Be prepared to get leied because Holiday Sidewinder is taking us on an exotic getaway with her new album, The Last Resort. Holiday “can’t stand doing the same thing over and over. Always must progress” and progress is exactly what she’s done. There’s still Holiday’s pop sensibilities of Forever Or Whatever and her ethereal vocals of Face Of God but when the 70’s classic-rock guitar riffs of “Last Resort” start, you know you’re in for a fresh and wild ride.
I reached out to Holiday and she was gracious enough to answer a couple questions about The Last Resort and here’s what she had to say:
Dave: The Last Resort is described as a concept album “set on a mythical abandoned island resort, strewn with cyclonic romances, Greek gods and tragedies.” How did this concept come into existence?
Holiday: I was planning to move to St Lucia before the pandemic hit and so I’d already been imagining what life would be like on a small island. The small-town gossip, strange happenings and so on. Then during lockdowns, I could only listen to reggae. I started fantasizing about just being on the beach. I ended up in Cyprus and then Thailand, locked out of the Schengen Zone and unable to return to Australia. So, I ended up living in abandoned island resorts, even though I had this vision and concept before.
Dave: What do you hope people come away with after listening to the new album?
Holiday: I hope people feel like they’ve been taken on an epic trip, felt all the feels, and they leave full of questions, fired up, cathartic, free, motivated… all those good things.
In my gay opinion, The Last Resort’s “Escape And Retreat” delivers island vibes along with the reggae drenched collab with Kim Wilde “Cliffhanger” and our Caribbean Queen’s “One Hundred Degrees”. “Ripe” and “Adonis” bring Holiday’s usual tongue-in-cheek sass and some tropical heat that will leave you needing a quick skinny dip to cool down or to make things even steamier. Then you can hit the Dance Hall at “Venus Beach” where Holiday delivers some disco diva realness with her moan-tage to Donna Summer. Toot! Toot! Beep! Beep!
Dave: If you’re getting whisked away to an abandoned island, what five items are you going to make sure you take with you?
Holiday: A lover, expensive body length pillow, a guitar, a battery-operated ghetto blaster and some CDs.
Dave: Now the age-old question, what are your five must-have desert island albums?
Holiday: I’m so into compilations, I’d probably make 5 of my own comps, but if I had to choose some albums
- Beck’s Midnight Vultures
- John Lee Hooker’s The Hot Spot Sountrack
- Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation Of
- The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up
- Eden Ahbez’s Eden’s Island
Dave: Here at MyGayOpinion I like to promote female and/or QUILTBAG artists, what female and/or QUILTBAG artist do you feel doesn’t get the recognition they deserve?
Holiday: I did a show with an artist called Saint Torrente years ago that I reeeeeally loved. Their visuals are gorgeous and song themes. Just a fab person too.
Thanks again to Holiday for taking time out of her busy schedule opening for Sophie Ellis-Baxtor on her European tour to answer my questions. Of course, I was open to any tea she might be willing to spill, which included her next album may be acoustic, which blew my mind and has me hopeful! When I told her I was also hopeful for some concert dates here in the USA, she said “Gotta get me that visa and I’ll be there asap!!” Fingers crossed that she brings her yacht rock over the pond soon. Until then it’ll be Pina Coladas on the couch with the cats and The Last Resort on repeat for me.
