holly mae & the painted room

May shows

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:07:55 +0000

Our next two shows are in this moody May. This coming Thursday, May 10th, 2012, at Schokoladen in Mitte (U8 Rosenthaler Platz) with Blue on Blue (UK). Then at the end of the month, we will play a leise set on Monday, May 28th, at Valentin Stueberl in Neukoelln (U7 Rathaus Neukoellen) with Ned Collette.

Sofa Salon

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:30:35 +0000

On Friday, April 27th Holly Mae performed solo at Sofa Salon with the achingly winsome Susanna Berivan. We were featured in a beautiful review by Oliver Peel! Event organizer and musician Sam Wareing is coming out with her album soon, too.

Interview with Florian Duijsens

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:15:01 +0000

Florian Duijsens interviews Holly Mae & the Painted Room

History

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:47:49 +0000

Holly Mae first performed in 1995 at the Living Room in Isla Vista, California, under the name La Sullen Teen, an acoustic riot grrrl act.

Holly Mae’s first folk band was called the Interludes. San Francisco, 2006. Ken Lee, Sami Jo Buffington, Jamie Fordyce, and Adam Cimino.

Holly Mae & the Painted Room was formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 2007. Merilee Phillips, Michael Billmire, Mary Fraser and Serge Van der Voo. Michael Billmire did all of the recording and producing on the albums Lake of States (2008) and Turns of Phrase (2009).

Holly Mae moved to Berlin, Germany end of 2009. She kept the name and the identity of the project as being based on her own lyrics and music but arising from the musical contributions of others. Berlin members have included Sarah Morris and Molly Morgan. In its current format, the band is Holly Mae Haddock (guitar, lyrics & vocals), Sara Kwon (bass & vocals) and Kathy Kwon (keyboards & vocals). The three compose together using Holly’s songs as a starting point.

Painted rooms are bonnie

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:40:47 +0000

The old folk song “I Know Where I am Going,” includes the following lyric:
Feather beds are soft/
And painted rooms are bonnie/
But I would give them all/
For my handsome winsome Johnny.
Holly Mae heard a version of the traditional ballad by Barbara Dane and felt that the image of a painted room fit the project, which, as a unique, warm space of co-created sounds, is also a bonnie and luxurious thing.

Bob Dylan Covers

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:33:00 +0000

Holly Mae loves Bob Dylan and would want to go back in time and marry him and have his children if that weren’t so infeasible. As a compromise, she has been recording a few covers at home. Let’s see how long before GEMA makes us take it down.

Bob Dylan’s “One too many mornings”

Bob Dylan’s “Mama, you’ve been on my mind”

Holly Mae is currently convincing the band to cover Queen Jane.

Friends

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:55:38 +0000

We have so many bands that we admire. Recently, we went to see the Berlin phenomenon Fenster play at Marie Antoinette, to celebrate their album Bones being released on Morr Music. Another reason we were thrilled to attend was that our very own Sara Kwon is in a new band called Cape, and they were amazing as the opening act.

Marie Antoinette is a beautiful new venue looking out on the Spree. It is linked to our own favorite, Madame Claude.

Press

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:45:32 +0000

We are assembling a bit of press information. In a December 2011 issue of Berliner Zeitung, the band’s album I Am Dark Sided (2011, produced by the musicians Eliza Hiscox and Alex Park) was recommended as one of the best debut albums of 2011 and described it as “elegisch, abgeklaert, weit gereist und erdenschwer.” Thank you, Harald Jaehner at Berliner Zeitung, for the kind words.

Our Next Album

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:40:03 +0000

The Painted Room is hiring! We are looking for a producer and creative partner to record and arrange our next album with us. We’d like to take it beyond a record of “who we are right now” and into the realm of co-creating a piece of art. We have new material and also may want to re-do older material which has existed, until now, in more of a demo format. We are looking for a someone who can help us make a sound which is starry, spacious, golden, and dirty. Hit us up if you have some ideas.

Madame Claude on Friday, March 30th, 2012

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:54:03 +0000

The Painted Room is delighted to perform next at Madame Claude, in Kreuzberg. Located between Goerlitzer Bahnhof and Schlesiches Tor at Lübbener Straße 19, Madame Claude has our vote as Berlin’s best venue for small acts. Run by a charming pack of Frenchmen, the place features a separate basement space for performing, and offers an array of ultra-competent and friendly sound guys to help performers sound perfect for the room. We are always super happy to play in such a pro-musician space.

Performing the same evening will be another Berlin fixture, the Great Park, whose husky, lyrics-driven point of view is definitely worth investigating.

The concert is slotted to start at 21:00, on Friday, March 30th, 2012 at Madame Claude