Their calming sound, uplifting lyrics, and strong connection to nature have led indie-folk group Hollow Coves to organically grow an impressive following over the past decade. Since forming in 2014 on Australia's Gold Coast, members Matt Carins and Ryan Henderson have garnered more than half a billion streams worldwide. This year, they released their second full-length album, Nothing to Lose , which hit #1 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter charts in 20+ countries. The guys stopped by the LifeMinute Studios to talk all about it, as well as their collab with the National Park Foundation to help raise money to preserve and protect our national parks. This is a LifeMinute with Hollow Coves.
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00:00Hi, we're Hollow Coves and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:06Their calming sound, uplifting lyrics and strong connection to nature has led indie
00:10folk group Hollow Coves to organically grow an impressive following over the past decade.
00:17Since forming in 2014 on Australia's Gold Coast, members Matt Cairns and Ryan Henderson
00:23have garnered more than half a billion streams worldwide.
00:27This year they released their second full-length album, Nothing to Lose, which hit number one
00:31on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts in 20-plus countries.
00:36The guys stopped by the Life Minute studios to talk all about it, as well as their collab
00:40with the National Park Foundation to help raise money to preserve and protect our national
00:45parks.
00:46This is a Life Minute with Hollow Coves.
00:49So this one was kind of a bit different to previous albums.
00:52It was a lot more collaborative.
00:53We wrote a bunch of songs with another Australian artist who ended up producing the album.
00:59He's a guy called Matt Corby and he's someone who we listened to his music growing up and
01:06he inspired us and so it was really cool to be able to work with him, just such a talented
01:11songwriter.
01:12He played drums and bass on the record and so it was much more of a collaborative process
01:17for us.
01:18We'd learnt a lot of lessons from the first albums that we'd worked on, so going into
01:22this one we were a little bit more prepared.
01:24We were kind of just writing a lot about slowing down and taking time to enjoy the important
01:30things in life and kind of reminding ourselves of these life lessons that we've been learning
01:37along the way and still figuring it out.
01:39I think the first track is a good example, it's called Nothing to Lose.
01:52It's pretty much all about how people get worried about their image or what others are
01:56expecting of them.
01:58Even just getting caught up in things that you have no control over, like people who
02:02struggle with road rage for example, it's such a small thing and it's just going to
02:08be something that you can't control.
02:11The fact that you're going to get caught in traffic, some people will let that ruin their
02:15day and they'll get so worked up and so aggravated by it, but if you just let go of that and
02:21just go, this is going to be part of life, there's traffic, it sucks, but it's fine,
02:27it's not actually that bad.
02:29Shifting that perspective, you can actually be a lot more calm, a lot more at peace through
02:34those things and just kind of cruise through it a little bit.
02:38There's a line in it that says, when life gives you lemons, just make lemonade.
02:43Just playing on that, just go with the flow, don't let things stir you up and make you
02:50really emotional.
02:51As hard as it is, just try to go with the flow, and that's what that's about.
02:58One of the singles that we released was a song called On The Way that I wrote.
03:10It's kind of like for anyone who has a dream, we wanted to inspire people because we have
03:15a lot of friends back home who are really talented and they might have these dreams
03:20that maybe they're even too afraid to verbalise because they think it's silly or something
03:25like that, but they're so talented and we kind of just wish that they would just give
03:29it a shot.
03:30We were kind of looking back on our career and realising that what we've been able to
03:35achieve is wilder than we could have ever imagined when we first started out.
03:40We never thought music would be a part of our journey.
03:43I studied civil engineering, Matt's a qualified carpenter, we just kind of thought...
03:48Pretty different.
03:49We kind of thought we'd just do normal jobs and then we just loved music and so we wrote
03:54some songs and we're like, oh, let's just give it a go, let's just put something out
03:59there and see if people like it.
04:01And looking back, if we'd never taken that first step, we never would have known that
04:05this could be our life.
04:07It's actually crazy, but some people think that they need to have it all figured out
04:10before they can go after a dream.
04:12We kind of wanted to encourage people, no one really knows or has it all together when
04:16they first start pursuing a dream.
04:18Often people are just figuring it out every step of the way and it's just about taking
04:22one step at a time and then figuring it out as you go.
04:26So On The Way is kind of all about that.
04:29I think across the board of the album, it's a lot of topics of encouraging people in walks
04:37of life that we've kind of seen and observed in our story being uplifting or proactive
04:44in whatever that may be.
04:46Touring can be hard work, but I think when you have a really good crew, it just makes
04:51it so much easier.
04:53Our tour manager slash bass player and our drummer, Tom, they really hold us together.
04:58They're such great people.
05:00We were just saying the other day, if they decide to stop touring with us, it might be
05:06hard to convince us to keep touring.
05:09This tour for North America Run, we're doing a collaboration with the National Parks Foundation,
05:14which is such a great fit because it entwines with what our vision is with our lyrics and
05:20what we're trying to spread to the audience.
05:22It was kind of like a no-brainer to have this collaboration and for every ticket sold on
05:29this tour, a dollar goes towards helping preserve the national parks through North America.
05:36So yeah, I think we feel really passionate about it because we go to national parks ourselves
05:42even before this tour.
05:44On days off, we would visit national parks and have reset days of going through Zion
05:51National Park or Badlands.
05:53Pretty much every tour that we've done in North America, we would look on the map and
05:57see like, oh, we're going to be traveling through, there's a cool national park, let's
06:01go and check that out.
