Holly Montgomery is a Kentucky native with a nearly three-decade musical career. Being in the music industry for so long comes with a lot of experience and dedication. Holly has been in over four bands along with releasing her own music, and aside from being well-versed in creating music and performing, Holly is also a mother to three children. I'm Ellie Sadler, and I'm here with Holly Montgomery.
Holly can be heard on a radio station and on streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify. Hello, Holly. Hey, Ellie. Reading your bio, it was very impressive.
You were in a little bit of everything. It was very interesting to read about. You know, when you make a choice that you want to play music for a living, actually any artistic endeavor, you better be open. So you're in a band called The Mustangs now, called Mustangs of the West, which was active in the 80s and then took a break, in the 90s, sorry, before taking a break and coming back together with a new name.
What inspired everyone to come back together again and release more songs? Honestly, it was just kind of a fluke. You know, I came, I was coming to LA for something related to my own band, my own project, which is my primary focus, you know, and I got in contact with the guitarist of the Mustangs with Sherry Barnett, who we've, you know, stayed friends all these years. And Sherry was like, oh, I think Susanna's going to be here.
We should do a Mustangs reunion. And I was like, well, I'm kind of busy, you know, and it ended up, of course, half-trip with Mustangs. So we recorded a song and did a video. And so it was really kind of a fluke.
There was no big thing that happened that we went, oh, we should get the band back together. Because we've all, since long, moved on to other things, you know? Yeah. And so what are some differences between, like, releasing music by yourself versus with a band?
So, I mean, the business part of it is all kind of the same, I think, if I'm getting your question right. When you're with a band, it's kind of like being a part of a family. You know, some families feel along great. Some families fight like cats and dogs, you know?
Some families, you know, your mother is your best friend, and other ones, they never talk to their mother again, you know? So that's kind of the way that it goes with bands. So, you know, hopefully when you're in a band, if you're in a band and you're putting that kind of commitment to it, then you are, you know, you at least have some sort of musical commonality, you know, where you can make great music, even if that person is really irritating you right now or whatever, you know? So, you know, doing music as a solo artist, you know, allows you a lot more freedom to do what you want.
You know, it just is also limiting in other ways. You know, it's just what you prefer. I mean, I'm primarily a bass player. So for me, you know, bass players aren't typically solo instrumentalists, not typically.
I really enjoy the band collaborative process, but that's really, really hard to do. And it's really almost impossible to find the right fit for that for, you know, a lot of people. Yeah. As I was reading your bio, I noticed you played bass on an Ice Cube album.
How did that happen? Well, let's see. I was in a band at that time in LA called Dig Planet, and we were recording an album that never got released. And I'm very, very, very still, all these years later, still very upset about that.
I bet. The engineer on that session, his name was Andrew Stoker, and he was a pretty well-known drummer, actually, for a band called Dexie's Midnight Runners. We were big in the 90s. So Stoker said to me one day on the session, hey, you know, I'm doing this record with this rap guy, and he can't find anybody that can just like, he just wanted somebody to come in and lay down some R&B bass lines, you know?
I was like, oh, I got that, you know? And so that's basically how it happened, and I went in, and I didn't know anything about the rap world at that point. This was like the early 90s, and so, you know, I didn't know anything about it. And I went in, and I sat there and waited until my name got called, and I stood up and played what they told me to play for about, you know, play something that sounds like this and sign me a thing, and I play that.
Anyway, yeah. That's super cool. Do you think playing, like, coming up with bass lines is your favorite part of creating a song, or what would you think? You know, it depends on the song.
You know, like, sometimes people ask me, what's your process when you write? But for me, I'm very much, I hope this is the right word, but I'm very much a lyric snob. You know, I don't like throwaway lyrics, and I don't like lyrics that, like, have been used a million times. I don't like throwaway lyrics.
Like, sometimes I'll listen to a song and go, it's a good song, but I think they kind of got lazy in that first, or whatever, you know, like, could have developed that lyric. So a lot of times, I'll just come up with an idea. Oh, here's a lyric idea. Okay, so what's the emotion behind that lyric?
Is it a soft, nice emotion, or is it a, I'm going to grind you, you know, grind you into the ground kind of emotion? And so that will determine however other things go. I would say that most of the time, that's the way I come up with things. But very oftentimes, you know, I have written a lot of songs where I go, oh, this group feels really good.
Let's write something around that, you know? Do you have a favorite lyric you've written? Oh, you know, gosh, I have a few that I still like, you know? I could list you very distinctly ones that I don't like, or I wish I would have done better on.
