Listen: Holden Days - Eau Claire (ft Lofty Stills)

I'm a firm believer that bands you already like are an essential component in worthwhile music discoveries. Though mostly reliable in terms of playing with similarly enjoyable acts, occasionally an artist/band will cosign another and set you forth on discovering a new band to love. That's essentially how I stumbled upon Holden Days who not only was featured on previously featured artist Lofty Stills' EP but accompanied him to Nashville to help record and produce his debut full length album. The work of California singer/songwriter Timothy Jude Andrews, Holden Days offers music in a similar if not wholly congruent realm of Lofty Stills' folky dream pop. Or at least "Eau Claire", the first single from his upcoming full length album Cultivate, gives that impression. Aside from the single and a demo called "Here", there's not necessarily too much to go off in terms of Holden Days' cultivated sound.

But listening to "Eau Claire", it's not hard to see why Timothy Andrews and Lofty Stills' Luke Culbertson linked up. They're kindred spirits in sound and vision, downplaying little magical production moments that could be wonderfully expanded in favor of maintaining forward momentum. Culbertson's presence is deeply felt: his vocals capable of delivering emotive sweeps with seemingly little effort. Andrews is the Fred Nicolaus to Culbertson's Daniel Rossen and if the band's lineup is to be believed Holden Days' debut might feature more collaborations not just between Andrews and Culbertson but also Nashville based artist/producer Carson Cody. There's no telling what a collaboration not one but three singer/songwriters based in three different cities will sound like or how prevalent collaboration even is with Andrews project but "Eau Claire" is certainly enough to leave listeners intrigued and primed for more. Thankfully it won't be too long to wait and see as Cultivate's March 2nd release date is right around the corner.