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“Music is just one of those things, it pulled me into it. It’s more of a feeling. A calling…it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
Three years ago, Andrew Holtz had a plan. After graduating from Fordham University with a business degree, the New Jersey native landed what most college grads could only hope for: a high paying job at a top accounting firm, including a hefty signing bonus. Holtz thought he was living the dream, but after seven months in the field he still felt like something was missing. After working 9 to 5, Holtz found himself rushing to perform at open mics or hurrying home to pen and record songs until all hours of the night. Realizing climbing the corporate ladder would never fulfill him, he walked into his employer’s office and quit on the spot.
“I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to do. My heart wasn’t in it,” Holtz says. “It came to a point where I needed to make a decision, and that decision was to give up my job and to pursue music as a career.”
So now what? Andrew Holtz picked up the phone and called his long time friend Ron Haney, a member of the New York-based production team The Churchills. After spending a year and a half writing 40 songs on his acoustic guitar, Holtz was ready to record his first full-length album. The Churchills were the perfect pairing.
“The recording process is tricky because we are translating these acoustic songs into a production. Recording is accessorizing. You can record a song a million different ways depending on what you want it to sound like. The reason I love working with The Churchills is because they have so much creativity in texturizing a song. They love to add and add and add tons of little things and layers…I love listening to it and being able to find something new every time.”
Andrew Holtz also went from a solo artist to the lead singer of a band during the recording process. “I didn’t want people to have a preconceived notion of me as a singer/songwriter because that’s not what this is,” Holtz explains. Ron Haney joined on guitar; Mark Zeveny, a long time friend, came in to play bass; and Tim Perry rounded out the rhythm section on drums. Together, they call themselves holtz.
With all the parts in place, holtz. began recording Leaving New York. The title reflects the sacrifice Andrew Holtz made in order to become a musician. “I had to leave New York and come home to pursue this road. I had to give up everything I had in New York when I quit my job. I took all of the experiences New York gave me and turned them into these songs,” he says. The 12 track album weaves a tale of love, loss, failure, and redemption. Each song is just one more chapter in the story of passion, guts, and charisma it has taken to make this album.
The journey Andrew Holtz began three years ago has finally come to fruition. After giving up everything he had to follow his passion, Andrew is ready to show the world that it was a risk worth taking. Now, with their debut album Leaving New York, holtz. skirts the lines of contemporary pop while remaining true to their singer/songwriter roots. holtz. has funneled their passion, heartache and heady contemplation into multifaceted tunes that leave marks.