Mount Holly
Former Silvertide man Nick Perri looks ahead to a pair of dates.
Nick Perri was a member of Silvertide. The guitarist later played with Perry Farrell and Shinedown, then alongside Matt Sorum in
The Darling Stilettos. Now he introduces his latest venture, a rootsy Southern Californian alternative rock band.
These two shows are Mount Holly’s third trip to the UK. We’re thrilled to be coming back. I came with Silvertide, and Jameson [Burt, singer] has been here a bunch of times as a solo artist.
Silvertide appeared to have it all: signed by Clive Davis, gigs with Aerosmith, Van Halen and Journey, and a triumphant set at Download. What went wrong? It was a combination of personalities and music business conflict. When that band was firing on all cylinders, it coincided with the start of Napster and downloading. Things were already going wrong within the band, so that didn’t help.
Classic Rock said of Silvertide: “They sound like the bands that wrote the book on hard rock excess – Zeppelin, Aerosmith, GN’R.” Mount Holly are obviously very different.
The progression feels very natural. I grew up on my parents’ record collections and Pink Floyd is my favourite band of all time, but I’ve taken in new inspirations. This is the first band I’ve been in that allows me to vent my appreciation for James Brown.
It’s interesting that you label yourselves ‘alternative rock’. Forming a band is like a marriage, and Jameson has a whole other set of influences. We spent a year making our album and we came up with a sound that we consider fresh.
Is Perry Farrell as interesting a character as he appears to be? He’s the sweetest guy in the whole world. Perry defines the spirit of alternative music, but those tunes are very much blues-based and very much rock’n’roll. They were just presented in a manner that was fresh and exciting. I’m not comparing Mount Holly to Jane’s Addiction, but the two bands have a spirit that’s similar.
Did you enjoy your spell with Shinedown?
Yeah. I love those guys but musically speaking, it wasn’t where I wanted to head, so there was an amicable parting of the ways. I’d rather play the Water
Rats [a small club] with my own songs than headline Wembley as part of someone else’s band. And without blowing our own trumpet too loudly, I believe Mount Holly is capable of making it to Wembley.
“We spent a year on the album and came up with a fresh sound.”
The album has been finished for a while. When will we hear it? We’re still figuring that out. Timing is everything, and we have agreed to wait until the right moment. We’ve had a lot of success in the sync world recently, landing songs on TV shows and commercials. It’s coming soon, though. DL Mount Holly play London on October 18, Mansfield 21.