Featured Conversation: Jael Holzman

Published on Feb 14, 2025

[this conversation has been edited for length and clarity]

Would you like to introduce yourself first?

So my name is Jael Holzman. I am the lead singer and bassist for the band Ekko Astral, and I do a lot of other things too, and I’m really excited to talk records.

Tell me about your collection.

I used to have a very large record collection. And in 2020, at the same time that I was going through a bunch of different life crises, I also had a bed bugs thing happen. I lived in a building in DC that was really, really cool, but also not very well kept, and I wound up dealing with a bed bug infestation and it turns out you can’t heat treat vinyl. I lost a lot of really great records. I lost some original pressings that I still miss, like some original Zappa records, and I lost the first three or four years of my own collection too. But I’ve been trying these days when I buy records, because it’s now a thing where I’m just trying to be really conscious of if I’m gonna support an artist or spend my money on records,how can I most benefit people? I’ve been trying to, like, use my record purchases to demonstrate my support of other artists, instead of just getting whatever I like. But yeah, I’m excited to talk about them.

Have you ever bought a record just for the artwork?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I’ve got a really, really good example of that here. So do you know the band Pinkshift?

I’ve heard of them.

Pink Shift is a punk band out of Baltimore, and their last release that they did was suraksha. It’s an EP, but on the other side, it’s the same three tracks, but they’re instrumental. And what I love about this record, beyond everything else, is the artwork. They had the one show where they sold the t-shirt of this cover. I have it sitting right over there, it’s a triple XL shirt, but it’s the same cover, and it’s hand painted on. One of the cool things about vinyl is like you get to appreciate the physicality of art.

What’s your most memorable vinyl buying experience?

I think it’s still the first time that I ever bought my own record. It was,I think, the first thing I bought when I got to college. I don’t even think I went to the school store first. And there’s a record store in Burlington, Vermont, where Liam Hughes, who helped start the band with me, we met at the University of Vermont. And there’s this record store in Vermont, in Burlington, called Pure Pop Records where it’s like a candy store. They really maintain it. And they are always really smart with what they order. In fact, it’s one of the only record stores I’ve ever been to that had almost all the Topshelf releases. In person, it was really cool. The last time I was there, I think, was when we were getting signed to Topshelf. And I was walking around like, This is so cool. But, yeah, I remember the first time I walked into Pure Pop. I was in college, and I really, really was a massive Kendrick Lamar fan. And and remain a massive Kendrick Lamar fan, and the first vinyl record that I ever bought, it was, gosh, almost 10 years ago, or more than ten years ago, was a it was the Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, I feel so old.

Talking about your records will do that to you. Do you have a favorite record store? Is it Pure Pop?

Pure Pop is definitely my favorite record store that I’ve ever been to. My favorite record store in D.C, is probably Joint Custody. Really close by. I just got Twin Plagues, like last week, when I went shopping with someone I had never met before. Do you know the reporter, Dave Weigel? I had never met him. He’s just like a guy on the internet, and I was just like, wanna go shopping for records? He did not know what to make of it. I forget what he got. I got the Wednesday record. Record shopping is also a great way to meet people.

I find it a very solitary thing.

Really?

Yeah, I like to focus on. I spend a lot of time just going through the bins methodically. And I don’t like to feel like I’m either being rushed or rushing someone.

I’m definitely the kind of person that goes into the store and talks to the clerk, because, I mean, record stores are definitely a locus point for a whole city and a whole community. I definitely like to also go around and look at show posters and flyers and stuff. Like, guitarist wanted signs.

So when you go shopping for records, what’s the first section you go to in the store?

I would say the new arrivals. I’m all about the new arrivals section. I go there first because the best records are always taken fast.

Do you do Record Store Day?

Ah, I like Record Store Day a lot, and I support the cause. Early on when it first started, I went often. These days, I think it has to be a really special release. I’ve definitely always wanted to do a record store day release for Ekko, and that’s something that we still hope to do in the future.\

What’s the most treasured album in your collection?

So I have two answers to that. In terms of[ my actual favorite album ever, Crack the Skye by Mastodon, easily. Before the bed bug fire of 2020 I had a picture disc. It was like a Leviathan picture disc with the whales on it. I don’t think I have it anymore, which sucks. But right now, I would say that my most played record that has really meant a lot to me is from this band out of Baltimore called powerwasher. They’re post punk crunch, like noise rock. It’s just loud guitars. We played a couple of shows with them in October, and I was a huge fan of the record, but then when I saw them, they had such a great set and I just fell in love with it. So it’s one of those growers of a record for me, and it’s been getting a lot of plays. And it’s definitely one of the only ones that I’ve been preserving inside of the fucking wraps that I have now. But, yeah, I miss, I miss some of those records. I feel like albums become kind of a memorial of time.

Is there a record that you’re looking for that you haven’t found yet, like a white whale record?

Actually, this is kind of funny, because it’s kind of a call back to the record store day thing. I have always wanted that Flaming Lips Record Store Day album the Heady Fwends, I think it was a double LP, and it was super weird, and you couldn’t get it unless you had the vinyl itself, and then it came with a download code, although I definitely tore into that shit when I was in college. Don’t tell anyone. Yeah, I’ll pick that one.

Do you have a favorite live record?

Yes, I have a bootleg Queens of the Stone Age vinyl that I got at a record store that’s very dinky out in Northern Virginia. And it’s some random stadium set that they did in like, 2000, 2004, so it’s like prime Queens of the Stone Age.

