Holly Golightly Interview and Podcast!

Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
October 21, 2007
The EARL
Atlanta, GA

We had a chat with the delightful Holly Golightly as she relaxed at home in England with her dogs. This is the first time Holly has enjoyed home life for quite a while, as she has been on the road all over the world for months now. She only has four weeks before she picks up again, this time heading over to US with Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs.

If the name Holly Golightly doesn’t ring a bell right away (besides her namesake, Audrey Hepburn's character in "Breakfast at Tiffany’s"), think White Stripes. Her cameo on the track “It’s True That We Love One Another” was her first big break in the States, even though she had been in the biz for at least 10 years prior. Jack White is one of Holly’s many noted fans, as she gained some notoriety performing with British garage punk group Thee Headcoatees.

With The Brokeoffs she is honing in on her more organic side, with whiskey soaked ballads and moody folk blues. By the way, although the same suggests a larger ensemble, "The Brokeoffs" in this manifestation consists solely of band mate and collaborator Lawyer Dave.

Golightly was so charming and funny that we couldn’t resist putting the interview up in its entirety as a podcast. You can find it on our podcast player on the right side of the page or follow the link below. Just in case you can’t get to some speakers, we’ve transcribed a some of the highlights:

Holly on packing for an extensive international tour:
"I’m employing a different strategy this time because what happens is I bring over more than I need and then buy twice as much as I could ever manage to carry. So this time I am bringing a massive case with hardly anything in it."

Holly on working with Lawyer Dave:
TALive: What’s he like in the studio or on tour. There’s quite a few references to drinking in your bio and the songs. Is it a party every night?
Holly Golightly: "Haha, yeah, a party in our minds every night! We like a lot of the same stuff including stuff that we like to drink, I suppose. I don’t know what other people do when they come up with these collaborations. We had talked about doing this for years, and didn’t really have any idea what it would be like, but we thought it would be quite fun to do. When it came to writing the songs, we did it all in a very short space of time. The album was written and recorded and mixed in four days. So we had limited subject matter at the time!"

TALive: How do you collaborate together? Do you handle the lyrics and he writes music or is it a shared responsibility?
HG: "I’m a bit more picky than he is probably when it comes to lyrics. Then on the other hand, he is much more picky when it comes to the backing tracks than I am because I am not of the same technical ability that he is playing guitar. So we have to strike a happy middle ground where I can play without ruining it!"

Holly on British Americana:
"The stuff I listen to is probably not like the stuff I made at all, so I can’t really say I’m particularly influenced by any one so-called Americana artist or another because I don’t know any of them. I don’t know who the other people are that do this stuff. But, I am sure they are drawn to the same thing that both Dave and myself are... It’s a very familiar format. There is structure to it and it makes things simple from the get go. It isn’t going to be complicated music and how you sort of dress it up and make it individual all depends on what you bring to it. I think probably what I bring to it is being more British. As much as it is probably considered in that genre of Americana, I think it’s very British in a lot of ways."

Holly on taking album title, “You Can’t Buy a Gun When You’re Crying” from a Lord Carrett punch line:
"There was a little acrimony; I have to say. I think he felt like something has been stolen from him in some way. Unfortunately in the land of making records and writings songs, everything is stolen, I’m afraid. And I mean, I took it totally out of context. It wasn’t the punch line to any joke. I think it is a lure, and it is also a very funny punch line when you hear the joke. It actually was the only joke he told that made me laugh."

"Don’t get me wrong. It’s all in very good humor. But there was this misunderstanding whereby he thought one thing and I said. “You know what, I’m a punk rocker and where I come from you can get whatever you want for free!”

"...who gives a shit? It’s just a joke that no one is going to hear on a record that no one is going to fucking buy! So what difference does it make?"

(ED Note: The joke goes, "I learned a lot from my second marriage... I learned they won't sell you a hand gun if you're crying..."- http://www.lordoflaughs.com/)

Holly on record collecting:
"I think my biggest tip would be not to start...because it is an illness."

Holly on Amy Winehouse:
“I think it’s a real shame about her because I really like her. It’s on a much more personal level, I want her to be together! She’s influenced by really good stuff, she likes really good stuff, and she projects that really well. I think she is amazing! But, there is sort of an ugly side to it because she’s suddenly become dramatically successful and she’s having too many of the wrong drugs.”

"She’s ever so young. I didn’t realize how young she was until I read an interview by her, and then I was a bit disappointed, really. Because I wanted her to say something interesting and she just talks about drugs and drinking.”

Listen: Holly GoLightly Podcast!