Vlad Holiday (born May 24, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He began his solo career in 2017, blending multiple styles across genres including lo-fi, bedroom pop, psych rock, and jazz, often over hip-hop-inspired drums. Holiday's love for vintage microphones, tape machines and other old recording equipment is a big part of his signature sound.[1] Holiday has also produced and written with other artists, including Cage The Elephant’s Neon Pill, which is nominated for Best Alternative Music Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.[2]
Early life
Holiday was born in Bucharest, Romania, on May 24, 1989, and moved to America in 1999. He spent a lot of his musical career in New York City, before moving his home base to Nashville, Tennessee.
Career
Solo career (2017–present)
With a downtown NYC lo-fi sound, writing and recording at his studio in the heart of historic Greenwich Village, Holiday started putting out songs as they are being written, not worrying about the pressures of albums or EP's or any other music industry constructs. On July 28, 2017, Vlad Holiday announced his solo project through Nylon. Nylon premiered his debut track, "Quit Playing Cool".[3] The song was also featured on Spotify's "New Indie Mix" playlist, "Fresh Finds: Six Strings" playlist, as well as featured on All Genres Hot Tracks on iTunes and Apple Music.[4][5] Quit Playing Cool's music video was released on VEVO's New Alternative playlist on September 1, 2017. The video features model and actress, Yulia Kirillova, and is directed by Polly Pierce.[6]
On March 9, 2018, Holiday put out his second single "Children". The song was featured on Spotify's New Indie Mix playlist, as well as The Wild Honey Pie's "Buzzing Daily" and a Paste Magazine & Daytrotter Live Session.[7][8]
On April 6, 2018, "Tunnel Vision" premiered on The 405, where he spoke about the song's lyrics, which questions the idea of extreme escapism. “Don't get me wrong, I love escaping from it all every now and then as much as anyone else, but at the end of the day you kinda have to snap back and face the world. There's a whirlpool of social movements happening right now that are actually changing the status quo, which would never have happened if everyone just sat back and waited for everything to resolve itself,” Holiday explains. Holiday held a single release show at Elsewhere Zone One in Brooklyn, NY on April 3, 2018. This third single was also featured on Spotify's New Indie Mix, and True Indie playlists (where Holiday held the cover).[9] Tunnel Vision was played on NYC's Q104.3 WAXQ Out of the Box radio show with Jonathan Clarke, as well as other college radio stations like WSOU.[10][11]
On May 25, 2018, Holiday released his fourth song, "Obscurity" around a headliner show in Brooklyn, NY at C'mon Everybody.[12][13]
"Like in the Movies" premiered through MILK on August 24, 2018.[14] The song was also featured on Spotify's New Music Friday and New Indie Mix playlists the day it came out.
On November 30, 2018, Holiday released his final single of the year "Artificial Paradise," as he went on tour opening for Haerts. The song was featured on Spotify's All New Indie playlist among others, and was accompanied by a music video shot by Cara Marceante.[15]
