Astoria, Oregon based group Holiday Friends are debuting a new single “Yellow Light” off of their upcoming album “Night Terrors”, coming out June 23. Holiday Friends’ lineup has been in flux from 2008-2015, but they have found stability in Scott Fagerland (singer/guitarist), Jon Fagerland (multi-instrumentalist), Zack O’Conner (bassist), and Joey Ficken (drummer).
“Yellow Light” follows along with the band’s alternative rock sound, but also includes a catchy mellow hook. There are also hints of synth and acoustic guitar in the background that help create a more relaxed feeling.
Says the band of the song:
The first kernel of inspiration for “Yellow Light” came from a photo my friend took of Astoria at night from across the Megler Bridge. Astoria sat huddled on the banks of the Columbia, a little cluster of lights hemmed by shifts of fog, and the light fractured on the surface of the water.The chords for the verse fell out of the feel of that image, a bit on the darker, broodier side. The lyrics started to develop around that image, but started to zoom out without much doing on my part. It started to become less about just our tiny north coast town, and more about finding these precious moments and wanting to live in them but being forced to move forward anyway. We feel inspiration and wonderment, and we try to keep it, but we can’t, and it changes and shifts like lights and fog, and we lament that fact. It’s wonderful and it’s frustrating and it’s sad and it’s euphoric, all kind of at the same time.The rest of the song continued to develop as we began tracking, especially in terms of shifts in feel and minor to major. Finally, in one last wonderful surprise, our mixing engineer took some liberties with tone and crunch and it became what it is on the record.
This song, with its upbeat feel and echoing vocals, creates the feeling of joy and comes just in time to be played during summer events.
Night Terrors is out June 23rd, and is available for preorder now. You can listen to “Yellow Light” here, and you can find more information about Holiday Friends on their website.
