Interview with Ray and Paul Holmberg

How has tour been going so far?

Ray: It’s been going super good. Yeah. Been, uh, we did a mini tour in Europe last year, but this has been our first one where we’ve done a lot of nights in a row playing and it’s been really fun. 

Paul: Yeah. A little bit tiring. Yeah. But like, we’ve been basically living out of our parents’ sprinter van, which has been fun and exciting, but there’s always some just little difficulties that you run into. Yeah. Along the way. Uh, not bad though. Yeah. But nothing really bad. It’s been really fun actually. We’ve played at a lot of different places that we’ve never been. To before. Mm-hmm. Never been to Malibu before. Yeah. And that’s, um, it’s really, really pretty. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we’ve been meeting some cool people and just kind of having a good time and definitely get like a taste of like touring life, like the concert life.

Exactly. The musician life. Yeah. That’s really cool. How have like the cities you have been in, have you had any really unique experiences, you kind of said Malibu already?

R:  Yeah, I mean, I’ve, I’ve been to Malibu before. I, uh, I like, um, A lot of the spots, obviously we’re super excited to bring it home to our hometown, in San Francisco.

P: to have people here. We’ve kind of just been not really exploring the cities we’ve really been in. Yeah. As much as we should be. We want to. Yeah. It’s kind of like in and out. We’re going to the beach a lot and hung out. Yeah. And like. Like Huntington or, or no, like Emerald Bay.

P: Yeah. Emerald Bay was really, we went to Costa Mesa. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. And this was cool. The Wayfair was really, really fun. Uh, but yeah, nothing really like, like, I don’t know. I can’t really think of.

R: we’ve met a bunch of interesting people that are, yeah, lots of crazy people. It’s always fun. A lot of just really interesting people.

Yeah. Especially in the music industry.

P: Yeah. Everyone’s got a very, very like eccentric personality in the music industry. 

Yeah, that’s true. Okay, so my next question is a little bit controversial, but I really want to know your answer. Spotify or Apple Music?

P:  Um, um, okay, so here’s the thing. We both use Apple Music, but I obviously would rather use Spotify, but all of my music is on Apple Music, so it’s, at this point, I’m just in too deep. Okay. And I also have a theory. That it’s only a matter of time before Apple buys Spotify. So who knows? But yeah, every, every time I hear new like features on Spotify, I’m like, damn, I’m really missing out on like the song transitions and the playlist. 

R: Oh yeah. you get listen to Neil Young though, which is true.

P: Oh yeah. We get young.. Uh, that’s, that’s basically the only class of Apple music. Interesting. 

R: Yeah. So like Apple Music has weird recommendations. Doesn’t really. Barely even has recommendations. Yeah. Like how do you find You don’t Yeah, I was gonna say, we, I just listen to albums normally.

R: I, yeah. In my truck, I only have CDs and I’ll just buy CDs and listen. 

I don’t hear a lot of, don’t hear a lot of Apple Music fans.

P:  It’s, well, I mean, we’re not necessarily Apple fans. Yeah. It’s funny though. It’s, it is like a controversy. It’s, it should, but it’s, it’s funny. The only problem is just when like you’re playing music and then someone’s like, oh, this is sick. What’s your playlist? And then it’s like, I use Apple, apple music. I’m sorry. Yeah. I have to apologize. Um, yeah, we’re both Spotify, so, you know, it’s hard to hear, but it’s okay. We’ll move on.

We’ll move on. So when did you guys first start creating music versus when you started playing together? 

P: Um, we have kind of been playing music basically our whole lives. So our, our. My parents have been like in bands and our dad is really a big musician that’s been playing forever. So he kind of just like threw instruments at us and was like, you guys should, and we kind of just took to it : So we’ve been playing together. We played our first talent show when I was in first grade, and he was in fourth grade. Uh, and that was the first time we like played together in front of an audience. But yeah, when did we  start, like recording and kind of getting serious about it?

R:  Um, I think I was, I was either, we were 15 or I was 15 or 16.

P: I was like 12 or 13. Yeah, 13 or 14. We recorded mystery for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. We kind of just, at one point Ray was just like, we should start taking this seriously. And I was like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. For sure. 

R: Yeah. I remember when we first made an Instagram name, we were always, you were always not sure if we wanted to be our name.

P: Yeah. We, we weren’t, we kind of just decided to go with the names ’cause we, well, Ray’s reasoning and mine too is just like…

R:  We didn’t want people to be like, oh, I really like that singer from that band. We wanted people to know our names and stuff. 

