Holy Oak Toasts Vampires, Doctors, and Past Lovers on “Second Son,” premiere via FLOOD

Holy Oak Toasts Vampires, Doctors, and Past Lovers on “Second Son,” premiere via FLOOD

STREAM: “Second Son” –
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Singer-songwriter Neil Holyoak has been a student of anthropology, a small-time sheet metal salesman, nihilistic futurist, amateur rifleman, left-handed socialist, soft alcoholic and prison warden of his own soul.

Living between Montreal, Hong Kong, British Columbia, and currently Los Angeles, Neil performs with a shifting band of roadshow vagabonds come together under the banner Holy Oak.

Holy Oak’s new album Second Son is a captivating slow-burner. These electrified folk songs unfold in loose but vivid narratives of loss, hope and restlessness. Both plainspoken and strange, the deep unaffected vocals stand almost uncomfortably bare as the band plays like the ghosts of now skeletal country musicians.

Drawing from J.D. Salinger, the Song of Solomon and Greek mythology, singer-songwriter Neil Holyoak tells of silver street performers, long walks with vampire buddies, and talking flowers that grow old in a day. Producer Howard Bilerman faithfully captures this hallucinogenic narrative through the soft focus of his 2″ tape machine.

Photo by Ip Hoi Wan