Welcome to Brookhollow was formed in the Winter of 1994 by Scott McBride and David Odom. David had recieved a keyboard for Christmas and Scott had gotten a Dean Markley amplifier. They recorded their first song "Brookhollow Boys" on Christmas day in Scott's room (later titled "The Upstairs Sound Studio") on Scott's stereo. Their first two full-length albums were recorded on that stereo along with thier first EP and a slew of other songs. By May of 1995, Scott and David had recorded 10 songs and put out Welcome to Brookhollow's first album "Population: 24" on their own KWM Records label. In July of that same year they released "Songs we didn't use," an EP that showcased four songs not released on the full-length and covers of "Wild Thing" by the Troggs and "Twisting" by They Might Be Giants. At that point David Odom left the band and Matt Henry joined. Scott and Matt collaborated on a whole album's worth of songs before Scott eventually felt they were getting too far away from his original concept of Welcome to Brookhollow. Scrapping all but one of the songs the pair had written, Scott belted out Welcome to Brookhollow's second album "Crash, Smash, Crunch, Bang" in September of 1996. The whole album (except the one song Scott kept from his sessions with Matt, the song "Ralph") was written and recorded over a period of two weeks just before Scott's freshman year of college.
When Scott arrived at the University of South Alabama in Mobile he had no vehicle and practically no friends. This led to alot of downtime which he used to write music. He began working on Brookhollow's thrid album titled "One and Only." He recorded over half the album before stopping, realizing that the songs weren't up to par.
Scott then took a break from recording and allowed himself to write for a year.
"It was a very fertile period as far as songwriting goes," says Scott. "I was really able to focus and get the songs right. I started demoing the songs as well which helped weed out alot of songs that might have made it otherwise."
Scott also cites plenty of inspiration for ideas. "During that time I was dating this girl I was really in love with and so I writing alot of these happy go lucky songs about being in love and what not. Then she broke up with me and basically crushed my heart so I wrote all these angry and sad songs."
"On the album it ended up being a dichotomy between being in a relationship and not being in one. Listening to that album now is like watching the arc of that relationship. It's like 'this is a song when we were dating and in love' and 'this is a song after she broke up with me'." The album in question is "Your side of the Moat" released in January 1998 to a small but enthusiastic audience, the album was a hit. In July they released the "Mid-season Slump" EP which featured eight previously unreleased songs.
Scott decided to follow up the album quickly and immediately began writing songs for the next record. In January 1999, Welcome to Brookhollow released "Pop Trip." Scott calls it "an attack on what I saw as the trends in pop music by using pop music...kinda a concept record." Scott says the album was a challenge to make. "By that time the idea of writing another album all about heartbreak seemed redundant. I wanted to try to reach out and grab something else without falling back on the 'I'm in love' or 'I'm heartbroken' crutch. Britney Spears, Backstreet boys and all those other pop groups were starting to peak so I aimed all my anger at them." Scott says he considers "Pop Trip" the weakest album in the Brookhollow catalog and hates listening to it. "I wish I would have given myself more time to write it and record it."
If time was what Scott wanted, he got plenty of it after releasing that record. Brookhollow lay silent thru the rest of 1999 and most of 2000.
"I was writing songs and just throwing them away. Nothing seemed to fit anymore. They were either too slow or too heavy and it wasn't natural. After about six months of writing I just decided to give it a rest."
Scott focused his energies on finishing school and on his other band, One Step Back. When the time came for his last semester of college, Scott found the time to pick his guitar back up and begin writing the next album.
"I had a dorm room all to myself that last semester. I didn't have a job, most of my friends were gone and I just became a hermit. I would go weeks without talking to my family or my girlfriend. I started to think about the idea of the 'college experience' and how you're almost expected to party and get drunk and have lots of sex. I hadn't done any of those things in college and so I began writing the album reflecting on what my life would have been like if I had."
By December of 2000, Scott had written 25 songs and decided it was time to enter the studio to record them. He hooked up with longtime friend Chris Strickland and recorded the album at his home studio dubbed "The Brookhollow Compound." By February of 2001 the album was complete and in June of that same year, "The Great American Freakout" (the title was based on Scott's view of how it's acceptable to "freakout" in college) was released on new indie label Computer Club Records. The band played many shows throughout the southeast and gained in popularity. Then in November of 2001, Brookhollow re-entered the studio to record "The Story of the Kelly Gang" EP which features 8 songs recorded with but not included on "The Great American Freakout." The EP was released in June 2002, just less than a year after "TGAF."
The band also released five new songs they had demoed on their mp3.com site. The set of songs was dubbed "demo enslavement" and were a favorite, hitting #1 on the mp3.com charts.As we speak, Welcome to Brookhollow are still writing songs for their next release and have promised another batch of demos that will be posted on their mp3.com site sometime in early 2003. Keep watching this band for great things.
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