Holly Holden launches her new EP ‘Tropical Soul’ at SJQ.

Holly Holden is a singer from London. She spent her teenage years in Cornwall by the sea and much of her twenties in Bristol and Berlin. Her sound has been shaped by many years of travel, study and musical collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean – Cuba, Ecuador, Colombia, Dominican Republic – blending blending bitter-sweet pop tunes with Caribbean rhythms in a fusion she calls Tropical Soul.

Inspired by language, Holly often combines English and Spanish in her lyrics, so that her songs are spaces where anything goes, where nothing is pure and which make sense in many different contexts. They’re familiar and exotic all at once, bitter-sweet, upbeat yet melancholy, memories of warmth written in the cold winter, sunshine in the night time.

‘Tropical Soul’ is about feeling the freedom to exist in the moment, to live and love as you like. In a time when there’s so much talk of building walls, it celebrates music as a borderless, timeless, liberating force, powerful in its universality.

For Holly music is a passport that means she’s at home wherever she goes. In 2012 Holly formed ‘X Planet’, a collaborative project with Cuban rapper Alayo Style. Their album Xistence, recorded in Santiago de Cuba with reggaeton producer Kiki Pro, was well received in Cuba and London. The following summer Holly toured throughout Europe with dubstep producer Mala as a vocalist in live performances of his ‘Mala in Cuba’ album at festivals including WOMAD, Worldwide Festival, North Sea Jazz and Fiesta des Suds.

Since joining forces with guitarist Frank Clarke and drummer David Beauchamp in 2014, ’Holly Holden y Su Banda’ have performed at venues across London and at international Jazz festivals in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Having recently signed to international booking agents Diplomats of Sound they already have a number of festival appearances lined up for Summer including Secret Garden Party, Boomtown and Greenman. Their home recorded, self produced EP ‘Tropical Soul’ is set for release on 9th April 2017.

Aside from her solo project Holly is also a member of all female vocal group Deep Throat Choir who released their debut album ‘Be OK’ on Bella Union in Spring 2017 and Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, whose headline UK tour she will be supporting in March 2017.