Victor Holk
San Marcos, Texas, United States | SELF
Music
Press
The lyrics and sound were born as Holk, 20, began writing music from the heart about living and working in the semi-rural Highland Lakes, where many post-high school graduates don't stick around. The result was "Daybreak," a unique sounding soundtrack to the lives of young adults in the Hill Country finding their way toward a future. - Highland Lakes Newspapers
HIGHLAND LAKES - The name started off as a joke.
Victor Holk and his friends would sit outside the restaurant where they worked in Kingsland and look over at the big hill commonly known as Lookout Mountain while they greeted people coming in from the east.
"We would sit there and look up at it and say, 'Lookout! Mountain,' " he said with a laugh. "I think t just lends itself to the fact we all were there working so long wondering what we were going to do next. We would sit there and look at the hill, sky, and lake and hope for better things."
Better things could very well be on their way as Lookout! Mountain releases its first CD 8 p.m. Friday at its concert at the Uptown Marble Theater, 218 Main St., Marble Falls. The title of the CD is "Lullabies for Daybreak."
"It does follow somewhat of a theme," Holk siad of the CD name and songs on it. "Literally it's talking about not going to bed until the sun comes up. And it talks about being 20 years old in a town like Marble Falls and Burnet that doesn't cater to the post high school crowd."
Lookout! Mountain is made up of four local musicians - Holk, Shane Bridges, Zak Youngquist, and Devin Turner.
Most of the songs were peices Holk began writing during his time in the punk rock band Save Converse. The songs finding his way into his notebook just didn't fit the Punk Rock sound, yet he felt they still needed to express themselves.
Holk describes Lookout! Mountains sound as "indie/country," though he admited that also really started out as a joke.
"I call it Indie Country because if you compare it something like Indie-Rock, it shares many of the themes from traditional country music like Johnny Cash that probably wouldn't ever get recorded today by major labels," Holk said. "It's like indie-rock musicians are doing rock the way they think it should be done, we're taking country music and doing it the way we think it should be done - more heartfelt."
It might sound strange for a former member of a Punk Rock band to be branching out to a more country sound, but Holk said the difference between Punk and Lookout! Mountain's indie-country sound has more to do with peoples tendency to pigeonhole music than the actual themes of the music.
"Country music, when it started out, was only found in the bars and other places like that," He said "People in gospel music hated country music because they thought it was the devils music. Country started out as "trashy" music. It was the Punk music of its time."
Though Lookout! Mountain doesn't include twin fiddles or some of the other instruments that are associated with Country Music, Holk said there music is softer, and more mellow than the punk rock music he played for several years.
"This really started out as a singer-songwriter project for me," Holk said. "I wanted to play with alot of the musicians around here I knew. So this summer I started getting together with some and things started growing from there. It's turning into something alot more than I thought it would be."
Now Holk, and Lookout! Mountain are excited about Fridays CD release party and the publics reaction to Lullabies for Daybreak - River City Tribune
Discography
2009 - "You were always meant to be here..."
2011 - "There's No There"
2011 - "With Words as Strong as Warriors"
Photos
Bio
Victor Holk is a performing songwriter from Austin Texas. Over the course of three independently produced and released albums, Holk has developed a strong local following throughout the Texas Hill Country. Holk's songs take the listener from quite, lyrical introspection to viscous screams of heartache and anguish. Holk's raw blend of folk and alternative is attributed to a wide variety of musical influences and life experiences.
Holk is currently performing throughout Texas, either making solo appearances or rocking the stage with his band, the Prerecorded Tracks. Over the past few years Holk as shared the stage with notorious local and touring acts such as The Lonesome Heroes, HalleyAnna & the Tennessee Volunteers, John Hogan, Fire in the Pines, The Shady Rest Band, among many others. Holk's band, the Prerecorded Tracks, features Colin Colby (The River Hymn, The Victory March) on electric guitar, Sterling Finlay (Rivertrain, Todd Snider, The Gougers) on bass, and Dave Simms Jr. (After the Sunset, Daniel Conti & Drawing Back, Fire in the Pines) on drums. Holk and the "tracks" are currently working on a full-length album and further national touring.
Holk's most recent album, With Words as Strong as Warriors, is currently available for download only. The album was commissioned as Holk's Thesis for the Honors College at Texas State University. The album spans 50 years of politically charged material from Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" to The Dead Kennedy's "Kill the Poor." Holk lends his voice to these great works of yore, weaving historical songs amongst his own to create a cohesive musical image of the American landscape. The album was recorded live, in studio, with a minimalist folk/country arrangement, featuring Burton Lee (Eleven Hundred Springs) on steel guitar and dobro, along with Sterling Finlay on upright bass.
Holk released his debut EP, "There's No There" in early 2011. The album was recorded live, in-studio, with the musicians who would later form "The Prerecorded Tracks." The band included Colin Colby on electric guitar, Sterling Finlay on upright bass, and Dees Stribling (The Alexander, Sons of Fathers) on drums. The vocals and three piece rhythm section were recorded live in the studio over the summer of 2010 at the Cheatham Street Woodshed. Colby engineered the session as well as overdubbing lead guitar over the live session. The record is a raw and authentic representation of the songs penned just across the street in the old wooden warehouse
In 2009 Holk had the honor of performing as a finalist in the Student Songwriters Showcase at the renowned Kerrville Folk Festival. Over the same summer, he produced, recorded, and released the 3 song CD-R "You were always meant to be here" which has since been left out of print.
Early Career
Holk penned his first few tunes at the age of eleven while traveling the American south with his family before settling in the rural Hill Country. During High School and Junior College, Holk wrote for and performed with several indie and punk rock bands around his hometown, helping to spur an underground music scene beneath the community of stetson sporting neo-cons. Upon entering Texas State University decided to forego obscure band names and begin his career as a singer-songwriter.
The young songwriter found work and a home base in Kent Finlay's infamous Cheatham Street Warehouse, where Holk would run live sound for the entirety of his university career. He found inspiration from many of the astonishing songwriters who he came into contact with there. That inspiration drove Holk into developing his skills as a songwriter, attending Songwriters Night at Cheatham Street as well as the open mics at various coffee shops throughout the area. Before long, venue owners were asking Holk to begin playing regular sets throughout the area.
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