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
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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".
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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.
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.
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.
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?
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photo credit: @ebonyalexandermedia
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