Episode #7: Holly Pyle

January’s guest on the podcast is Holly Pyle, a singer who uses different musical styles and technology to create her own unique vocal sound and compositions. Holly was an opera major at Northern Arizona University when she stumbled upon a jazz choir audition. She fell in love with the genre, eventually completing her studies in jazz and psychology. 

Since diving into a music career in 2014, she has released two albums and given over 900 performances in a diverse mix of genres — from hip hop to country to jazz. Holly frequently performs as a solo acapella act, using electronic looping to sample and recombine her voice into an ever-changing choir of Hollys. 

I met Holly when she was visiting Portland to give a concert and music workshop with my friend, pianist Darrell Grant. Their conversation about collaboration, improvisation, and the creative process had me wishing I had a way to take notes. I loved how she talked about her inner life and her relationship to creativity and knew she would be a wonderful guest on the podcast.

For full show notes, transcriptions of this episode, and more offerings for singers, you can visit my website HERE.

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You can find Holly on: Facebook or Instagram.

The songs from today’s episode are called: Veil, Zoloft, Human Together, and Outside of You. (All tracks used with permission.) To listen or download, go HERE.

Theme music for the Podcast was composed by John Smith. He edits all the podcast episodes too. (Thanks honey!)