Thrash it out

Stockholm’s Hannes Ferm beguiles us with his latest project HOLY and talks chips on tour
By Clementine Zawadzki | Music | 21 October 2015
Above:

Holy. Image by Emil Sandstrom

Hannes Ferm is Stockholm’s resident sonic perfectionist, but he isn’t a control freak. Seeking to break away from the familiar quest for the ‘perfect’ studio meets ‘best’ producer algorithm, Ferm found himself inadvertently stumbling across just that, right under his nose. Self-producing his own material from his bedroom-come-studio proves the ideal formula for Ferm’s idiosyncratic brand of thrashed out garage psych, under the HOLY moniker.

It’s no wonder his saintly harmonies caught the attention of Anton Newcombe, with the influence of Clothilde and The Velvet Underground just as potent as bands on the scene, suchBoys and Magic Potion. He recently played some shows in the UK to celebrate the release of his debut record, Stabs; an album that makes you feel like you’re going in slow motion, but in the best possible way.

Holy. Photo by Klara Ferm

Clementine Zawadzki: Hey Hannes, how are you?
Hannes Ferm: I’m fine. I’m just sitting in a coffee shop in Hackney at the moment, and I’m staying at a friend’s place here. It’s been very nice in the UK. We’ve played about 10 shows. We started in Liverpool Psych Fest, and then more places, but I can’t remember, I keep mixing them up. Sheffield, Birmingham, Chorley, and then ended the tour here in London. It was the best show on the tour. We played the worst, but it was the most fun we’ve had.

CZ: You played the worst?
HF: Yeah [laughs] we didn’t play that bad, it was just difficult, because people were crowd surfing and I got lifted up. At the end of the show at The Waiting Room, we have one really long song with an outro that we just keep on playing, and generally a friend of ours gets on stage with us, but all of the audience did.

CZ: What was Liverpool Psych Fest like?
HF: It was really good. I’ve never been to Liverpool, so that was really interesting. A lot of good bands, and we had a good response too. But with food, the thing is, it’s been really hard because everyone in the band is vegan. At home, it’s easy, but while I’m touring I’ve mostly been living off of chips, French fries, that kind of stuff.

CZ: Well, you’re in the right place for chips at the moment
HF: Eating very badly [laughs].

CZ: What does your band bring to the process? Does this have any effect on your live performances too?
HF: I played almost everything on the record, but Lucas Grahl played drums on most of the songs, and Nora Karlsson sang a lot of harmonies and played rhythm guitar. Sometimes live sounds a lot different than on the album. Even if HOLY is my own project, I value everyone’s creative freedom on stage really highly. So, we play around and improvise with the songs, the unpredictability makes every show a little bit more interesting for us. And hopefully for whoever is watching as well.

CZ: With it being “home-recorded pop” I take it you’re also in charge of all the production elements
HF: Yes, for this album it just seemed like the natural way to go. I was recording more or less everyday, and recording at home gave me the time to do that in the right atmosphere. I didn’t feel like I could focus my energy in studio sessions where someone has paid for me to perform under a certain amount of time. I rarely feel comfortable in a studio, but I think that experience mainly depends on the producer and I don’t think I’ve found one I’ve really clicked with. I also developed a sleeping disorder during that time, which meant a lot of recording was done in the night time, quite spontaneously, which would be hard to do in a studio.

CZ: What themes do you explore in your music?
HF: I think the album is called Stabs for a lot of reasons, because it’s literally that kind of force for me. I like to use symbols a lot. I don’t like the literal text that explains something. I like to keep the lyrics open so that everyone can find their own meaning. I’ve written like 30 to 50 new songs since I wrote the album. One day I love the album, and the next day I hate it. It’s just that you move on and focus on the future.

CZ: Is it strange to be touring with songs that are considered old to you now?
HF: You know, it’s like talking about a memory really. In a way, it’s a diary of a certain time in my life. In the process I didn’t have such a clear concept of what I was exploring, but in retrospect I associate every song to ideas and actual moments in my life during that specific time. A lot of the songs are about me and my friends’ different struggles, which I only realised quite recently, even though I finished the album a while ago. I think Stabs was about cutting through the gray mass that I felt was everyday life. At least that’s what I was trying to do. It was an attempt to reach past all the bullshit and find something honest, or at least something that made me happy.

Follow HOLY on Facebook and Bandcamp

Follow Clementine Zawadzki on Twitter @clementinelaura

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