‘Holiday’ band washes upon Bloomington ‘Shores’

Local bands Throwing Stars and The French and Indian War will open for nationally touring acts Evangelicals and Holiday Shores as they perform their last show Monday in Bloomington.

Tickets cost $7 for the 9 p.m. show at The Bishop on South Walnut Street.

Holiday Shores is signed to twosyllable records, a label started by IU alumni Brian Kerr and Zach Pollakoff.

Kerr and Pollakoff also recruited their art director Ben Tousley and lawyer Dan Gosselin, who also graduated from IU.

While at IU, Kerr and Pollakoff used University and community music opportunities to gain experience for their future careers.

Pollakoff was the station director at WIUX and Kerr was the special events director from 2006-07, booking Sunset Rubdown and David Vandervelde. Kerr also worked at Tracks on Kirkwood and interned at record label Secretly Canadian.

“It was a great opportunity to make connections and see how the industry works,” Kerr said.

Pollakoff said he was not into music until he broke his leg in the fourth grade and began playing the keyboard in his hospital bed.

Kerr said he grew up with a musical father who sang and played the guitar.
“It seemed to be a pretty strong force,” Kerr said. “Everyone has a passion, mine is music.”

After graduating, the two good friends moved to New York City and both got jobs in the music industry.

“It is hard to find a job in the music industry that you really believe in, and I didn’t want to work at a big label,” Kerr said.

Kerr said he interviewed for a job at a label working with cell phone companies on ringtones.

“This is an important job for the music industry, but it is not what I wanted to do,” Kerr said.

Pollakoff was employed at Matador Records when he noticed that some of his coworkers had their own record labels on the side.

“It was an enticing opportunity, and I had a feeling of optimism that encouraged me to take it on all at once with Brian,” Pollakoff said.

Pollakoff and Kerr both said they have day jobs outside of the music industry, where they sneak around to write e-mails.

“We are still starting out and have a decent name for ourselves,” Kerr said.

They live with multiple roommates in Brooklyn in a loft that used to be an old factory.

“Five years from now I see us running the label full-time and developing the artists we have now, as well as taking in a handful more, but I don’t see us moving our office outside of our living room,” Pollakoff said.

Kerr and Pollakoff have signed four artists to twosyllable records, which they found by word of mouth, demos and browsing online Web sites.

Kerr said this is the best record Holiday Shores has released thus far.

“It’s exciting, but we don’t want to stop there,” he said.

Lead singer Nathan Pemberton grew up in Holiday Shores Court in Destin, Fla.
“It made sense to call the band that because it is reflection on the past and it gives a cool image left up to the imagination,” Pemberton said.

The album “Columbus’d The Whim” is packed with 10 singles written by Pemberto.

“The album title is about searching for something or trying to find a place,” he said.

Pemberton said The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Paul Simon and jazz music influenced this album. He said his band has been through different phases where people had to leave the group and new members were added.

“Now we are a group of guys who want to play for a long time, putting out records and touring more,” he said.