HOLLY HEBE ON MOOD RING, MAGIC AND UNIVERSALITY
HOLLY HEBE RETURNED WITH HER ETHEREAL EP MOOD RING, A DEEPLY INTIMATE AND AUTHENTIC PORTRAYAL OF HEARTBREAK, NOSTALGIA AND FIGURING IT ALL OUT. WE SPOKE WITH HOLLY ABOUT HER NEW EP, UNIVERSAL EMOTIONS AND VULNERABILITY.
TEMPER: I loved that for me the first 20 seconds of the EP with the Mood Ring intro felt like diving underwater. What do you imagine in these first few moments?
HOLLY HEBE: The intro is so special to me! I wanted it to feel like a spell was being cast onto the listener, I imagine colours swirling around and the kind of shimmer that happens when sunlight hits water.
T: It speaks to the interpretive power of music but what do you hope your listeners are taking from the EP?
HH: I hope they feel a sense of comfort from it- calling back to the concept of a mood ring, there are a lot of different emotions that play a part in each song. I hope that listeners can find a piece of themselves in the songs and attribute their own emotions to them too.
T: Nineteen is a deeply personal track but also speaks about experiences that many people in their 20s are going through. Is this something you set out to achieve through your songwriting?
HH: I think there’s something really beautiful about sitting in an emotion that feels completely individual at the time and writing from the epicentre of that emotion, then zooming out and realising that you aren’t a silo in these feelings. I feel comforted knowing that other people are going through similar things, and whilst my writing is very personal, I love that these are universal feelings. It feels very human.
T: There are so many dreamy and cinematic aspects to the EP but what do you think is the perfect scene to listen to it for the first time?
HH: One of my favourite things to do is go on a walk or a drive and listen to a project in full. I think being somewhere that feels a little romantic and magical, like by a river or under the shade of trees is the perfect place to listen.
T: You spoke of Nineteen being about losing yourself a little bit throughout a relationship and realising after the fact, how do you go about writing about such real and raw experiences?
HH: Nineteen was a really specific song writing experience for me. I was in such a pit of despair going into that session and as soon as I sat at the piano it sort of all fell out of me. I am so present in these feelings when I’m writing songs like this and I think that helps a lot to be able to unlock true vulnerability and rawness.
T: Birthmark feels so nostalgic and warm, why did you decide that it would be the final track of the EP?
HH: Birthmark covers the idea of being unable to break the cycle of missing someone deeply. It’s about feeling like you’re moving on, then coming undone all of a sudden and being hurled back to the start of the healing process. It feels like a loop from start to finish, so putting it at the end of the EP felt right, and is kind of an ode to the final lyrics ‘now we’re right back at the start.’