With the release of their debut music video to their official second single, Hollow County is on form proving that the UK can bring amazing country trios into the music industry. We exclusively revealed the debut music video a couple of days ago, titled “Heaven Bound“, which accompanies the single that was dropped last Friday. Not only that, but we have an exclusive interview with one of the members of the trio, below.
Hollow County are a three-piece group from Essex, England consisting of Adam Brucass, Eva Tobin, and Dean Bonning. They released their debut single “Southern Ground” back in August, launching onto the UK country music scene, which they have recently followed up with “Heaven Bound” which also had an accompanying music video. Hollow County is certainly a trio we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears on, and we’re sure you will be too.
We recently managed to speak to Adam Brucass, from Hollow County, about the new single, the debut music video, as well as their debut single “Southern Ground”, and their future music plans.
Hi Adam, we hope your day is going well, what have you been up to lately?
Hey! Yeah, things are great, we’ve been busy rehearsing for upcoming shows, putting the finishing touches to some upcoming releases and tapping into some new material. We were in a darts bar in London at the weekend, that was cool!
Please tell us a bit about the band, and how you came up with the name Hollow County?
Well, we’re all from Essex, there’s isn’t much more to it than that! The band came together after Dean and I both came out of previous projects; we’d been meaning to get together to write some new stuff for a while! Once we had some decent songs in the works we brought Eva in to record some backing vocals and we never let her leave after that!
When it came to deciding on a name for the band, we went through a lot of options and started to think about our roots and what the music we were writing really said about us. I figured that as Essex is renowned for being full of fake people and being quite ‘hollow’, it would be cool to sort of incorporate that into the name as a bit of an inside joke.
Your brand new single is “Heaven Bound”, can you tell us more about the track?
“Heaven Bound” is definitely a favourite of the band since we first wrote the song it just had this resounding country buzz that was almost infectious. It’s great fun to play and I think we all really enjoy listening to it.
Talk us through how you created the song.
It’s one of those songs that just kind of wrote itself, to be honest. When Dean sent me the demo all those months ago now, I remember listening to the instrumentation he’d come up with and how it just made me feel very warm and content. I think I sent him back a first draft of the lyrics like 20 minutes later and they really haven’t changed much since that first draft; we knew very early on that it was going to be something good when it was finished.
How would you describe the song to our readers?
It’s a ballad. That’s the simplest way to put it I think, its got a real pop-y, country vibe, but with a lot of soul. But above everything, it’s a summer song, one to play around the fire or at the beach.
What does the song mean to you?
“Heaven Bound” Is everything that you want to say about a person, or a place, or a memory but you can’t quite put it into words. It just says it’s all for you, what else can you really say except that? Sometimes loving something or someone that much can kill you as much as make you feel untouchable like you’re falling, but at the same time, you’re in heaven.
“Heaven Bound” also has an accompanying music video, can you tell us about that?
Yeah, the video came out great! We’re all really proud of it! We decided very early on not to go for a narrative video or to use actors, but instead to just show a bit of ourselves and our own characters.
Who was the director and what was it like working with him?
The director was a guy called Arthur Walwin, he’s a close friend of the band and very good at what he does. He’s also the production wizard behind the song itself, we recorded and everything with Arthur at the wheel. He brought an incredible energy to the whole shoot and he kept us happy.
What was it like being on set?
We shot the whole thing on a farm in Rayleigh, it’s a family-owned place and I’ve known the family for years. It didn’t take much for them to agree to let us shoot there, it’s been a popular location for loads of bands over the years! It was quite strange for me and Eva to be shooting a video, Dean had had a lot of experience in the past with previous bands but it’s not something either of us had done before. Eva, being an actress and performer was a natural on camera, I like to think I did alright haha!
How does the video relate to the song?
We wanted to try to capture the sound and tone of the song, more so than the lyrics. With a location like that, the rolling hills and the summer sun altogether, it just made for a perfect setting!
The song follows up your debut single “Southern Ground”, how does it differ from your first single?
It’s a lot softer than “Southern Ground” was, a lot more about taking a moment to just breathe and appreciate the message the song carries. “Southern Ground” was more of an anthem to be played loud and with the windows down, we’ve done a lot of that!
What was it like to release “Southern Ground”?
Personally, it was one of the most exciting things I’ve done, having worked with so many bands I’d never got to the point of releasing something of such a high quality, especially on commercial streaming sites. We were so happy with the song and we still are, we hosted a launch party and everything, we were really excited for the release.
Do you have the same feelings upon the release of your follow-up single?
It’s a different feeling with the new single, but still just as exciting. We’re hoping for a lot of success, it’s definitely one of our strongest songs and I can’t wait to see how it goes down with the fans.
What can we expect from you in the future?
We have a lot to look forward to, there’s a lot in place for the rest of the year and the new year. We can’t wait to get on to bigger and better shows and start establishing ourselves in the country community, locally, and internationally.
Do you find it difficult sometimes being a country trio from the UK?
I think the hardest thing about it really is trying to avoid looking like we’re trying to be something we’re not. For a British band, calling a song “Southern Ground” certainly raised some eyebrows but the truth is we are from the south, it’s just the south of the UK! Subject matter can be a challenge, it’s a lot easier to write about trucks and flags than it is to write about pubs and football! So it’s a big challenge trying to get the message across sometimes, but people have been pretty supportive so far – if the support continues for us the way it has been, I think we’ll be just fine.
Your music speaks for itself, as it’s amazingly catchy. We love it here at CelebMix. What are your aspirations?
We’re blessed with the knowledge that we all want the same thing. Some bands want to play small intimate venues in a basement somewhere, I think we would rather play the desert and sell It out. We want big things for the band and we’re more than willing to put in the time to make it happen, the rest is just crossing our fingers.
Which artists do you look up to, and who would you love to collaborate with?
We all have our own inspirations from Bon Jovi to John Mayer to the Eagles but as a band, we found a lot of common influence in artists like Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts – those artists that truly blend the pop with the country. That real country sound is something we really strive for in our music, the chance to collaborate, work and tour with the likes of Luke Combs, or even the Zac Brown Band would be a dream come true for all of us.
And, finally, do you have a message for your fans?
All we can say right now is thank you. Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to listen to our music and make us feel like all the work we’ve done has been worth it, we’re so grateful to every one of you, and we can’t wait to share our future with you all! Check out “Heaven Bound” and keep your eyes on Hollow County!
Thank you, Adam Brucass, for chatting with us about Hollow County. We love “Heaven Bound” and cannot wait to for the future as we adore the two songs and the music video you have released to-date.
Hollow County’s new single “Heaven Bound” is available to download and stream right now, with the music video being available to watch on YouTube. Their debut single, “Southern Ground” is also available to download and stream right now.