Much of Chase The Sun, Greg Holden's new album was inspired by a life-changing, seven-week trip that Holden took to India and Nepal in February 2013 that renewed his drive to be an artist. He had nearly given up on the music business altogether a few times.
After watching his label go bust, and going into debt to tour, Greg says "I was ready to call it a day. I borrowed petrol money from my drummer so we could drive around Europe in his car,” Holden recalls. “That's how bad it was. I was driving to my sold-out shows thinking, ‘I'm coming off this tour and I'm giving this stuff up. How can I afford to keep doing it?”
Greg Holden
Holden’s trip gave him a new perspective. “The fact that I can make music for a living is a miracle,” he says. “I saw a lot of poverty in India. I traveled through the northern State of Bihar, which is the poorest region in the country. It was devastating, but incredibly inspiring. I came back home with such a different view on life.”
On an album full of memorable songs, perhaps the most poignant is “Boys In The Street,” which Holden originally wrote for a compilation album being released by the LGBTQ organization Everyone Is Gay. “The instruction was to write ‘the gayest song ever,’ but I don’t really write happy, upbeat songs, I just can’t do it, so I wrote about a father and son who didn’t see eye to eye. The story explores the father’s lack of understanding towards his son’s sexuality. There is no bad guy, and no finger pointing. It’s a story with a message that I felt compelled to write about. I didn’t even know if it was good, but everyone who heard it cried.”
Watch "Boys In The Street" by Greg Holden
Fun Fact
- Greg is perhaps best known for writing the massive hit “Home” — the debut single for American Idol winner Phillip Phillips that sold five million tracks in the U.S. and earned Holden an ASCAP Pop Award.
Have Your Say
Greg's story has some really good messages for us - sometimes there is a fine line between giving up and going just a little bit further. If he really did retire after that tour, he never would have wrote "Home" or have had the opportunity to use his creative voice to help teach about compassion like with his new song; Boys In The Street. Have you ever been really close to giving up something you had been working on for a long time, only to stay with it and finally succeed? Tell us in the comments below.
