HOLDEN MCRAE IS LEARNING TO WATER HIS OWN GARDEN
Holden McRae is reveling in excitement following the release of his EP “Superglue”, in anticipation for the music he has on the way, but above all because he didn’t sleep last night. Most nights he barely sleeps at all. You can often find him up at all hours of the night spewing songs straight from life.
His freshman EP is just that – fresh. McRae isn’t new to music. He’s planted his feet in the world of songwriting and with the help of producer and collaborator Truman Sinclair, he is becoming more comfortable facilitating his stories sonically.
“I am so passionate about lyric writing and want to keep improving on my melody writing. So often when I'm in the room with other people, I will be more receptive to hearing melodic ideas, because I know that that's not necessarily my strong suit,” explains McRae. “So I think I collaborate best with people who are mostly melody writers and each of us playing to our strengths and knowing ‘I’m kind of going to take the back seat in terms of writing.’”
In the lane of songwriting, however, McRae is like no other. From crying-in-the-supermarket level sad (definitely not a personal experience) track “Shelf Life”, a detail of the expiration date of all good things in life, to “Garden” a Disaster favorite track about needing someone almost as much as swimming pools need water, McRae hits hard and swiftly right to the heart.
On “Superglue” McRae quite evidently goes through the five stage of Relationship Grief (Trademark Pending) finally taking his lessons and applying them to the relationship he is happily stumbling into.
“One thing I like doing in songwriting is taking a feeling that you may have experienced before and kind of expanding on it and kind of taking it to lengths that you may not have actually experienced it in,” he explains of his songwriting tactics. “My most genuine songs I would say either ‘Shelf Life’ or ‘Never The Problem’. Well that's tough, ‘Superglue’ and ‘Garden’ are also so true. So how I was feeling in the moment, but genuine, I'll just say never the problem because I wrote that song literally at 5 AM after like the morning after a breakup that happened that night, the previous day.”
Although he’s found it difficult to stay sane and keep a solid day to day schedule as a creative coming out of college, there’s always been one constant in his life. It’s evident after speaking with him for just a short amount of time.
You can hear it in the way he talks (never failing to mention a good day spent with his siblings or girlfriend), feel it through his phone leaning against a piano in Los Angeles house he grew up in and see it on his body, adorned with the words of his sister, and fellow musician Jensen McRae.
“MAKE YOU PROUD” reads his right bicep, a lyric of his sister’s song of the same title. The song, a letter of intent to her younger self, takes on an extra special meaning to him. Mcrae’s goals for his music are to express himself, take accountability but above all: Make Her Proud.