Holy Roller Baby ventures across town with "Girl From the East Side" - new single OUT NOW
ROCK BAND
HOLY ROLLER BABY
RELEASES NEW SINGLE
“GIRL FROM THE EAST SIDE”
NEW ALBUM
SMILE LIKE HEAVEN
OUT AUGUST 23, 2024
July 19, 2024 (New York, NY) - Independent artist Holy Roller Baby, the rock n' roll brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Jared Mullins, today releases their new single “Girl From the East Side.” The new song is the second single from the upcoming LP Smile Like Heaven, out on August 23, 2024. Absolute Radio UK is an early supporter of “Girl From the East Side” with host Danielle Perry saying the song is, “Like the best bits of Queens of the Stone Age.”
“Girl From the East Side” melds together impressive vocals with stylistically varied guitar work, creating rich sonic textures that build towards the climax of the song which features a masterful guitar solo. The song’s title and lyrics reference lead singer and songwriter Jared Mullins’ time spent in Cleveland growing up.
Jared says, “Cleveland is weird. There’s one highway, and it splits the city into East and West. As a kid, we never went to the East Side, because the rumor was that people were always discovering dead bodies there. What would you do if you went for a walk and discovered a dead body? Hide? Run? Shriek? Me? I wrote a song about it.”
The first single from the upcoming album “Speaking in Tongues” was lauded by critics, with KUTX saying, “We won’t recommend making out in the middle of train tracks for obvious safety concerns, but we will urge you to check out the Super 8 music video for ‘Speaking In Tongues’, since it’s such a powerful emotional accompaniment to what sounds like Holy Roller Baby’s Central Texas twist on Radiohead’s “Creep”, high contrast dynamics, unhurried grunge arrangement, impassioned vocal performance, and all. Rock on, Rollers. Rock on.”
Smile Like Heaven, was recorded between Valve Studios, in Dallas, TX and Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire, England with producer Ian Davenport [Radiohead, Band Of Skulls]. The sound of the album naturally evolved as the musicians performed live in one room under Davenport’s watch.
Jared says, “I hope people hear the fearlessness I brought to this LP with Ian. I’m just trying to channel the emotion of having one’s mind blown the way I did when I first heard rock-n-roll.”
Holy Roller Baby will be releasing more new music in 2024 ahead of the release of Smile Like Heaven.
Holy Roller Baby
ABOUT HOLY ROLLER BABY
Holy Roller Baby aims to cook up rock ‘n’ roll worthy of obsession. Conjured from the mind and through the vessel of vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Jared Mullins, the music provokes thought and movement in equal measure. The grooves and riffs combine into a musical ear candy experience. The riffs are intense and the words take shape to depict apocalyptic fantasies, faded innocence, narrow escapes, and even a last shot at redemption.
Holy Roller Baby is ready as their 2024 independent full-length debut LP, Smile Like Heaven, is slated for release later this year.
In explaining the name, Jared says: “The goal is to create music that people become obsessed with and have a kind of religious experience,” explains Jared. “The phrase, “Holy Rollers” really refers to Pentecostals in the early 20th century, viewed as religious fanatics who would roll around on the floor. Music has always been that, for me, a complete body, mind, and soul experience. I tacked ‘Baby’ on to the end to emphasize the soulful side of what we do.”
Jared divides his life into “before and after discovering The Beatles.” With his mind blown at eleven years old by “Come Together,” Jared developed a love for music, listening to everyone from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Black Sabbath, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, and Tame Impala.
He is a self-taught guitarist and songwriter who, since High School, has been creating music. Intent on being a musician but also interested in linguistics, he attended graduate school in San Diego with a dual major in linguistics and history. He initially had designs on “getting a doctorate in history to be the guy who could read Latin in front of everyone.” But life had other plans. He experienced an epiphany during finals. “I realized I didn’t love language as much as I love music, so I walked out of school and never came back,” he recalls, “ “I have to do music—because if I don’t, I will dry up and wither on the inside, “
A stint in Los Angeles followed, where he played in various bands and projects and worked in recording studios. Eventually, settling in Austin, TX, Holy Roller Baby came to life in 2019. Realizing that he wanted his coming music to sound a certain way, and on a whim, Jared sent a cold email and some of his music to producer Ian Davenport [Radiohead, Band Of Skulls, July Talk, Of Empires] and to his surprise, received a response. “I was fairly blown away, to say the least”, says Jared. “That response from Ian just cemented the idea for me that I was on the right path sticking with music.”
Jared headed to Ian’s studio, Courtyard Studios, made famous by Radiohead, to record the group’s debut, Frenzy. The LP was released in the middle of the pandemic, derailing touring plans and any real idea of promoting the record, but Jared did a pivot: writing, recording and assembling tracks for a follow-up.
This time around, Davenport crossed the pond, and they recorded what would become Smile Like Heaven at Valve Studios in Dallas, TX. The sound naturally evolved as the musicians performed live in one room under Davenport’s watch.
“I never want the songs to sound the same,” he notes. “I want the sound to be unpredictable and tap into different nuances. Ian is like a band member at this point, and we bounce ideas off each other. The process was comfortable because we had the foundation of the first record.”
