Originally hailing from Ottawa, Hollerado burst onto the world stage in 2010 with their debut Record In A Bag. The LP introduced music fans to Hollerado’s irresistible guitar-pop and earned them a 2011 JUNO nomination for “Best New Artist”. Their savvy DIY approach, along with their incredible talent and tenacity, saw the band gain international attention in short order. Hollerado’s penchant for making super creative and share-worthy music videos like uber-viral Americanarama, which is over 1 Million YouTube views, helped solidify the bands’ popularity. Tours in China and Brazil, and shows with Flaming Lips, Weezer and Jack White’s The Dead Weather soon followed.
In February 2013, Hollerado released their highly anticipated sophomore album White Paint. The 11 tracks stand out as a reflection of the sheer volume of life experience and the hundreds of shows members Menno Versteeg, Dean Baxter and brothers Nixon and Jake Boyd have played since forming in 2007. The lead single “Pick Me Up” hit #3 at Modern Rock and was the #1 most added track at Alternative after only three weeks at radio. “So It Goes” just hit Canadian radio last week and is already Top 20 on the Alternative radio chart and Top 20 on the BDS Modern Rock chart.
In keeping with their boundless creativity and DIY approach the band invited friends to a warehouse party in a suburb of Toronto where they hand painted every single physical copy of the record with a signature stroke of white paint. The LP earned the band further critical acclaim and a chance to cross Canada in support of Canadian rock legends Billy Talent earlier this year.
On July 31, 2013, Hollerado released a video for the single “So It Goes” from their most recent LP White Paint on the band’s own label, Royal Mountain Records. Directed by award-winning video director Marc Ricciardelli (Alexisonfire, City and Colour, Hedley) the documentary-esque video captures an incredible “reunion” and story of forgiveness.
The song is written about lead singer Menno Versteeg’s Dutch grandfather and the incredible story of how his life was spared by a Nazi officer during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. After the war, Menno’s “Opa” who was part of the Dutch Resistance, testified on behalf of the former SS soldier during a tribunal and recounted how the man had compassionately spared his life. In doing so, Menno’s grandfather help spare the German’s life in return. With the help of the Dutch government, the band was actually able to track down the German’s grandson, and Menno and the grandson – who are alive today because of both of their grandfathers’ compassion and courage – have an emotional meeting in Munich while Hollerado was in Rotterdamn shooting the music video. The best part is the incredible meet-up, documented in a special long version of the video. The video premiered on Huffington Post (USA/CAN), instantly became front-page news and the story has spread to national TV news, talk shows and appearances.