Timing is everything, and yet it’s completely intangible, even transcendent. So when Holy Boy, aka Helene Alexandra Jæge, released her funeral-version of the Doors hit “Riders on the Storm”, both to give a taste of her upcoming album (to be released this August) and to announce herself among the storm of acts that descends on Austin every SXSW, the timing she hoped for was not exactly what she got. The cancellation of SXSW in the midst of the global COVID-19 outbreak sits in eerily perfect timing with steady Rhythm Ace drum beat, Hamond organs and Rhodes piano that create the ominous atmosphere to the track.
The killer on the road. The actor out on loan. These are characters that are quite real at the moment, and their sonic setting in the track echoes the highlighted search for meaning we’re all feeling. “It’s a seeker’s song”, says Holy Boy, “someone looking to find an archetypal truth about what it means to be here – and those are themes I gravitate towards.” This seeker can be found in a well-placed nod to another Doors track that closes out the song, a mantra-like chat of “I’m a changeling, see me change” that is both foreboding and brilliant. Uncalculated synchronicity was Jim Morrison’s thing, and Holy Boy has tapped into it here.
Join the seeker – here
