An Interview with Holly Ross from The Lovely Eggs

50% of The Lovely Eggs, Holly Ross (with the other 50%, Dave, in the background), talks to Victoria Holdsworth about new album, Eggsistentialism, becoming a number one band and launching a YouTube channel: “Your brain will melt”…

Holly, the last time we spoke we were discussing which body part we would have made of food, which then led to the debate of whether it would grow back if you ate it, and would you need to keep it in the fridge.
I know it’s been a while love! How are you? Have you had a good day?

It’s been too long, and I’m well thanks. Not been too bad of a day. I listened to the new album again tonight, and I have to say its pretty well put together, much meatier than the last one somehow.
Well, it’s our seventh album, and we recorded it at home in Lancaster this past year. We also went over to America in December just gone, to mix it with Dave Fridmann, in upstate New York. So far we’ve released two singles from it, and the third one comes out a week today. It’s been good. It’s our favourite album we’ve made so far, but we always say that about every album [laughs].  We just like to push new ground every time we make an album, we don’t want them all to sound the same, and when it was finished we were really pleased with how it sounded. We always try to experiment and never make the same album twice.

There is definitely a new sound to you guys. The album seems to have a lot more layers to it.
We did try to… erm… sorry that’s David squeezing mustard in the background [insert dubious squelching sounds here as he giggles and shouts ‘Hi’]. He’s putting some mustard, or trying to, on a burger! It just sounds like someone wet farting… sorry about that! [laughs]

We saw your last album before lockdown, I Am Moron, go to number 1 in the UK Independent album chart. Does an accolade like that mean anything any more after all the years that go by in your career? Or is it still a ‘Wow!’ moment for you?
Well it does mean something to us. We worked so hard on that album, but it came out at the worst possible time you could ever have released an album. Just at the start of COVID, and lockdown was a bit of a bummer. But for us to get best UK Independent number 1 was great, because some of the other independent labels out there have got a lot more money than we have, more backing and a lot more to their infrastructures than we have. Our release charted higher than them though, so it just felt like we were doing something right. Sometimes The Lovely Eggs feels like we are part of something that is bigger than ourselves. We are The Lovely Eggs, but it’s us and the people who like our band and come to our shows that are also The Lovely Eggs. We are all part of Eggland if you will, and it’s nice if you sell records and stuff and get in the charts, but it’s also interesting because you think, ‘Oh my God! We did that!’ and I say ‘we’ not as a band but as a collective. That feeling of being in a collective and a community is something that’s really important to us.

Speaking of community. I know for the past 2 years you have been tirelessly fighting to keep The Lancashire Music Co-Op. Where are you up to with that?
That’s right yeah! Well, it’s getting re-opened and we are in the middle of helping to manage a one million pound building project.

Not too much pressure then?
[laughs] No, not too much eh? We are over the hill with all the bad stuff now, which is brilliant! Well we hope we are, because there’s always more room for more sh*t on our plates. [laughs] The last 12 months have been really hard. All those months having to fight for our existence, and fighting for the money to fund these repairs, that weren’t our responsibility in the first place. The Lancaster City Council had promised to do this years ago, but didn’t follow up on its promises, so it’s been tough. When a council like them promises to do something in a full council meeting, which was unanimously agreed upon. They promised to renovate this building, that they own, and then five years later they still haven’t done anything, then you almost feel like you’re being gaslit. That’s the politics of course, I suppose. We went back to the chief executives and the council and said , ‘This is not democracy! What our elected representatives promised to do, has not been carried out, so why not?’ and we really made a big thing of it, and finally we found a solution, but it’s not been easy.

Struggles aside, you also launched EggsTV on YouTube. For those who haven’t come across it, what can people expect?
Well, it’s basically a six part series that we made, because we thought all the stuff on television was crap, so we thought, ‘Right, we need to change this!’ We decided to make our own TV show, but we wanted to highlight the work that people we were into were doing and producing. We wanted to highlight poets, comedians, other musicians, artists and authors were doing. We felt it was important to us to do that, and no one else was doing it, so fuck it we will. So we did it, and that nearly fuc*ing killed us! We thought it would be about two months of work, and it turned out to be two bloody years of work! [laughs] But we wanted to make it really good, you know? It’s an eclectic mix, so if you’re interested in something different, go on YouTube and look up EggsTV and like… prepare for your mind to be blown. Your brain will melt, and your eyes will water! [laughs]

Have you got plenty of gigs and festivals booked in this year? Which do you most look forward to?
They’re all our favourites really… [dubious squelch and a ‘Sorry!’ in the background] There goes David with his bloody mustard again! They’re all great, because we’ve built up a big community. Not just in the North, but across the country really. Leeds is a favourite of ours, and a shout out to the Gipton massive! We always feel like we’re going home when we go to Leeds. It’s not just because of the crowd, but because of the venue. The Brudenel Social Club holds such a special place in our hearts. We love it there! We’re really looking forward to the opportunity to be able to play our new album live for everybody. Playing live to people is what we are looking forward to most after all this time really.

Which would be your three standout tracks on the new album?
Oh my God! I’m gonna say the new single, ‘Nothing/Everything’. ‘Memory Man’, which is another single we have released is great! This is hard, because I love them all for all different reasons, but I think for the third, I would say, ‘I Am Gaia’, because it’s just so different and stripped back from the other songs on the album.

Holly and Dave of the Lovely Eggs, 2024

Will there be any further collaborations coming up in the near future?
Not that we are aware of [laughs], but that’s what’s so great about life isn’t it? Like, in a job like what we do, anything can be around the corner. So even though nothing is planned, we just don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

So the only remaining question,that is pursed on everyone’s lips is, will Dave be auctioning off any more of his vintage beauty items on this tour, after his Mickey Mouse soap on a rope frenzy?
Oh well, we don’t know yet actually! [laughs] His eBay empire thing became a bit of a lockdown thing also, but we’ve been a bit snowed under with making music and sorting out records, [laughs] so his empire crumbled a bit. That’s the thing though with David, he always wants to take stuff, but never gets rid of stuff, [laughs] so I can’t believe he actually managed to get rid of a few bits. It was very good of him actually, and he was a changed man for a while. [laughs]

Yes, my friend was still gutted he got pipped at the post for his soap… bitter was not the word that was used.
Oh yeah, I remember that. I’ll have to get David to pop a few more bits up then [laughs], make it fair!

Plans for the rest of the year?
Well after the tour, we will probably doss about in the summer, and play some festivals and just relax, ya know? We will then go back to making music. We are starting the pans to get The Lancashire Music Co-Op back up and actually running. Writing some more music and getting some more music out there, so it’s just same old sh*t really, [laughs] but it’s good!

The Lovely Eggs’ new album, Eggsistentialism, is released on May 17th
The band play Leeds Brudenell May 26th – for full tour dates visit thelovelyeggs.co.uk
For tickets click here
images: Darren Andrews