Interview: Holy Wire discuss new track Someday or Never

Today, Holy Wire released their track “Someday or Never”. The electropop, new wave inspired ballad rings hopeful. Tinged with influences of LCD Soundsystem, Alain Paradis uplifts New York’s indie sleaze era in a new setting. We sat down with Alain Paradis and Misti Hamrick-French to discuss “Someday or Never”, New York, and collaborating with God.

Me: How did Holy Wire start?

Paradis: It started seven years ago. I had a solo project called Order of Operations. It was dormant for five or six years. The pandemic started, and I had always meant to go back to it. I had been writing stuff before that, and then I hit this point where I had enough material to make an album. I moved to Austin and it was time for a rebrand. I changed the name and started over. Most of the songs were all me.

Me: What type of music would you characterize Holy Wire as?

Paradis: I generally say post-punk.

Misti: I say electropop.

Paradis: Every now and then, it steers a little dark. Goth adjacent maybe.

Me: Were there elements from your band Order of Operation that you brought into Holy Wire?

Paradis: Yeah, definitely! There were a couple songs I never released with that project that became songs for Holy Wire. There were two songs that got carried over. When I was working on the recordings, in what is eventually going to culminate in an album, I was working with Abe Seiferth who worked with Nation of Language’s album “Introduction, Presence”. He added a couple things, added a bass guitar to it, which shaped the rest of the recordings. It started to become something new and started to become Holy Wire.

Me: You moved down to Austin from New York. Were there elements from New York you were hoping to bring down to Austin?

Paradis: With the whole “Meet Me in the Bathroom” indie sleaze thing, New York is casting a shadow over everything. I didn’t have my finger on the pulse at that point because I was 21, but I love LCD Soundsystem. The capture tracks, the local post-punk bands I was seeing when I was playing around in Brooklyn: Gustaf, Bodega, Future Punx, B Boys, Operator Music Band. There’s a lot of cool post-punk music that made me want to push it into the realm with more guitar and more bass. More of an edge rather than sparkly, metallic disco.

Me: You have an electropop, synth feel on “Someday or Never” like Sylvan Esso. What type of equipment was used?

Paradis: There’s some staples on that one. Roland HS60 which is the same as the Juno 106. I used the Arturia DrumBrute because it has the FM drum on it. I just love that FM drum modulating. The different parts of that sound. I was also trying to do songs with live takes rather than making a loop and repeating it over and over. Doing a full take through the entire song. Manipulating the frequency knobs.

Me: Was “Someday or Never” a solo project? Is Holy Wire a solo project?

Paradis: It started off as a solo project.

Hamrick-French: Now, it’s this. [Gesturing towards Paradis and herself]

Paradis: It’s developing.

Hamrick-French: It doesn’t mean this will be the end of it. It could be a whole evolution. There could be twenty people. Who knows?

Paradis: That does have an LCD Soundsystem type vibe. Twenty people on stage, everything is performed live.

Hamrick-French: Scheduling is the issue.

Paradis: If God forbid we blow up, that’s a conversation for another point in time.

Me: How do you think collaborating with each other affected the track? What do you think y’all gained from it?

Hamrick-French: “What do you think you gained from me playing bass on it,” is the question. He already started “Someday or Never”. It was already in production. I came in the middle of it.

Paradis: A lot of the material was already recorded. It was a matter of us working together to get the tone right and to get the recording. I’m tinkering with writing a lot of new stuff now. Us playing together is shaping how I’m writing stuff. We’ll see what the future brings.

Me: I guess you’ve touched on this, but what were some of your influences?

Hamrick-French: What’s the difference you’ve seen between the Austin music scene and the New York music scene? You had your other band in New York and had it started. They’re so far from each other.

Paradis: In the Austin music scene, I’ve been doing a lot better, but also I’ve written all this new music, I’ve worked with a great producer, I have a new mastering engineer, and I got my social media game together. I have a strategy on releasing stuff. I’ve been going out on the scene. It’s hard to say exactly.

 

Hamrick-French: I was curious if you had an experience that was different in scene. I don’t know the New York scene. At all. I wouldn’t know how to start over. 

Paradis: There’s definitely a difference. [In Austin], people just wander into your gig. “Hey, I just came to check it out.” They weren’t there to come and see your band. They were just out to go out and see live music. In New York, it’s a battle for height. You have to have some of that to get people in the room. There weren’t that many venues where the bar is part of the venue. It would be in a backroom. It’s easier to get people out. People are a little more self-aware in New York. People don’t move as much. Not as much dancing. And even in New York, people complain about this.

Hamrick-French: Who has the best electronic scene? Do you think Austin is on the cusp of having an electronic scene?

Paradis: I left in the middle of a pandemic. It’s hard to gauge because everything was done. Now I see bands coming through Austin, like during SXSW, that are making cool, interesting shit. There’s a lot of old bands here. We’re going on tour with Don’t Get Lemon. I also work with a producer that works with a lot of great electronic stuff in New York. That’s part of his wheelhouse. I might be too much of a coward to draw a line in the sand.

Me: Do you have anybody you would like to work with in the future?

Paradis: It would be really cool to work with Crash Course in Science, Robert ​​Görl from DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft). I don’t know if they collaborate with anyone.

Me: It’s hypothetical.

Hamrick-French: God. I want to work with whatever God is. The energy of what energy is. It can be any spiritual being.

Paradis: I finally got the answer to the question “What if God was one of us?”

Hamrick-French: Next Holy Wire cover: “What if God Was One of Us?” featuring God.

Me: Alright, this is the last question. What is your favorite venue in Austin?

Paradis: I go to Hotel Vegas all the time.

You can find “Someday or Never” on Spotify and YouTube. Recommended if you like LCD Soundsystem, Sylvan Esso, post-punk, and new wave.