P: But I don’t know, we’re still kind of thinking about our name changes, possibilities. We don’t know thought, we need to do that before, like 

R: We’re officially Ray and Paul now. Without the Holmberg though.

R: Yes, that’s true. Ray and Paul. No, Holmberg. Holmberg’s a mouthful. 

Okay, cool. Have you ever done interviews similar to this before?

P:  Um, all newspapers. Yeah. Okay. Like, that’s kind of it. Yeah. That’s, yeah, that’s all, that’s our experience with interviews, so kind of.

R: Yeah, I’ve done, well, I’ve done one at UCSB too. Um, I never even saw anything happen to that, but yeah, just from school.

 So I’m kind of like your first random one.

R:  Yeah.

 Well, that’s awesome. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So remember me when you’re famous. Yeah. So this is a little bit more personal, but what surprises people about you? 

P: Um, I don’t know. I, I. I can’t really say it for like myself. One funny thing though was we played at this show one time and I was going to the bathroom and I just saw this guy there and he was like randomly talking to me and I was a little bit confused at first and he, I like, oh, he asked for my name and I was like, oh, I’m Paul. And he was like, wait, are you like Paul of Ray and Paul? I’m like, oh yeah. He’s like, oh, that’s who I’m here to see tonight. And he, this is what he said when Ray came into and like started talking to him and he’s like, I thought you guys would look less douchey.

R: Less douchey. And we were like, I don’t know how to take that really. Thanks. 

P: That was funny. Yeah, that was, that’s, I don’t know what, what was the question again? What surprises people about you? I don’t know. I  don’t look douchey. I guess so. Or that I do look douchey?I don’t know.

R:  At like the surface level people listen to, some of ’em are more popular songs, which are just kind of hip. But when you start to dive down, it gets pretty deep and personal and talks about issues with mental health and a ton of things that I think when as people start listening more and more, they widen their perspective on us.

P: Yeah, I feel like our hits are. Kind of the more like poppy songs about girls. Stuff like that. But we definitely have, like our news stuff is a lot more like, intricate and like more like deep topics, which we kind of want to be our main thing and instead of the like, “Mystery”.  Like ‘Oh my God. He is talking about a girl. What’s going on?’ 

So this one can be hard, I guess, like this, like a harder thing to answer, but I feel like you guys are gonna be able to do it. If you were in the album, what album would you be? Like, what resonates with your personality? 

P: Damn. Um, I dunno, that’s what I want. Tough question. It is a tough question. I know. I, I, the only reason I would know is ’cause I think about it all the time. Do you have an answer? 

R: Um, yeah. I really like the Andy Warhol Velvet Underground album. Our dad has always been a big fan of the Velvet Underground and showed me at like a young age and I feel like there are a lot of slow and then a lot of crazy songs. I feel like I get a lot of my inspiration from some of that. 

R: I’m gonna go with Invitation to Hers. Um, that’s like probably my favorite album right now. And I. I just, every single song that I hear on that album, just like, it’s so, so, so, so good. Yeah. I love that album. I feel like it’s, it’s the type of album where I feel like I can scream every single lyric. Or I just feel it. And so I’ll, I’ll go with that one. Yeah. 

Yeah. Both are really good answers, honestly. So my last question for you today is what have your, what are your expectations for tonight? 

P: Um, have a really good time. Hopefully, sell it out. Really hope that, or no, I know that everyone’s going to like really mess with the bands that we’re playing with. There’s a band from Is Vista that we play with a ton called Field Daze and then Band Rose Paradise, who’s super duper talented and coming out with some new music. So I think that expectations are, they’re people are gonna really, really enjoy themselves.

How are you kind of feeling as you’re ending, your tour?

R: We’re excited. I definitely, it’s definitely been harder with my injury. Yeah. I would’ve, I would be able to go for a lot of months if I was able to walk, but I definitely need to put this thing up a little bit. It’s, yeah, it’s kind of sad coming to an end of just like this kind of fun little experience, but I’m definitely ready to like… this is not the last one.

P: Exactly. And I’ll, it’s, it’s kind of just like a punctuation mark on like the end of me having to travel to go to like play music with him. And so we’ll definitely be able to make more music and play more shows next year when I live down there. So yeah. Wow, this is exciting. Yeah, I’m super excited.

I’m really excited for the show. Well, thank you so much for talking to me, both of you. 

P: This is really awesome. Yeah, I had a really fun time, honestly.