We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hollow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hollow, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
When I started making music an preforming over 10 years ago, there was a heavy stigma put on me. My very first performance ever a fight broke out during my set. No fault of my own, a girl got too drunk the soundguy said he was trying to “cool her off” by rubbing icecube on her kinda inappropriately and her boyfriend started fighting him… Couldn’t be farther than my fault, right? Well not according to Erasmo Castro and his Brownsville Cheezmeh FB Page, and definitely not according to his readers or friends. I was banned from preforming at that bar and basically blacklisted because my music “sows hate and violence” This drunk, scooter driving, licence suspended, whataburger passing out, soon to be Mayoral candidate (never ganna be mayor but he can try) basically spread a lie that damaged my music career and set me on a path to be the black sheep of the music scene in the valley.
Hollow, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
When growing up I always had an affinity writing and poetry. My dad was pretty strict about me playing his Super Nintendo and had a rule, for every hour of gameplay I had write a full page story (front and back) based on a theme he gave me. Needless to say as a child hell even as an adult I love games so I did a lot of writing. In highschool I was a singer in a band called Anthesia only for a short while because although they liked my voice I didn’t have my priorities straight instead of practice I was getting high or drunk. I was from a hyper religious household and didn’t even know music outside of Christian music existed until like 7th grade so when I discovered the local rock station Q94.5 I was hooked. I fell in love with classic rock and rock music in general. To be honest I didn’t even like rap music until I heard 3 6 mafia and swollen members and even then I was barely a fan. A buddy of mine in 2007 showed me horrorcore and a darker side of hip hop and it was on. With everything combined in 2010 I was Chronic Doom.(old moniker) Now I am Hollow.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Honestly, I wish I knew about interfaces because when I first started I had to find new and innovative ways to connect to microphone to my computer. First, I started with a $15 conference microphone that you plugged directly into your 3.5 mm jack. Obviously the quality on that was low to say the least. Then I got my first dynamic microphone and I went out and bought like a $50 XLR to USB cable. Then a friend of mines Dad had a six-channel mixer that you could connect to your computer which was the closest thing I had ever had to an interface and he sold it to me for 100 bucks and then I bought a blue spark condenser microphone for about $150. That’s when the quality started getting better. It wasn’t until 2018 that I actually got a proper audio interface. Another thing I wish I knew more about when I first started were DAWs. I was using audacity for 10 years and that’s a free but very very very limited program and once I switched to reaper in 2018 the quality skyrocketed.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Resilience might as well be my middle name. After the incident I stated earlier it was very hard for me to find shows and when I finally did convince venues to have me the turnouts were super limited. The music that I make is kind of niche for the area so it really didn’t gain any traction and the bad publicity didn’t make it any easier. I could have should have would have gave up a long time ago but I didn’t. I have performed all over the valley from Brownsville to McAllen at malls and anime conventions have performed at the island. Cine El Rey and tons of other places. Even to the point of trying to get my music distributed. I’ve had problems but finally I have a lot squared away and I never gave up. So now I’m at where I’m at being interviewed by you guys. Thanks!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/hollowbmyname
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/hollowbmyname?igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollowBeMyName?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollowPDE?t=zXsUJLiuxKske_hIdcgJsg&s=09
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@HollowBMyName