Brother Jeff records in his dorm room

by Nick Meador

Jeff's Holiday

On a dark, frosty evening in January, Jeff Meador stands in his dorm room holding a ukulele. This little, wooden instrument used to get a lot of play in his parents’ basement and back yard, where Jeff spent most of his free time in high school. Then last August Jeff moved to MSU, and brought all his musical equipment with him. Jeff is in the vast majority of people who think the dorm, with its heartburn inducing cafeteria food, cramped space, and lack of privacy, is an inferior place to live. So when he’s not doing homework, he passes the time writing music.

He writes under the name Jeff’s Holiday, which sounds like a band when you hear it. But one-man recording projects are becoming more and more common as technology makes it easier for a single person to bring their musical ideas to life. Then consider the first truth in music – that most bands break up – and Jeff has been more productive and creative than ever before. The result is a mix of indie electronica and experimental pop that is not easily categorized.

I had a casual conversation with Jeff about how Jeff’s Holiday came to fruition, what inspires him, and what’s coming next. The empty bottles and dirty laundry brought back unfavorable memories of my own experience in MSU’s dorms some years ago, and I hoped that Jeff’s roommate would be slow to return for fear of a claustrophobic panic. 

MusicEdge: When did you start writing the songs on Young and Restless?

Jeff’s Holiday: I started writing them in the spring of 2006, and finished in the fall. 

ME: So you started before you came to college?

JH: Right. I finished them up in college. 

ME: Which songs did you write first?

JH: They’re actually in chronological order, so the first song would be the first song I wrote. 

ME: Which song is your favorite, or which one are you most proud of?

JH: I’m most proud of the song “Everyone Is A Whore.” 

ME: What is that song about?

JH: That song is about how beautiful things aren’t always what they seem to be. 

ME: What frustrated you the most while you were making the album? What did you think was hardest?

JH: Well I’m not very good at making drum beats, so that ended up being the hardest part. 

ME: Are all the drum beats computerized?

JH: Yeah, every drum beat is computerized. 

ME: A couple songs were written and then sort of played in reverse. How did you decide to do that?

JH: I tried to think of some clever reason, but it came down to just sounding cooler in reverse sometimes. 

ME: Did you use a program to play it in reverse? How did you flip the music around?

JH: Yeah I just flipped it around in a program. 

ME: How did you come up with the name Jeff’s Holiday?

JH: Well, when I started writing the songs, it ended up being almost like I was writing a diary. An escape from problems I had. So it just made sense to call it Jeff’s Holiday, like I was on a holiday while I was writing the songs and playing them. 

ME: Do you remember if you came up with it before you came to MSU?

JH: Yeah, I came up with that actually before I started writing the songs for Young and Restless. There were a couple songs I wrote before that. 

Young and Restless, self-released by Jeff’s Holiday in 2006 (click to view on CDBaby.com) 

ME: How do you promote your music? Is it mostly with MySpace? I saw that your CD is on CDBaby.com.

JH: I had always used MySpace from the beginning, and I just started using CDBaby. And now they’re sending my music out to iTunes and Ruckus, and it’s exciting. So hopefully it’ll get out there a little more. 

ME: And how much does the album cost on CDBaby?

JH: Right now it’s $9. 

ME: What band are you listening to the most right now?

JH: The past week or so I’ve had the band Milosh pretty much on repeat all day every day. 

ME: And how did you find out about that band?

JH: I found them on iTunes. 

ME: Did you have other inspirations, like movies or books, or do certain people inspire the songs?

JH: Well the songs are basically about two girls I dated that summer. 

ME: Do you prefer to write music by yourself, versus with other people?

JH: I think it’s a lot easier to do it by myself. Cuz it’s like, if you’re painting a picture, you’re going to paint it by yourself. You’re not going to have someone else come in and do part of the picture. You can control everything. Like, if you want this guy to have brown hair, you give him brown hair. That’s what it is for me. Making my own music. 

ME: You’ve been in bands before, right?

JH: Yeah. It ends up getting really frustrating, when you’re trying to play a song. I just can’t handle it.  

ME: Do you think you’ll ever perform as Jeff’s Holiday?

JH: Yeah, actually this week I put together about six songs that I can actually play live, and I’ve been practicing them when my roommate isn’t here. 

ME: What would you play in a live show, and what would be pre-recorded?

JH: I would play usually a piano track and then sing along with that, with either just a drum beat or some other stuff on a track. 

ME: What are your plans in school? What’s your major right now?

JH: Right now I’m in Computer Science, and I’m really not where I’m going with that. 

ME: Do you have a favorite class, or a class you hate the most?

JH: I like my math classes the most right now. 

ME: I heard that you’ve been working on a new album? How far along are you, and how is it different from Y&R?

JH: I’m actually almost done with it. I have most of the songs pretty much complete. I think it’s a lot different cuz a lot of the tracks I tried to make them a lot more basic, and a lot of them I tried not to sing about girls and stuff like that. I tried to make just songs that are really enjoyable. No one wants to hear me whining about all these girls treating me bad. 

ME: Do you have a favorite musical memory, like a concert or when you bought a certain album?

JH: Well I think every time I bought a Radiohead album, it was a big event for me. But there’s actually a musical memory I wish I had. I’ll always regret not seeing Broken Social Scene at Lollapalooza [2006]

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