[Cover photo credit to Elizabeth Ibarra]
Upstate New York-based Folk artist Holland Belle has released “What’s Best For You”, the latest single her debut solo album, Bird Song out May 13th, 2022. The song has a message of seeking “neutrality instead of control”.
Belle comments:
‘What’s Best For You’ asks the question: What if you loved another person for who they were instead of who you dreamed they would become? And if you figured it out, could you turn the mirror and do the same for yourself?
Recorded at Basement Floods Records analog recording studio in Catskill, NY and produced by Dante Bardo, the album seeks to “transform uncertainty into songs of optimism and strength”.
For Holland Belle, the voice has always been an evolving instrument, having trained since childhood to become an opera singer. As an adult, she’s adopted “various vocal selves”, molding them based on whatever the music asked for. She co-founded and fronted Dream Pop band Nightjacket in LA before focusing on her solo work which entailed a move to New York.
The catalyst for this collection of songs came from a morning in Berlin, Germany where on a branch outside her bedroom window, a goldfinch began to sing. She transformed the bird’s melody into a larger song, which was later split in two to form the album’s title tracks, along with a message of perseverance.
Belle also invited friends Jonathan Talbot (strings) and Wesley Harper (additional keys) onto the record, while mixing engineer Andy Baldwin (Bjork, St Lucia, Haerts) helped to piece together Bird Song’s sonic universe.
