A Conversation with Holly Williams (continued)

PM: It sounds from your songs in this first record that the most important things to you are your friends and relationships. Is that accurate?

HW: Yeah. I'm just kind of a simple person like that. For me, I love to write about relationships, not necessarily boyfriend or love or anything, but of any kind, family, friends, or any kind of situation. I tend to always write about emotions and just--

PM: And people.

HW: And the human heart. I'm always writing about that. So to me it's never been the thing of "I want to have this single." I never want to be at a concert where people are waiting for one song. I want to be an artist where people come to hear every song--not just the one they hear on the radio, but they really get into the album. Because any time I write a lot of songs together, I feel like they all kind of fit for that one thing. You know?

PM: Absolutely.

HW: I really like to make more of a statement record.

PM: Well, what would you say about this:  What kind of a friend are you, and what do you look for from a friend?

HW: I'm one of those people that--I kind of have the friend who you can get drunk with, and the friend who you cry with, and the friend who has your humor, and sort of one of everything. It's always about finding people who have the most of one thing, so kind of whatever mood you're in, you go down your list of people and decide who you want to--

[laughter]

PM: I need this, therefore I call "X."

HW: Exactly. I just try to be compatible. I mean, like this past weekend I was in Missouri catching chickens and feeding baby goats. And then I'll go spend a week in L.A. I can very easily adjust to any kind of situation.

PM: Uptown, downtown, right.

HW: I'm just fascinated by that. So I have friends from all walks, from being in the music business, and through my family, and then just being a normal kid at Brentwood Academy and going to high school in Brentwood, and doing that whole thing.

PM: Yeah.

HW: So for me it's all about having a variety. But it's all about a trust and honesty thing. A lot of my friends, I've known them for five years or more, and just having people that you knew when you were a kid, so nothing changes your relationship, no matter what happens to you or where you go or anything.

PM: What songwriters are you gravitating toward, or who do you find nourishing or inspiring?

HW: I usually have the same people. But to me, always, the most inspiring, Tom Waits I adore.

PM: Wow.

HW: I love and adore him. Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith, Jackson Browne, Neil Young.

PM: How interesting.

HW: Nick Drake, Robert Johnson.

PM: You're really surprising.

HW: I'm one of those people who knows every song of theirs and has everything, one of the few people that just--you know, once I find them I buy everything. On the female side, I love Joni Mitchell, love Patty Griffin, Laura Nyro.

PM: You rarely hear people credit Laura Nyro as an inspiration these days. And that's a beautiful thing to hear.

HW: Uh-huh.

PM: I love her music.

HW: Yeah, me, too. It was just so raw, and lyrically, I mean, I think she's amazing.

PM: You're a very surprising person.

HW: [laughs] And it's funny, because back before I played guitar--I started playing when I was 17--I listened to your straightforward top 40. I knew who Tupac and Skynryd were, and Jewel. I mean, I didn't know anything besides what I heard on top 40.

PM: Wow.

HW: So when I started playing guitar, I became totally fascinated by this whole other world. And I remember sitting at night on Amazon.com, and typing in a name like Dylan, and then finding Blind Willie McTell, or finding Son House, and just searching, searching, searching through so many people. And I found Tom Waits through Sarah McLachlan, of all people.

PM: Really.

HW: Which is really random, because she's totally a modern artist. And she covered "Ol '55" and I went out and bought everything.   continue

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