Article Contributed by jbleicher.com
Published on 2026-07-19
Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday has announced his solo project HOL1D4Y and its debut album, Topology, arriving September 25, 2026, via Rival Sons’ label Sacred Tongue Recordings and distributed worldwide by Thirty Tigers.
Holiday has also released the project’s first single, “Veridream,” blending psychedelic rock, cosmic fuzz and progressive synthesizer textures while embracing pop sensibilities.
“HOL1D4Y’s Topology,” writes Dr. Dylan Trigg, senior researcher in the Department of Philosophy at Central European University in Vienna, “is a study of the hidden unity within an apparently knotted world. While topology is generally thought of as a mathematical concept, in the hands of HOL1D4Y, the concept is translated to the sphere of human flourishing: love, separation, societal cohesion, healing, longing, and the effects of technology on the mind and spirit. The idea is that beneath the apparent knottedness, the world is one fabric, and music is among the ways left of feeling the seams.”
For more than three decades, Scott Holiday has built a career by following instinct. Before there was an album concept, or even the idea of a solo project, he started a new daily habit: wake up, get into the studio and pick up a guitar, with one rule—write something.
It did not need to be a finished song. Sometimes it was only a 45-second idea, a fragment set aside and picked up again the next day. The goal was not productivity, but momentum.
As the collection of sketches grew, Holiday noticed they were not isolated ideas. They shared a language, leaning into atmosphere, psychedelic experimentation, and textures and rhythms different from those he had previously explored. The material felt personal enough that it resisted broad collaboration and asked to develop on its own terms.
Those early sketches were built around improvised drum recordings from longtime collaborator and Rival Sons drummer Michael Miley, sent from his home studio. Holiday treated them as raw material rather than finished tracks, cutting and reshaping the performances into the rhythmic foundation of each song. Many of the original performances remained intact, and Miley ultimately plays drums throughout Topology.
By the time five compositions had taken shape, Holiday realized he was not writing toward another Rival Sons record. He was creating a new artistic identity: HOL1D4Y.
Originally conceived as an instrumental project, the music was already developing into full compositions when Holiday brought in keyboardist Jesse Nason to help further shape the project’s sound. Nason layered vintage Moog, Mellotron, Oberheim and Prophet synthesizers across the tracks. Every contribution passed back through Holiday, who edited and produced the material into a unified body of work.
Then everything stopped.
Just minutes from home, Holiday was struck by a car while riding his bicycle home after an evening with friends. He has no memory of the collision. The accident left him with six broken ribs, a shoulder injury, a head injury and months of recovery.
Unable to move but still thinking creatively, Holiday continued developing the unfinished pieces in his mind. A few compositions remained instrumental, but the rest began asking for lyrics.
“What surprised me was that they stopped feeling like instrumental pieces,” Holiday says. “They seemed prepped for a story. Once I realized that, the words came quickly. That’s when I knew it was time to step into this new role—I needed to be the one to tell these stories.”
For the first time in his career, Holiday sings on his own recordings—less a reinvention than a part of his creative voice that had not yet found the right project.
The result is Topology, the debut HOL1D4Y album, centered on perception rather than genre: awareness, observation, awakening, consciousness and the patterns that shape how we experience the world.
Track titles including “Metacognition,” “Panoptic,” “Holotropic” and “Equanimity” point toward a single question: How does a shift in perspective change the way we experience ourselves in the world?
Sonically, Topology sits at the intersection of psychedelic atmosphere, alternative music, progressive exploration and experimental pop, with fuzz-soaked guitars, vintage synthesizers and deeply pocketed drum grooves beneath shifting arrangements.
The album draws on the adventurous spirit of 1970s progressive music while sounding informed by modern alternative production, prioritizing mood and texture over convention.
Recorded and self-produced at Holiday’s home studio, Topology was created independently and without outside creative direction.
About “Veridream”
Veridream (VEH-ri-dreem)
noun: The longing for a version of yourself you can only glimpse in dreams—a truer, more vivid self who lives without fear or constraint.
“Veridream” is the first single from Topology. Produced and directed by Aaron Eisenberg of Sound + Vision Co. and Scott Holiday, the accompanying video offers an early look at an album designed to take listeners on an audiovisual journey.
About Scott Holiday
Scott Holiday is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and composer best known as the founder and lead guitarist of Rival Sons. Across more than three decades and nine studio albums with the band, he has developed a guitar style that blends blues-rooted phrasing with cinematic textures and vintage tones, focusing strongly on atmosphere and emotion.
Beyond performing, Holiday has spent much of his career producing, writing and recording for other artists, from early sample libraries and major-label sessions to co-writing and engineering.
In 2025, that work found its fullest expression in HOL1D4Y, where Holiday writes, produces and arranges the music and, for the first time, sings lead.
Topology will be released as a nine-track double-vinyl album with a total running time of 46 minutes.
Pre-order Topology:
HOL1D4Y Official Store
Every physical pre-order from the HOL1D4Y webstore includes a free signed photo while supplies last.
Bandcamp:
Pre-order Topology on Bandcamp
Stream or purchase “Veridream”:
https://30tgrs.ffm.to/veridream
Watch the official “Veridream” video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q3gfmOgBdI
