Holiday Blue plays for themselves

There are a lot of bands in Boulder looking for a break — trying to sign a record or tour outside the state — but Holiday Blue is content to chill here. The three-piece folk rock group, made up of Lesley Hermann on stand-up bass, Molly Allendorf on viola, and Pace Goodman on guitar, is recording an album on at home and have been playing gigs in the area since late July of 2011. This Friday, they’ll be at the Laughing Goat, so we sat down with Goodman to see how things are going.

So what’s the band up to lately?

We haven’t really been together that long. We started off as a fun silly project. The more we played out, the more we wanted to get some recordings together. We’re in the middle of a home recorded kind of album, doing it all ourselves, playing out in Boulder, and trying to find venues to play to regularly, with an interesting, good crowd. And we’re trying to expand to Denver, Fort Collins, Golden.

How did the “silly project” get going?

I played funk music most of my time out here. I played with Pamlico Sound. I played the Fox and Bluebird Theater with them and I decided on my own — I wrote blues and folk songs on guitar and I wanted to dive more into that. It was more of a creative outlet for me. I had played a little bit with Molly, whose boyfriend was in Pamlico Sound with me. We played together and it felt good, we got along well. Then we met our stand-up bass player from my engineering graduate program. There are no boundaries with what everyone is OK with. Three people are willing to try things from a new perspective, which can be unlike other bands.

Who does the writing?

All the songs have been songs that I’ve brought to the table. Molly has a lot of harmonies, and there’s been a few melodies that we’ve had on viola and even on bass we’ve had some melodies, which is interesting. Lesley has written a lot of short stories and poems, which we can use.

How would you describe your live show?

I think we really kind of — we continue that American tradition of marrying blues, folk, and rock, and I’d even add jazz elements to that, even though none of us are jazz trained. Lesley plays in a jazz band, too.

Do you play all original material, or covers too?

I’d say we’re about 60 to 70 percent original and 30 to 40 percent covers. Who do you cover? Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee…

Does that influence in your writing?

I’m sure it does. It’s not a direct thing. If we write a song in certain way or I bring a song to the table that’s similar, we tend to play one or the other. We like variety and trying new things, which kind of makes sense because none of us are really aimed at being professional musicians, we just enjoy playing.

That must take off pressure.

Oh yeah. It’s just fun. I’ve been on the other side and it ruins it when you’re worried more about whether people like it or not and you’re only trying to play songs that they like rather than, ‘Oh this is cool, this is what I like.’ It’s playing for yourself, I guess, versus playing for the audience.