We only just caught this, but our excitement really cannot be measured: Holy Fuck are back with a new album! The Canadian quartet of Brian Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt McQuaid, and Matt Schulz have been one of our absolute favourite bands since we first saw them in 2007, and after six years since Deleter, they are finally returning with Event Beat. Back in 2022, the band reconvened in a rural Nova Scotia village hall, as Walsh explains:
“The catalyst for this record and the beginning of the recordings that we did was us just getting back together again. It was something unique to us. It was all of us living together one in space and with no distractions and just working on music in the middle of nowhere. It’s a way I really like to work. For at least half of the songs on the record, it was just us holed up together. Which was great!”
Borcherdt adds:
“Having our own language that we can speak so easily together is really important to us. We all have our own piece to bring to the conversation, and it’s idiosyncratic to us because we’ve been dedicated to it for so long. Hopefully that’s encouraging to other bands who feel like they’re on a similar path.”
Power outages, a disgruntled neighbour, and other obstacles could not stop Holy Fuck from creating something extraordinary. “That became a production challenge,” Walsh explains. “We still wanted to jam, but while being as quiet as possible. Matt couldn’t hit the drums really loud. So we made these more low-key ambient things. It was like, how quiet can we be and still do what we do?” Borcherdt agrees. “We were making these quite pastoral, vibey soundscapes, and I thought we were going to have an ambient record on our hands. I thought this was going to be almost like new age music or something.”
The human side of their music shines even more through. “What I hope people take away from it is an appreciation is the togetherness and the humanity in the music”, Walsh concluded. “Music should be played and enjoyed together. When that raw punk sound comes off the stage you should just enjoy it and relish that experience. It’s wonderful and awesome.”
Event Beat arrives on March 27th and they’ve already dropped two singles from it, ‘Evie’ and more recently ‘Elevate’, which is offered with a video by John Smith. “I really like those epic techno songs like Orbital and Underworld,” says Walsh of the track. “This was my attempt at something like that. Just dance floor euphoria.”
This is an exciting return from one of the greatest bands out there. After twenty years of making music, Holy Fuck still manage to sound refreshingly new and thrilling. Check out both singles below, we’re playing them on repeat.
