The Band

 

The idea to form the band Holly May was born in the early part of 2000. At that time the band consisted of

Sushila Mesquita (drums),
Lisa Wawrusch (bass),
Katrin Artner (guitar, vocals) and
Tanja Frinta (guitar, vocals).


In March 2001 Holly May recorded an EP titled "Where are the brilliant Ballerinas?" in Umea/ Sweden. After the recording was done Holly May were quite busy playing shows in Austria.

Katrin Artner made the decision to leave the band in summer 2002. Nevertheless, the other three women returned to the studio for a second time in the fall of 2002 to record their new full - length album, "Time ticks by and there you are".

 

Lisa
more about lisa
(English)

Photos by
Sabine Schwaighofer

 

Currently

 

I'm so glad our first full-length CD is finally ready! It is called "time ticks by and there you are" and will be presented on the 19th of December 2002, in the club the B72 in Vienna. We currently don't have a tour schedule for after the CD release - except for a women only show at the FZ-bar in Vienna on New Year's Eve. (We are all pretty busy doing university exams and stuff nowadays but hopefully this will be over soon and we can go on a small tour in spring- we'll keep you updated on that.

Updates

In the beginning of May we supported Le Tigre at their two gigs in Austria. For me, this (to open for Le Tigre) was one of the greatest things ever, because I have like Le Tigre so much and I'm really amazed by the way they manage to bring together both feminist theory & practice. It was especially their Vienna show that rocked and I think this and after Ladyfest 2000 were the only occasions I could tell even a week later who had been at the Le Tigre concerts just by how people walked around smiling but with their fists clenched.

After these great experiences we had to deal with some really annoying stuff around our new recording. Paper stress.

But, by the end of June we were happy again and ready for our "big and glamorous tour of Germany"- no, just kidding. We actually had to ride the train to Hamburg to perform at "come queer festival" at the Rote Flora as part of the Queerstreetdays. However, the fucking train ride (I think it was something like 14 hours with hoards of totally annoying boy scouts) was really worth it! We met a lot of great new people as well as ran into some old friends and Hamburg is just a great city (well, to be honest we've only been to St. Pauli- FC St. Pauli rules!). And to be part of an event like the Queerstreetdays is amazing anyway...

In the middle of July we went to Nurnberg for part two of our "big tour". Evi, part of the Flamingo Massacres, one of my favorite bands that, unfortunately, split up last summer, invited us to perform at the Pop!Harbor Festival. We had so much fun there and it was great meeting Evi and Lari again (I hope that they will soon be playing music together again!)

Then there was another truly fucked up thing: Katrin left the band. The rest of us gathered together and after long discussions, we decided not to give up but go to the studio again. Well...I guess that's were I started....

Kisses Sushi

 

Sushi's Studio Impressions

 

I have to say that I'm quite sad about the fact that our fist couple of days in the studio are already over. It's similar to how the studio time in Sweden during our recording of "Where Are The Brilliant Ballerinas?" was.

We have again jumped into such a comfortable routine. We begin each day at the early hour of 10 AM (an hour when you would normally not see our faces in public) and we work hrough to about 8 PM. This can be very intense, and if I have to say, we, astoundingly, haven't had a time when we have fought or really even gotten on each other's nerves. ---Well actually...when I'm really honest, Lisa is the only one getting on our nerves and only with her camera. She makes us stand still and look over our shoulders and then we have to hold it and wait at least 20 seconds for the flash.

Overall, Lisa and I have not had too much to do at this point except some small parts to play and so on. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will have a cellist joining us.

I have taken a vow not to smoke so that when I play the Melodia (the crazy little mouth piano that I have to blow endlessly into) I won¹t have to have to be put into an oxygen tent. All the while Christoph and Tanja are doing the really hard work together, which leaves Lisa and I plenty of time to play Foosball and to talk about stupid stuff.

It's really fucking great to hear the new songs. There is such a different sound in the studio than in out rehearsal room at EKH. I am so excited about the mixing process and of course about producing a finished CD.

Kisses Sushi


Me ...

 


Tanja ...

 


Christoph ...

Tanja working hard...


Lisa and me also "working hard"...