George Holliday is a songwriter, musician and producer from the United Kingdom. With a passion for seeing new places and creating art, he has launched a project called Made On The Road, that sees him travelling Europe in a studio-on-wheels, helping other artists to record music in inspiring locations.
Described as a hub on wheels for creatives to travel, feel inspired and collaborate, the ex-library bus is George’s home, office and studio. George meets clients in difference locations and works closely with them on creating music they feel passionate about. In 2019 he put out a call for collaborators, and ended up recording a 16-track album called Made On The Road, created over six months at 60 different locations.
“I have a love for travel, but as a piano player I rely heavily on my keyboard to song write and produce. I had been following the vanlife trend on Instagram and just knew that was the best way to marry the two ideas together and allow me to hit the road. Since then I have developed the whole idea into a music production company with a small global team and we take our artist clients to stunning locations to make music,” George told Lonely Planet.
So far George has travelled to Croatia, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Austria, as well as across the UK in the bus. With the album recorded, he works with other songwriters and musicians to help produce their work. As well as being able to work in isolation in different locations, the places themselves often serve as inspiration, both visual and auditory. The views help put musicians in the right headspace, while George takes fields recordings of the locations that often end up in the songs.
Like many people, George has found his work has been impacted by COVID-19, something that has made him adjust how he is approaching the project and what he hopes to achieve with it. “The main struggle is that artists rely heavily on touring to make an income in the industry, so without the ability to perform live, our artists have lost more than half of the money they would usually reinvest into their career – which has a knock on effect to people like myself, writers and producers. The beauty of the internet however is that we have really established new ways to continue to write and record with artists and we have the benefit that the bus can be out of the cities and into nature to create a safer space for artists to work away from the pandemic.”
Singles from the upcoming Made On The Road album are scheduled for release throughout 2020, including Young & Free, recorded across five different countries with five different artists.
More information on the project is available at the official Made On The Road website.
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