Hollydrift

Hollydrift appeared in the electronica underground in 2000. Dark, ambient and consisting of synthesizers and electronics laced with sounds lifted from shortwave radio and antiquated forms of telecommunications, his music shares similarities with Coil, Nurse with Wounds, and other sound collagists with a Gothic or Industrial background. Hollydrift is the moniker of Mathias Anderson, a Wisconsin resident. His parents were arts enthusiasts and encouraged him to take a shot at various disciplines. He first played the drums but didn't like the creative limitations attached to a rock band. Then, at age 16 or 17 he heard Gary Numan's hit "Cars" on the radio. Pawning his drum set to buy a synthesizer and a drum machine, he embraced the new wave, but his short-lived bands rarely came out of the basement. In 1988 Anderson changed his approach. Carrying a tape recorder at all times he began to create pieces out of field recordings and electronics. In the course of the next five years he self-released six cassettes under the moniker Joy Before the Storm and got involved in the cassette underground. Stepping away from music in 1992, he focused on photography and installation art, working in the day time as an RF technician, maintaining transmission systems for police and fire departments. In 2000 he resumed his music career, drawing a lot from his work experience to carve out oblique music made of ghostly broadcasts and lost messages. By then the music underground had changed a lot. Anderson set up the CD-R label Cuba Club Media and released Hail the Frozen North (EP, 2000), Then There Was Nothing (EP, 2001) and In These Days of Merriment (full-length, 2001) before hooking up with the DIY, Omaha-based label Public Eyesore for This Way to Escape. ~ François Couture, All Music...