Award-winning vocalist, Jess Holland, is a true country girl at heart. Highly proficient on a variety of different instruments, the native of Mudgee, a small town in the Central-Western region of New South Wales - a town of about 7,000 inhabitants - was something of a child prodigy when it came to music, teaching herself to play the piano at the age of three and playing in a group for the first time six years later.
"It’s a little country town, but really it’s very musical," reveals the young lady in question, in her strong Aussie tones, providing a little bit more information about her delightfully-named hometown. "We're very lucky there because there’s great venues and quite a few musicians in the area, so it’s a great area to grow up in."
Jess Holland: Musical Roots
"I’m from a very musical family," continues the 2011 Voice of Urban Country and the semi-finalist in the Toyota Star Maker Talent Competition (also in 2011). "Both sides of my family are very musical, so it was a very natural progression for me to move into songwriting and singing.
"I’ve always mucked around and written my own little songs, but I’ve only taken it seriously in the last six years or so, when I was in a band called McGee and we were writing songs for an EP. I had quite a few ideas up my sleeve and I’d been writing bits and pieces before that."
Suite101: And your grandfather was in a famous band, wasn't he?
"Yeah, he was in a bush band called The Stringybark Band and they were quite well-known around the Central-Western New South Wales area. They would go around and tour and play at festivals and that sort of thing in and around New South Wales. So my grandfather was very musical and I guess he passed that down to the rest of us."
Jess Holland: On Her Way
Suite101: Was there ever a moment when you specifically decided you wanted to play music for a living or did you end up just doing it?
"Yeah, that’s pretty well right. It was very, very natural for me to be playing music because I was exposed to it and was around it and played it for as long as I can remember.
"But I guess the really defining moment for me was when I was chosen as a Top 20 finalist for Star Maker. I was like, 'Well, yes I could definitely handle doing this for a living'.
"Before that, I enjoyed playing music in public and would play at bars and at clubs and all that sort of thing and it was more of a weekend pastime, rather than a full-time career, but I’m definitely on the road now."
Jess Holland: "Straight Up and Down"
An impressive showing in the prestigious talent contests mentioned above allowed the talented twenty-something to finally release her acclaimed debut album, Introducing Jess Holland, in November last year.
"I wrote them all myself," says the singer with a set of pipes that, in terms of sheer power, could justifiably be compared to those of Janis Joplin, referring to the 10 outstanding tracks on the CD, "and so I’m very proud of it, very proud of it indeed."
Suite101: Which songs on the record particularly stand out for you?
"Oh look, one of my favourites is definitely Iddy Biddy Pride, which is track number one – just because it’s such a very strong ballsy sort of song and that’s who I consider myself to be. It’s very straight up and down and that’s what I was trying to do. That’s definitely one of my favourites."
Jess Holland: My Kinda Town
A simple-yet-effective black and white video for the album's lead-off single, My Kinda Town, shot entirely in Mungindi - a sparsely-populated parish even smaller than Mudgee and the place that Ms. Holland now calls home - is currently available to view on You Tube, though this very entertaining slice of rural realism is not the official version.
"Some of the video is shot in Mungindi, but the majority of it is actually shot around Toowoomba, which is very exciting," explains Jess, referring to the soon-to-be-released official version. "The black and white one is not the official one, that’s the one I did for the demo, but the official film will be out at the start of February."
"Mungindi, yeah," she repeats, correcting my shocking mispronunciation of the word (it's pronounced 'Mun-gin-dye', I'm quickly informed) confirming that the song is in fact about the town situated on the North South Wales/Queensland border ("If you look at a map, it’s where the straight line meets the wavy line"). I apologise for my error.
"No, that’s alright - it’s a very common mistake. Yeah, My Kinda Town is the first release off my new album and I wrote this a little while ago when I initially moved to Mungindi. It's only a very small community – about six or eight hundred people.
"The community there is so great, though - very supportive, great people and like a lot of communities in small towns. So I wanted to write something about Mungindi that could relate to everyone else."
A Good Introduction to Jess Holland
As touched upon earlier, the future star, who was described by Australian recording artist, Mike McClellan, as having a voice that could "peel paint of walls," formed a rock band called McGee while still in High School, a worthwhile venture that met with some success.
"The original band was actually an all-girl band and we weren’t called McGee at that time, but we evolved into McGee and that was the following year. We still perform together when I go back to Mudgee and quite regularly actually."
Suite101: So would you say your biggest influences have been country and rock artists?
"Yeah, absolutely. My predominant listening was definitely country music because that’s what I was exposed to through my parents. I grew up listening to Slim Dusty and Johnny Cash... Dolly Parton, but then also I would be exposed to artists such as Cat Stevens and Neil Diamond and that sort of thing, so quite a variety of music and that’s where I am leading to now
"I consider my style to be country rock. I love my rock ‘n’ roll, but I’ve always loved my country music – that’s what I grew up with, so the style itself is definitely country music and being 10 tracks of my own music, it’s really a jigsaw puzzle of my life – it gives everyone a good idea of who Jess Holland is."
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
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