Common Holly Sign To Keeled Scales/Paper Bag Records | Announces New LP, Shares “Aegean Blue” Single + Video | Anything glass Due Out June 13th
Montreal based singer-songwriter Brigitte Naggar (aka Common Holly) wants her music to challenge listeners, “To feel something, create something, do something, and be alive in this ever-waning time.” Today, she’s announcing her first studio-recorded album, “Anything Glass”, via Keeled Scales and Paper Bag Records, along with the release of single “Aegean Blue“—both of which are sure to do just that.
With influences like Bill Callahan, Mount Eerie, Lomelda, and Leonard Cohen, Naggar weaves soft, enchanting imagery in “Aegean Blue” with lyrics such as “Make me a river I can run through” and “Who will do better, the one with the candle or the paddle?”. Paired with stunning visuals in the accompanying video, this track’s folklore-esque storytelling and gentle nature invite listeners to slow down and truly feel.
Brigitte Naggar (aka Common Holly) on the track, “A reckoning in meaninglessness and unending pursuit. The words came in a moment of change and of reevaluating. This song sits squarely in the album’s theme of orienting toward what matters most, doing things differently when they aren’t feeling right. You can hear some of the vocal doubling here–since the album was recorded live, many (all?) of the songs have doubled vocals, because I would sing live while we were performing the song, and then I would later add more vocals on top of that initial vocal. This came to be a quality we liked in the whole experience of the album.”
FEATURE INTERVIEW:
The album explores themes of mortality, connection, and meaning in a world that often feels uncertain. How did these themes shape your songwriting and the overall atmosphere you aimed to create with “Anything Glass”?
Songs are part of how I process the world, and these are themes that I am thinking about all the time, so it felt most natural to express them this way. And when words aren’t enough, the spaces between sounds get to take over as a more apt expression of not knowing.
With “Anything Glass” being recorded live off the floor, how did capturing the raw, unfiltered energy of your band shape the album’s overall sound and your creative process?
I wanted to make a record in which you could feel you were in a space with us, and I wanted to show off the chemistry we built on our extensive tours. I also wanted not to overthink it, as sometimes I am prone to doing. This album is a demonstration of a human process rather than a perfect end product.
What was the process behind selecting the visuals for “Aegean Blue” and how do they enhance the song’s themes and overall mood?
Like the natural rawness and quiet of the record I wanted the video to feel organic and meditative, and Quebec nature settings echoed this well. I was happy Ana-Maria Trudel (the director) came up with the concept and did most of the work on it, and I provided references like images from Twin Peaks and of whirling dervishes and grainy film landscapes and blue water. When a song is full of space it’s so nice to have visuals to help make sense of that space. Maybe not to fill it, but to make it even more stark.
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