When you listen to the chilled-out, melancholy, atmospheric self-titled Sollomon Hollow record, you can imagine a young man sitting alone in his room, lost in his head, lost in the lush layers of instruments that he’s laying down. It’s easy to picture, because that’s precisely how it came together.
At the time, Austin Sides was playing in other bands and wanted to record an album just for himself. “Looking back, it kind of sounds a little bit sad,” Sides says. “I wasn’t necessarily bummed out, I just wanted to make something that I could chill to more than the bands that I was listening to at the time.”
Since putting this little lo-fi indie gem out in mid-2017, Sollomon Hollow has become a three-piece band that gigs and even has a full-band EP coming out in the very near future, featuring four songs that the group recorded at a friend’s recording studio in Seattle.
“Playing shows changed the direction we were going a little bit. It’s more fun to play upbeat things that the crowd can jam out to,” says bassist and vocalist Megan Dodelé.
It was a natural extension of the energy the group created together, even though the songs are still primarily written by Sides. It’s not just the chemistry of the band, which also includes drummer Nick Leone. The more the group played live, the more they could see how their music was affecting the audience and how audiences were feeding their energy back.
“We like to play fun shows. We don’t like to stand around and play chill music,” Sides says. “We do mosh pits and stuff like that. It would be hard to do that if we were only doing really relaxed stuff. I think the music has changed for that, too.”
INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, March 8. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $7. 429-6994.