But yeah, there's definitely some lyrics that I've written that I feel like, okay, I think this was a good one. You know, off my latest album, there's a song called Cunning Woman. And I feel like those lyrics, it's kind of like a thing, if you get it, you get it. You know, it's a song that I basically wrote about the experience of growing up female when you don't fit into stereotypes.
I mean, that's kind of what the song is about, you know? And so if you get it, you get it. So there's some lyrics that I wrote in that that I feel like, I felt like, okay, mission accomplished. I said a great deal with only a few words.
That's what I like. I don't like the rambling on and on. I'm not that kind of a lyricist. I like to say a lot with a few words, you know?
Yeah, that's very powerful when someone's able to do that. Yeah, so I think Cunning Woman was a big one for that. Would you say that Cunning Woman is one of your songs that you're most proud of? Yeah, I wouldn't have said it before you asked me that.
I guess for me, I don't... Yeah, I'm going to look at some songs here just because I'm going to put my foot in my mouth. Of course. Well, I'm really...
Oh, yeah. On the album, there's one song called Looking for Lancelot. And that kind of goes back to what you're asking about lyrics. I'm super proud of the lyrics in that song.
I mean, I felt like I really got my point across. I mean, I really do. Yeah, I don't know that I have one that I'm most proud of. It's kind of like asking, which of your sons and daughters do you like best?
Yeah. You know, there's one song that I cut from our latest album that was too long and it didn't make the album so it's going to have to be a bonus track at some point. And I still... I'm so super proud of this song.
It's called Back in the Day but it hasn't been released yet. You know, it's done. It's recorded and everything. I'm really proud of that one.
You can't hear it but I'm proud of that one. Do you think you'll ever perform it live? Oh, I've performed it live a lot. Oh, yeah.
What's your favorite song to perform live? I don't have a favorite. Oh, maybe this will make me sound terribly old but my attention span is longer than a song. Yeah.
So for me, when I perform live, I'm not looking for my favorite song. I'm looking for my favorite experience. You know, like, is the audience listening? Do I see familiar faces who are singing along with the stuff that I wrote?
You know, part of the reason why I keep doing this is because there's just nothing like being up there and the feeling of an audience that is listening and is being... that you're giving them an experience that makes their life good for that moment, you know? Yeah. So in my opinion, for me, it doesn't come from a song.
It comes from the experience. And then I have one last question. I've noticed that you, like on your Instagram and stuff, I saw that you dye your hair to fun colors and so I'm wondering if you have a color you want to try or if you have a favorite color you've done in the past. You know, it's funny you should ask that because I've been sitting lately going, okay, what's next?
Because, man, I've had so many different colors of hair and my hair is naturally, like, dark, dark brown, you know? So I've had rainbow, I've had platinum blonde, and I've had blue. Oh, man, I love blue hair. I was, man, I loved it.
I've had blue and I've had green. I had, like, autumn. I had an autumn coloring at one point that I just thought was so lovely. So I'm not sure what's next.
Like, I go, like, oh, man, I'm going to have to cut it to get a new style. But, you know, I have no really long hair. I don't know that I want to cut it. But, you know, we'll see.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I feel like it would be fun to do purple. Yeah, have I done purple? I think I've done purple stripes, but I haven't done all purple.
I just think, I think hair color. I'm so glad that that's, like, I'm so glad that that's, like, become a thing because it's so much fun, you know? It's so fun. It's so fun.
And it doesn't last long if you don't like it, you know, you know, to watch out. Exactly. All right, thank you so much for letting me interview you today, Holly. Oh, you're very welcome.
I hope that, you know, I hope that, you know, you guys can, you know, enjoy the music. You know, we live in a time when music is very compartmentalized. You know, like, radio stations used to be where they played a whole variety of styles on a station. You know, now it's like people listen to one station and they only get that style and they're not exposed to anything else and that's too bad.
It's too bad for us societally, you know? So, you know, this album that I just did is a different, it's definitely much more acoustic oriented than what I've done in the past because I'm a total rocker chick. But, you know, hopefully people will enjoy it irrespective of age, gender, whatever. So hopefully you love the music.
Yeah, it's great. I love listening to it. And you can hear, and Holly's album, All for Nothing, is on our radio station. So if you tuned in, you can listen out for it.
Thank you so much. It really means a lot to me. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for having me here.
Yes, of course. Thank you.