Ah, the name…

For those interested where the name came from, here is the brief history, In August 1993, after a few (well, maybe more than few) dark beers at McSorley’s in NYC, I accepted to tryout as a bass player for a Northern NU cover band. As we practiced and built up a decent set list of songs, the other members decided that with a new member in the band, maybe it was time for a new name. After many discussions (and more beer of course), it was finally decided

– Marshall, Will & Holly. The perfect name for a group of young adults weened on 1970s Saturday morning TV. Not too obvious and not to obscure, with just the right touch of kitch.

hope those reading this get it, I really don’t want to write another paragraph! But if you still don’t get it, I’ll give you a hint – mmm… let’s see… we’ll make this easy – Sleestacks. So now that we haven’t been playing as a band and I started my own project, I had to come up with a name. What better and easier way but to pull from the previous band? Besides there are MWandH (‘m-wand-h’ as my wife likes to say) cameos on this project, too!

That’s enough history…

Now that we’ve established how and why &holly has come about, now on to the real important information, gear and software! Over the years I have found myself using less and less gear. For my basses, I have been using 5 strings way more and my favorite bass right now is the Ibanez SR305. For my 4 string basses, one is a active-pickup, long scale Tokai bass and the other is a solid-wood version Steinberger. I’ve been a Mac addict since college, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that is my choice of computer for recording. But software hasn’t been as constant. For years, I used Opcode StudioVision along with a full cabinet full of outboard gear. That has now been replaced with my new favorite (don’t laugh all you serious recordists) GarageBand! With GarageBand, I feel I have been more productive than I have been in the previous years! It’s so fun to use! I have some other recording software like Metro, Live and Peak (all of which haven’t been updated to run on the new Mac) along with some outboard gear (a compressor, midiVerb, DM5, Trace Elliot Elf amp, Carvin cabinet with a 15 speaker and some other equipment) and am in the process of updating some of it (maybe some new mics) but I don’t seem to use any of it as much as the Mac, GarageBand, some synth plug-ins, and my bass!

More Info…
Equipment, Likes & Links

My Equipment and Software:

Ibanez SR305E Bass

Dean EAB 5 String

Steinberger Bass

Tokai Bass

M-Audio 02

MacBook Pro

Garageband

Ableton Live

Shure SM57

Mackie 1202

Various AU Plug-Ins

Some Likes…

My favorite songs

My favorite bands