Introducing Holly Head: Manchester’s most impassioned and political new noisemakers
Manchester just can’t stop itself from giving birth to guitar bands.
There’s something in the very make-up of the streets, which was once witness to a thriving scene of post-punks and indies, and this buzz still lingers today, the political charge of punk and the excitement of Madchester all mingling to push a surge of ambitious young people towards instruments and onto their nearest stage.
The latest in a line of exciting new Manchester bands of whom you’re bound to stumble upon sooner or later is Holly Head, a four-piece gearing up to support Westside Cowboy on their imminent UK tour, with most of the dates already sold out. They’ve only released a small string of singles so far, but already they’ve made a name for themselves in the local scene and beyond, something I can attest to having seen them play to a crammed crowd at Leeds’ premier DIY digs of Mabgate Bleach last year.
Now they’ve got a new single, ‘No Country Is An Island’, to show for their past year of musical graft, which features Westside Cowboy’s own Paddy Murphy on guitar. They’re gearing up for a big year, but if there’s one thing that remains most important, it’s the prioritisation of their political voice, something that is just as vital to the band’s lyrics as it is to their actions as a whole.
Having all played various instruments for some time, the formation of Holly Head came as the natural result of friends with a desire to play alongside each other, although the project began as something rather different entirely.
Lead vocalist Joe Moss told Far Out over Zoom, “When I started it, it was almost like a solo thing for my folky emo shit. It was like, ‘He’s trying to be Yo La Tengo’. But as soon as we met Oscar, he’s a brilliant drummer, he put a lot more energy into it. It became something more band-y, and then I started getting into bands like Crass and Subhumans, which I grew up on with my mum. I started getting politicised in a lot of different ways, and it became something different to what it was intended to be at the start.”
Moss has involved himself in various protests over the years for the likes of Animal Rising and Just Stop Oil, several of which have led to a series of arrests. Sitting inside a cell following his arrest at the Scottish Grand National, he had the urge to write a song, which would become ‘No Gain’. “I asked for a pen and paper, and I just jotted down, ‘I can’t regret, in the cell I sit’, and maybe a few other loose lines, but it started there. And the whole thing was centred around that particular experience, because I think that was the second time I’ve been arrested. It’s quite a lot, you know, being in the hands of the state in that way.”
There are so many bands out there who remain apolitical or as quiet as possible, not wanting to involve themselves in tricky discussions. That’ll never be Holly Head. “There’s easier things to do than not do. Especially things like festival boycotts and playing fundraisers, you’re not really going to catch flak for doing that,” Moss tells me.
“Everything is political, and you’ve just got to acknowledge that your actions have consequences. And especially when you get a bit higher up in music, just past the local level, and start getting intertwined with all these various different sponsors and promoters with dark ties, and to not be aware of that, not think about that… I don’t think it’s really good enough,” he added.
You don’t have to write explicitly political lyrics to make an impact, Moss claims; if you’re playing fundraisers and using your platform to make a stand, then you’re already doing better than most. He and pal Tatum from the band Open Fly have even tried to create a “strike fund” for bands “to be able to boycott festivals” that don’t align with their morals. It’s not easy existing in a climate where so many of the crutches needed to get by in the music industry aren’t stable, so if the band can help contribute to a more ethical scene, then they’ll give it their best shot.
“Songs don’t always have to be about politics, like directly,” Moss says, but even so, everything ends up harking back to the intrinsic political failures of the government and how it affects its citizens in some way or another. Take, for example, the “detrimental” privatisation of trains, which Moss claims inspired him to write about how this has “personally affected” him, making it harder for him to afford visits to his grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
With their new single, ‘No Country Is An Island’, the band deliver a frenetic attack on the “demonisation of migrants”, led by a groove-laden bassline and some rather impatient drums. There’s an urgency to the guitars, with a satisfying instrumental release coming towards the end that feels like one great expulsion of anger and dissatisfaction. Moss tells me, “It’s just about the inhumanity of it. It just feels like people, migrants and refugees, have to prove their humanity to people to be treated with the same rights as an English person by the public and by the state.”
There’s a personal edge to the song, too, with Moss drawing on his own family’s Romani heritage, who changed their last name. “I guess I was just thinking about that and how they changed their name, and people lose their whole history and identity because they want to assimilate. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for migration.”
With more music on the horizon, including some trip-hop-inspired cuts influenced by a love of DJ Shadow, it seems like Holly Head are set on keeping things unpredictable. By mixing the fierce energy of punk with a groovier edge, all recorded with a certain roughness and grit that conveys a sense of dogged determination, the Manchester band have already carved out a pretty promising path for themselves. You can’t ignore the noise they’re making, even less can you ignore what Moss is singing about.
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