By Hilary Saunders
Greg Holden sounds like he still has a little chip on his shoulder.
The young British singer/songwriter has found great success in the music industry since 2012, just not in ways that he expected, or perhaps wanted.
That year, a song he wrote called “Home” debuted on the American Idol season finale, as contestant Phillip Phillips used it as his “coronation song” when the judges declared him the winner.
You’ve probably heard “Home:” It’s a folksy acoustic pop song reminiscent of The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” or Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man,” with a melodic transition of “ooh-ooh-ooh’s” that wiggles it way into your subconscious for days at a time. In fact, the following year, Holden’s song surpassed favorite Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” in terms of songs released by American Idol alumni.
Later in 2012, another of his songs, “The Lost Boy,” became a worldwide hit in, too. American audiences heard it during a moving sequence in season five of Sons of Anarchy. In the Netherlands, “The Lost Boy” went straight to No. 1 on Christmas Day, as Radio 3FM’s annual charity campaign Serious Request used it to raise more than €32,000 ($36,200) for the Red Cross.
Elsewhere, his songs were used in a Target commercial and television shows such as ABC’s Private Practice, Make It Or Break It, One Tree Hill and The CW’s Life Unexpected, as well as films like This Means War and Chasing Mavericks.
But Holden never wanted to be the musician behind the scenes. Now on tour opening for fellow New York-based singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, Holden explains what he means after finishing a television spot with a local NBC morning show in Charlotte, N.C.
“I write very personal songs. They’re very close to my heart and it’s very difficult for me to get in the headspace of like, ‘No no, let’s just write a hit. We just want a hook for this pop girl who doesn’t really care what she’s saying or even know what she’s saying,’” Holden said.
From his tour van, in transit to that evening’s gig at the Fillmore, he continues, “It puts me in a weird situation because I’m so connected to the songs that I write and it’s very hard for me to zone out of that headspace.
“So, I tried to do it and I had a little bit of success doing that, but it wasn’t making me happy. In fact, it was making me miserable, so I stepped out of that world and then tried to find myself again back in my own world,” he said.
So to escape these songs and the others that comprise his first, fan-funded record I Don’t Believe You, Holden took a seven-week trip to India and Nepal. The Scottish-born, English-raised, American-based singer traveled through the northernmost states of India and Nepal, trekked through the Himalayas, and even went to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama resides.
And that adventure completely changed his outlook, as well as inspired every track on his second fan-funded album Chase the Sun, due out April 14 via Warner Brothers Records.
“I learned how to make it more relatable to people and not so self-indulgent. I learned a lot from ‘Home,’ too, in terms of sonically and melodically what really worked with the general public,” Holden admits.
He also learned how to work the system and managed to get exactly what he wanted.
“My plan was to fund and make this album the way I wanted to do it without any influence from anyone else, and then find someone who was interested in the album that I had made, not necessarily the album that they had wanted me to make,” he said.
As for this current tour, Holden and Michaelson already have a storied relationship, so their upcoming show in Fort Lauderdale should showcase their friendly familiarity. Michaelson discovered Holden performing in a New York club back in 2009 and invited him to open for him on her tour that year.
During that jaunt, Holden’s first through the United States, he and Michaelson became quick friends. So while their booking agents arranged this tour, they are looking forward to surprising each other during their sets.
“We’ve been going out with her on a couple songs and she might come out with us on a song on this tour,” Holden says slyly. “We’re still working that out.”
Greg Holden and Ingrid Michaelson appear at The Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Tickets cost $36.20; visit cultureroom.net.