06:02And so when we got kind of presented with this opportunity, we were like, this makes
06:06so much sense because we'd probably be going to the national parks anyway.
06:11And I think our music has been so inspired by spending time in these beautiful places.
06:17There's something that happens when you spend time in these places where it just soothes
06:23you or reminds you of the beauty that is in this world.
06:27But also at the same time, learning more about the national parks, there's so much that we
06:32need to do to be able to preserve these places so that future generations can enjoy them
06:37as well.
06:38They're like actually some of our favorite parts of America.
06:42So we want to make sure that these places are preserved and kept so that future generations
06:47can enjoy them too.
06:49We went and got to meet with their office in Washington the other day, and they're actually
06:54all such lovely people and so feel like kindred spirits in a way, like their hearts are so
06:59aligned with our hearts for preserving these places.
07:02There's actually so many national parks that we weren't aware of.
07:05Like often people just think of the big ones.
07:08But yeah, we got to go to this historic center in the Independence National Park in Philadelphia,
07:17which was funny because we get a little day sheet for the tour of what's going to happen
07:23each day.
07:24And it said, oh, we're going on a three hour hike in Philadelphia.
07:28So we got into our hiking gear and boots and all this.
07:32And then we rock up at this historic building site and we're like, ah, okay.
07:37So this is a national park as well.
07:39But one they did bring up actually that we are excited for is the Santa Monica Mountains.
07:44We've never been there before, but everyone in the office was kind of raving about it.
07:48So very interested to explore.
07:51So we're doing a video session in Zion National Park, which is really cool.
07:56We're doing, I think there's three songs that we're performing with Zion National Park as
08:01the background.
08:02So it'll be at like sunset hour.
08:06So hopefully the sky's all changing color throughout it.
08:09But yeah, we're really excited for that because like the location looks insane and it should
08:14hopefully turn out well.
08:15With our music, when we write it, that same feeling that you get when you're in nature,
08:20we have tried to bring into our lyrics and our sound to captivate that same feeling for
08:27the listener.
08:28It goes pair and pair really well because we've done a lot of traveling and we're passionate
08:34about getting outdoors and yeah, the overflow of that came out through our music.
08:39But the coastline of Australia, there's a lot of coves and inlets on beautiful beaches
08:44and coves kind of fit that theme.
08:47And then I think we just went on Name Generator and just spent like months.
08:53We probably spent six months of sending each other lists of like words that we thought
08:58fit the sound that we were making and like coves was one that got thrown out there and
09:03then we were like, we just, yeah, we would probably send each other like different combinations
09:08of words and there'd be like 12 or 15 every time we would send them.
09:13And then one day we sent those two words together and it just felt right.
09:24My family, they're all musical, so my mum's a piano teacher.
09:32My dad actually just recorded a lot of albums for himself, more just a hobby.
09:37But my brother, he's in a band and my sister plays piano and flute.
09:41So yeah, I started off playing drums originally and then ended up picking up the guitar and
09:46yeah, like I said, it was never going to be like a career thing, just a hobby.
09:51We ended up meeting up through a mutual friend and I think I had some songs, you had some
09:54songs that we just kind of jammed out and that was the beginning of this project.
09:59I only really got into music later in life.
10:02Like as I was studying civil engineering, learning guitar kind of very quickly became
10:07my way of procrastinating from doing assignments.
10:09I started to realise that I was loving music more than, well, I think most people would
10:13love that, more than doing assignments.
10:15But it became like almost an obsession where I was just like so in love with it and learning
10:21different finger picking patterns and yeah, I was just making music and then we got connected
10:26and it just kind of all just flowed quite naturally at the start.
10:30But yeah, we never thought it would be anything more than just a hobby.
10:33There's a lot of artists that inspire us, like Bombay Bicycle Club would be one, Angus
10:39and Julia Stone.
10:40Sophie Ann Stephens, yeah, we really like him.
10:44I think he's such an interesting artist, like every album is just, you don't know what you're
10:49going to get.
10:50A lot of artists would probably say this same one, but Bon Iver would be pretty high on
10:55the list, I'd say.
10:56We got a big year ahead, so after this tour we go home, we've got a month and a bit off.
11:01Probably be doing a little bit of writing.
11:03After that we go to Europe again and we do another big tour through Europe.
11:07After that we go home and then we've got an Australian tour, Australia, New Zealand at
11:10the end of the year.
11:11I think we're just going to get back into our studio and just write.
11:15We live in a really beautiful place in the world on the Gold Coast in Australia, so it's
11:21pretty easy to relax there.
11:22Our lifestyle's a bit crazy.
11:24My wife and I live in the hinterland, so we wake up to this rain for us every day, which
11:28is pretty relaxing, and then we head down to the beach and catch up with all of our
11:33friends at a cafe, have coffee, tea, and then go for a surf.
11:38It's pretty much like a dream at the moment.
11:41It's not going to always be like this, I'm sure when kids come along.
11:44So we're trying to embrace this lifestyle at the moment, but yeah, it's pretty good.
11:49We have such a beautiful community of friends back home as well.
11:54I live about 50 metres from the beach.
11:58There's this cafe down the road that we can just walk to, and pretty much any morning
12:02you walk down there, there's going to be someone, friends there, and you end up just sitting
12:07there and hanging out and starting the day with a coffee just by the beach.
12:11It's such a good way to start the day, like before any work, just going and spending time
12:15with the community, but yeah, it's a pretty good lifestyle.
12:21To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV, on iTunes and all
12:25streaming podcast platforms.