Hollerado wind up a dozen years of irreverent fun with best album yet

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Ottawa area based indie rock/ pop band Hollerado are calling  it a day after about a dozen years on the road. They return to the Slice one last time, Tuesday, Oct. 22.
 They just released one last album “ Retaliation Vacation,” but all people want to talk about is their retirement.Hollerado returns to Lethbridge, Oct. 22. Photo by Ryan Faist


“We think it’s our best one yet, but all everyone wants to ask us about is our retirement,” observed frontman Menno Versteeg.
 To go along with the new album, they released a weird video for “Time on Earth, featuring a break dancing battle between an old man and an alien.


“We’ve always been irreverent so it just suits us. Besides it’s our last tour, so we didn’t really care if anyone likes it,” Versteeg continued, adding people ended up really liking it.
Guitarist Nixon Boyd, drummer Jake Boyd and bassist Dean Baxter complete the quartet.

“We’ve always marched to the beat of our own drum,” quipped drummer Jake Boyd.
“Oh, a drummer joke,” Versteeg chuckled.


“It’s just time to retire. How many of your favourite bands’ sixth album is your favourite,” Boyd added.


“We‘re still best friends, so there’s no juicy gossip,” Versteeg emphasized.

“ We’ll probably miss it during festival season. But now we’ll all just be going to the festivals to watch and without having to lug any gear. And we’ve got enough friends that we can go back stage and hang out with them and drink their beer and eat their food and play their instruments and maybe play a Hollerado set,” Versteeg laughed.


 They are pleased with the new CD.
“We did it all ourselves. We recorded it in Nick’s studio down the street. It was a really fun process,” Versteeg said, adding they didn’t  have to cull any songs from the collection.

“We just wrote 12 songs then went in and recorded them,” he said.


“ Time on Earth” is a highlight as is “King Kong.”
“ King Kong is about the beast in all of us,” Versteeg said, adding fans are enjoying the new album.
“ It’s a lot of fun. It’s a Hollerado album, so if you like Hollerado, you’ll like it,” Versteeg said.
 Their last tour runs until Dec. 13.
 

They’ve had a lot of inspirational moments, not the least of was the “Meet the Mayors tour in 2017, which resulted in Lethbridge mayor Rajko Dodic getting up on stage to jam with them.
 But they can’t choose a favourite moment.


“That’s a tough question. We get asked that a lot. We can’t pick just one. Just the friendships we’ve made. We’ve been all over the world and have made friends in every city we’ve visited. We might not have made lifelong friends, but we can go to Tulsa, Oklahoma and find out where the best cup of coffee is,” Versteeg said.
“The friendship is magical,” Boyd said.


They’ve enjoyed playing Lethbridge over the years.
“ Our favourite memory is the pizza at the Slice. So we get to do that one more time,” Versteeg said.


“It’s a farewell tour, so we’ll be playing the hits. We’ll be playing your favourites. And we’ve played there enough, we know what those are,” Versteeg said.
 There is a $15  cover for the show, which begins at 9 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 22.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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