Kay and Baulch and a few friends gradually morphed into a proper band.

“We were all so young at the time so we were winging it at the start,” Kay says. “To me, because I didn’t have a lot of experience, the other musicians we were playing with seemed God-like and distinguished. They had to be pretty patient.”

A diet of Sonic Youth and Live at Pompeii-era Pink Floyd gradually shaped the fledgeling band’s musical direction. The group’s distinctive name came after the obligatory period of name searching. Kay thought they needed a title that resonated with the music they were trying to create. “I remember I was on my friend’s porch and I wanted to have something that was kind of abstract and meant something to me,” Kay says. “Hollow Everdaze was a name that came to me when I was listening to the music. It’s a lot different when the name is attached to the songs, it gives some kind of identity to the band.  It’s a very ethereal sounding name.”

Hollow Everdaze’s first recording, a mini-album, was released about five years ago.  Along the way band members have come and gone, leaving Kay and Baulch the mainstays of the group.  The highlight of Hollow Everdaze’s early lineup came with a gig supporting The War on Drugs at the Northcote Social Club in 2012.  “That was one of our better shows with that lineup.  I’m really glad we didn’t fuck that show-up,” Kay laughs.

Earlier this year Hollow Everdaze went into the studio with producer John Lee. The result was the band’s debut album, Cartoons. A collage of dreamy psychedelic and lush pop tunes, Cartoons is the quantum leap Hollow Everdaze wanted to make. “With the album there’s a few different genres and psych elements all packed into one,” Kay says. “There were moments we wanted to have something outrageous like a tempo change or a certain tone, something that would make us laugh. We wanted to clean up where we’d made mistakes when we’d been recording previously.”

To some extent, the quality of the final recording was a surprise. “Because there was so little work on our end that went into the pre-production, there were definitely some moments when there was a big surprise,” Kay says.

Critical to the sound on the record is the violin of Myles Anderson. Anderson, who hails from Gisborne – a short drive from Bacchus Marsh – joined Hollow Everdaze almost by accident.  “We thought we would have Myles come up on stage and play live for one song. After the first rehearsal, I asked him if he wanted to join us, and his immediate response was ‘Yes,’ because he had his own perception of the songs and came in from an outsider’s perspective,” Kay says.

In early August Hollow Everdaze will hit the road for a tour to promote the release of Cartoons. “We’re trying to have something that’s consistent and has the feel of the recordings, just trying to do that justice,” Kay says.  “I think our audience can take what they want out of it.”