SHOW YOU THE WAY: Interview with Maidstone's Holly Henderson
Championing music from Kent, and specifically Maidstone, Holly Henderson is a producer, writer and performer looking to light a fire under local artists
Unbelievable, we know, but not all artists take pride in coming from Kent. Perhaps it’s the proximity to London that means it’s easier to claim the Big Smoke as home.
Perhaps not claiming the county is better for wider marketing purposes. Who knows? But thankfully it’s not always the case and, actually, the county’s influence (for good and for bad) has helped shape the work of many artists. After all, it is the birthplace of The Rolling Stones, Kate Bush, David Bowie and numerous others.
“The ideal scenario is just you are who you are, like, yeah, I am from Kent. I was raised in a council house. I had no f*cking money. Still don’t have any f*cking money,” says Maidstone musician Holly Henderson.
“That is who I am and my music has been influenced by my environment and the people in it, and if I’m authentic to that, you can hear it in my music.”
“There’s a sterilisation of things in music, even down to who you are as an artist. There’s two extremes in the industry – people who feel they have to sterilise themselves and be ‘London-based’. If you think it makes you more marketable, and all of that, all you’re doing is hiding who you are. Then the other extreme is you have people who feel like they’re not that interesting, so they then fabricate and give themselves this sort of X Factor story.”
“I was raised on the idea that artists evolved and did different stuff”
Holly has had a hell of a few years. From making a name for her songwriting abilities in punk revival band The Sex Pissed Dolls to having clients and co-writer credits with the likes of Tommy Scott (Space), Mel Gaynor (Simple Minds), Pete Thorn (Chris Cornell), Blair Sinta (Alanis Morissette), Freddie Cowan (The Vaccines), Jon Button (The Who/Sheryl Crow) and more.
A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Holly cut her teeth at Kent jam nights alongside folk artists, blues artists, “gypsy jazz people” and some “crazy psychedelic indie people” – it’s probably why her music spans so many genres.
From her widely regarded indie pop-rock track Let the Rain In on her debut EP to the most recent single Leggy Man, which shows off her ability to wield whimsical light-relief in the form of an ode to coexistence and a proposition of peace to a spider that has moved in. Her intense vocals on track Loneliness are Christine McVie-esque, while the psychedelia-touched The Planes’ could be a Tame Impala cover.
Her album The Walls (2023) received critical acclaim, reviews, playlisting and accolades from Clash Magazine, BBC Introducing, Frank Skinner/Absolute Radio, Cerys Matthews, Shindig Magazine, Prog Magazine and others. Despite this, Holly remains independent, unsigned and increasingly using her skills in the studio to help others.
“I don’t think anyone wants me because of the fact that my music is quite hard to define,” she says. “I think I’ve had this problem before, and that kind of p*sses me off, because it’s like I was raised on the idea that artists evolved and did different stuff. I’m a fan of really diverse artists. I listen to people who scare the sh*t out of me because I enjoy it but also because it really pushes me to be like ‘You are creatively not there yet, my friend’.
“I loosely reference PJ Harvey a lot in my own PR stuff because I think that she’s a really good reference for me. She has no brand, she is PJ Harvey, and what her interests are or what dictates where her music goes and where her art goes [doesn’t matter]. She’s a very organic, genuine, creative person.”
It is fair to say that Holly is not a fan of streaming platforms. And while the dispute over fair pay for artists whose music is placed on the platform will always take centre stage, there may be a wider discussion as to whether the need for genre-defined, SEO-friendly musicians is hampering creativity.
“I think it’s a really big conversation, it’s a big world,” says Holly. “It’s music meets post-capitalism. It’s the need to make things efficient, make them palatable, make them quick and commercial. A universal need to have instant gratification, to instantly understand and to not have to spend time and wait. It’s the scrolling mentality of ‘If I don’t get it in the first three seconds, then I’m done’.
“I try my hardest as an artist to not pander to that because it is reductive by nature. It’s savage to the creative process. It’s not conducive to art, this mentality, and as an artist I try to reject it and just do my own thing… it’s forcing artists to think that they have to sort of define themselves in a particular way. And I wish it didn’t have that.”
Holly has already had a decade in the music industry, having started out as a session player and working her way up to producing, arranging and songwriting for other artists and record labels.
When the studio (in London’s Sloane Square, of all places) at which she had been employed for the past three years was closed with just 24 hours’ notice, Holly had a decision to make.
“Being a musician, you really have no rights. It’s just like, you have no job,” she says. “The past three years of producing and songwriting and working with some pretty intense personalities has taught me a lot about what I don’t want to do. I’ve done this myself for the last decade, full-time, like I was supposed to go to uni to study art. I never did it. I ended up doing music instead and joining a band, and I’ve been flying on the seat of my ass ever since.
“You get used to the fact that you need to have loads of different skills and do a bit of everything to survive.
“And then the last three years, I was kind of looking for a way out, in a sense, so that I could focus on what I think I’m actually good at and what I can offer the musical conversation in the world.”
Holly has spent the back-end of 2024 dedicating time to her own music and putting together a band.
“Actually having a proper committed band made a huge difference. We’re really tight now and things have been slowly happening with that,” she says.
“And then on top of that, I’m doing more production for artists at a studio in Maidstone. I’m just trying to get as many people, especially young people who started out writing songs and had no facility, to help them construct, record and mix their first tracks and get it out there.”
For someone who needs to pay rent and earn enough money from the industry to keep afloat, Holly’s enthusiasm and passion to help other up-and-coming artists from her hometown is remarkable.
“I’ve been around the block enough, musically speaking, now. I know loads of different musicians and producers of all ages from different walks of life all around the world, and my friends in Maidstone wipe the floor with a lot of them,” she says.
“The producers here are sick. The session musicians here are some of the best I’ve ever met in the entire world. And I would happily put them up against any of the big players – and have done as well. I know they’re the best and not represented very well because we have no platform, no support, no nothing. And most people here who are really, really talented end up in a sort of cycle of playing in pubs until they give up, and I don’t think that’s acceptable.”
While Holly’s drive to help other musicians achieve their dreams is absolutely nailed on, her sublime creative meanderings mean her fans know that just about anything musically awaits around the next corner.
