Hollan Holmes
InterContinental Music Awards Winner
2024 – Best of America | Dance/Electronic
Hollan Holmes was born into a family of music lovers. Holmes’ father, mother and sister each had their own musical interests, thus Holmes was listening to a wide variety of music from the 60s and 70s. Perhaps more significantly, he grew up in a house with a piano, which served to feed a thirst for the creative process of making and playing music. The formation of his first band took place during his high school senior year, an interest which was further fueled by his discovery of synthesizers and the purchase of a Moog Prodigy, courtesy of a loan from his grandmother. Holmes still owns and uses (and must regularly calibrate) that old analog classic. In the early 80s, he discovered Jean Michel Jarre and, later, Tangerine Dream, both of which would forever alter his musical direction. The burnout of being in copy bands led to an exploration into writing his own music, from the late 80s until 2005, when he converted a room of his home into a music studio, where five years later, in 2010, he would produce his debut album, “A Distant Light” to critical acclaim. Two of his albums, Phase Shift and The Spirits Of Starlight, were nominated as One World Music’s Album Of The Year. His 2017 double release, “Prayer To The Energy”, was the most difficult work of his musical career, requiring two years of serious effort and careful introspection, but was very well received and was considered by many to be his finest work at the time. Holmes has already gained a reputation as a serious fine artist and graphic designer, the skills of which have allowed him to design and create the layout of his first six albums. Both of these careers, Holmes says, feed off of one another much like a symbiotic relationship. Energy from one feeds the energy for the other. Self-taught in both disciplines, Holmes strives to master both art forms to the very best of his abilities and the act of sharing his creations with the world brings him great joy, which drives him to create even more.