Old Crows Promotions: Goth Fight Cage

Well, it's been a minute. As I'm sure many were, this blog was started during lock down with the intention of helping to keep bands in the eye and consciousness of the now entrapped gig goer. And, again, as I'm sure was similar to many, many blogs. As things opened up again and life returned to normal blogs, online streams and YouTube channels of cover songs started to fall by the way side and dry up. Well, I've decided to resurrect the blog once again, it seems there are more and more inspiring musicians and bands now than ever before. First up for this resurrection edition is Goth Fight Cage.

Goth Fight Cage is not the latest money spinner spewed forth from UFC head honcho Dana White. Rather, Goth Fight Cage is the new solo project from Mark Holloway which despite the playful monicker is a project that acts as cathartic vehicle and outlet for Marks creative impulses. New single ‘Optimism’ is a wry slice of indie rock that cries the question ‘where is all my optimism’?

With Mark as the sole member right at the core of Goth Fight Cage is a strong DIY ethic. Writing, recording, producing and engineering each track while simultaneously being the creative force behind videos, photos and artwork all comes from Mark. This makes Goth Fight Cage an intensely personal project. Recorded in practice rooms abusing long suffering amps, whispering vocal ideas in bedrooms at 5am, hiding from the imminent sunlight and using whatever mic he could lay his hands on all while trying not to wake the neighbours.

Mark sat down with me to spill on all things Goth Fight Cage

Photo credit: @ebonyalexandermedia

What was the impetus for starting goth fight cage?

Goth Fight Cage is a way for me to put out whatever I want whenever I want. I've been working on music for a decent few years now and like most musicians out there, I find myself sitting on tons and tons of ideas and demos. I really love the satisfaction I get from finishing something and putting it out there, so GFC is a way for me to work on my songwriting chops, try make a dent in the back catalogue and to just try and have a bit of fun with whatever I'm working on.

GFC seems like a very personal project as essentially you’re a one-man band, is the DIY ethic important to you, how much does that inform the look and sound of GFC?

It is definitely a personal thing with these songs being all me, though in certain ways the DIY thing is more of a means to an end. I enjoy messing with songs in general and I'm always keen to see what I can do just by myself. That being said, aesthetically, all the songs are being recorded in my bedroom or the occasional practice space with whatever gear I have on hand, and I kind of really like it - don't get me wrong, big crisp guitar sounds recorded in a studio by somebody who knows what they're doing are great, but I really think there's a charm to using shitty mics to annoy my neighbours and record the little long suffering amp in my room.

On the visual end of things, I think I must have a metric fuck ton of pictures and bits of art I've made over the years that I've thought at the time would be cool album artwork - now I can actually use them! I guess overall, the suppressed dad instinct in me wants to be able to put something out and be able to point at it and go, "see that there son, I did that".

Can you tell us about optimism; how did the song come about, the song seems to speak to a listlessness and emptiness lyrically what’s the inspiration behind it?

Optimism started as a mess around with surfy sounding guitar tones and a slap delay sound, next thing I know it's 4am and I'm adding fuzz bass and whisper singing vocal ideas. It was also a different way of writing for me, and I had a lot of fun with it! The words are for the most part about a notion I have from time to time. I remember an old friend described me once as "happy-go-lucky", and I remember that sometimes and wonder to myself 'well what the hell happened?' There's of course nods in there to different times in my life since where that notion was really prevalent too.

You write, record and mix all the music yourself are the any benefits or challenges you’ve encountered during this process; do you miss any input from anyone else or does it streamline the process?

This actually feels like a pretty natural extension to what I've been doing already. I've been making crappy little recordings since I started learning about recording, which led to some more concrete demos, which eventually led to "huh wouldn't it be funny it I just put this out?" - and then I did.

It definitely has its limitations though, I feel sometimes that I might be the most indecisive man in Ireland and here I haven't got anybody to bounce ideas off of or be like "yeah Mark that's shit, do something else". So, it's definitely easy to get caught up on minute details that probably don't matter. But like I said, a big part of all this is to keep learning and to keep the songwriting chops up, so yeah doing it by myself has its limitations but it keeps it interesting. Plus, who's to say down the line I won't take a notion to get some more folks involved?

Who or what is a goth fight cage, where does the name come from, why did you go with that name do you think it allows you to do whatever you want under that name, do you think people will have a preconceived notion of what the music will sound like because of the name?

I AM THE GOTH FIGHT CAGE (kind of, not really, nevermind).

Okay so story time, I had been out for a few drinks as a young man is often prone to do, and after getting home and getting the kettle on in a vain attempt to dodge the inevitable hangover, I stuck this long ass YouTube video on to try and fall asleep to. It was of this group of guys that go around vlogging festivals that I used to follow. I have this hazy memory of one of the boys in the video telling this story about a festival back in 2011 maybe? Reading or Leeds or something, where whatever band playing was so shit that the crowd allegedly got bored and stole a load of the wire mesh security fences, brought them into the centre of the crowd, set up a ring and 'made the emos fight'. Now I cannot for the life of me find the video in question and I don't know if I'm even remembering the story 100% (I like my version anyway) but the mental image of that whole scenario, true or not, cracked me the hell up and the next day 'Goth Fight Cage' had appeared scribbled in one of my notebooks.

I don't think the name is going to make anybody think I'm a goth band, if anything it probably sounds kinda goofy, but I'm kinda goofy anyway so I guess that's okay. Plus, when you Google it the only thing that comes up are Nick Cage memes...

Can you tell us about the video for Optimism, who shot it where was it shot, where did the idea for it stem from?

The Optimism video is its whole own story, it was shot by a friend of mine and fellow denizen of the greater Newry area, Con Coulter (Cloakroom Q.) as a favour. I had worked with him before on a live session for Fagash McCann and had a blast. We originally had this plan where I would get dolled up in a big yellow suit and just drive around Belfast and mess around, there was even gonna be my shitty little Peugeot and a beach involved, it was a whole thing. Long story short the universe conspired against us, all our plans fell through, and I was left with just the suit, so we ended up improvising and shooting the whole thing at this dingy student house. And it was a hell of a lot of fun!

You’re probably best known for your bass and drums duo Fagash McCann how does GFC differ from your other project?

Fagash is the lovechild of me and my favourite hot muscly drum man good friend Conall Stott, and most of the songs in that camp are written live in a practice room or a garage somewhere with that bass and drum lineup and tend to lean more to the heavy end of things. But life gets in the way as it often does with bands, and I like to keep busy in the meantime. I've always messed around with ideas outside of the bass and drums format and a lot of those ideas I'd like to make into songs, so here we are. Not to say that Fagash will never deviate, and there's definitely gonna be some fuzzy bass in GFC's future, but for now I think the two projects are fairly distinct from one another.

There was a precious EP released, can you tell us a little about that and does optimism represent a step forward or just exploring new territory?

So, I mentioned that before GFC, I was just making demos and recording ideas, and some of those ideas I felt were good enough to throw out into the void to see if they would on the off chance get any attention. I put together the As If I'd Forget EP and released them under "Holloway" and some people actually seemed to like it, which was nice. By the time I realised that I really wanted to do more self-releases like that I had also noticed that there are a lot of Holloway's on Spotify, so I figured if I was going to take this seriously, I'd need a name that stood out and thus GFC was born.

Can you tell us about what’s next for GFC?

Optimism releases with a B-side cover of Freaks by Surf Curse, which will be cool. I'm sitting on a few other things in the same vein as Optimism that I'd like to get out before the end of the year too. After that I've got a few schemes but I'm keeping them on the DL for now. Live act? Who knows? Tin whistle jazz album? Maybe? Something recorded in a 2000 Peugeot 106 hatchback? Probably. I am excited though whatever I end up doing.