Oh, I’m jealous.

You can find the YouTube rip. It definitely got distributed around a little bit. I have always wanted to get the Beyonce Coachella on vinyl. That’s definitely my favorite live album ever recorded?

So how did you start collecting records?

My father collected records. A lot of the records that I lost were his, and that was like a really important bonding experience for both of us. So my favorite albums that I had on vinyl that I probably need to expedite getting back these days, like Steven Stills, and Supertramp Breakfast in America and there were these records that were glam rock, 70s stuff, Ian Hunter, they really stuck with me and influenced me at a very particular time, like my late teens. And making an album for me was always about making a complete package after that. When we made Pink Balloons, the vinyl and the whole accoutrements, the whole deal was always about trying to create an experience for people. And a lot of that’s colored by how important vinyl is to me. I mean, I mean, definitely, for example, right behind me is a poster for Pop 2, Charli XCX, and the vinyl itself, the cover of it isn’t even like the album cover. It’s like, reflective as fuck. But the poster itself is part of the product, and it’s part of the memory, it’s part of the experience that comes with vinyl. It’s really the truest form of supporting an artist and embedding that art in yourself. I think, as an artist, a good way to support is to buy the vinyl directly from the artist. It depends on the artist and how they’re selling their product. And that gets into some basic industry shit that is so not transparent and never explained. It almost probably shouldn’t be explained. Because if people understood the regulations of how every music deal works, people would literally be like, wait, signed musicians are just kind of indentured servants.

I was actually thinking about this with the Chappell Roan moment at the Grammys, because people don’t even understand that when they buy an album from an artist that’s signed, even from their own website, that artist is not getting all that money, and they’re getting no insurance. I definitely think that buying vinyl is the best way and the most direct way to support artists. How you do that is, it should depend on whatever you discern as a music consumer to be the best way to directly support them, but certainly the best way, compared to streaming music. Buying T-shirts is probably better on some level, but in terms of the music as a product, definitely, vinyl.

What’s the weirdest record you own?

Define weird.

An oddity, a novelty…

I have a lot of novelty records. Actually I have a lot of weird shit laying around. I’m gonna do a bit of a cop out answer and say This is definitely the weirdest music with the weirdest record I own. And it is Blind Equation, Death Awaits. Are you familiar with Blind Equation?

No.

It’s a cyber grind band. There’s a danger in overselling this record, like this is definitely not for everyone. In fact, it’s probably not for most people. But if you like 100 gecs and you like the sound of a drill inside of your skull, just going blind, equation, death waits, yeah.

Okay, I will try it. I love 100 gecs so…

I found it on one of those DIY twitter artists that I found out about, right before Elon acquired twitter. There was a really cool DIY music scene there. I am not sure if Bluesky has revived it, or if it still exists over on twitter still, or whatever we call it now, but, yeah, it was a good music scene on twitter.

So tell me about your band. What do you have coming up?

We got a lot of stuff coming up. I can’t talk about it. I mean, we put out an incredible record we’re really proud of, and it still feels like it was us at like 5% as a band, as creatives, and we just finished working on recording our next album. Can’t say when it’ll be out, but it’s the first opus I know I’ve ever been a part of, and I just very much look forward to everyone being able to hear that. We’ve got a lot of shows coming up this year. I can’t talk about any of them, but I hope we get to meet a lot of cool people, a lot of cool places. And you know, I think that for me, the coolest thing about this band has been the community that we have built in D.C., and how we’re starting to really build networks out and through a lot more places. I think there’s like a really serious need for musicians and songwriters to really join hands and see themselves as leaders at a time when our political leaders have just so royally failed us and fucked us I look forward to being able to talk more about what we’re doing, because so much of it has to do with with what’s happening. So just, you know, all I can say about that is just music is music is something good and pure. That for me and for my bandmates is, I think, a reason to keep on, you know, yeah, yeah. Listen to Pink Balloons if you haven’t yet. It’s a five out of 10. At least. [editor’s note: solid nine].

Any other records you want to talk about?

I can talk a couple for just a little bit about two more records, just because I really, really want to just talk about them briefly. Just to plug them, since they’re fucking amazing. And I love these bands to death. Lambrini Girls they just put out their debut album,Who Let the Dogs Out. It rips. Check it out. [ed.note: it’s fantastic] But my favorite Lambrini record, and I don’t know if they’ll top this is literally, an A and B side written and recorded and mixed by the same person who did their album; God’s Country, Body of Mine are two of the smartest songs like I’ve ever heard. And I don’t even know if there are any more of these that exist. I ordered it, and there were, like, 500 or something, and I think in 15 years, when they’re remembered and put in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or whatever, I’ll get to sell this on eBay for a nice price or something.

The other record I just want to talk about, just because they are an incredible human and they hosted us when we went down and toured with idols. Is Jer, who is an incredible ska artist, just very great ideals and great tunes. And I love that everything they do is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, I think it’s some visionary shit. I remember the first time I heard Bothered/Unbothered. I was on a run, and I was just really angry at the world. I think it was during lockdown and once the bedbugs were gone, I got a copy years later. Just really, really in love with this record. That’s it. That’s my humble plug. Feel like it’s worth plugging a couple homies, absolutely. Yeah, this is what I’m all about. You letting people plug what they gotta plug. Hey, you know if they’re gonna pull a plug in our country, we might as well plug our friends.

Jael Holzman is a journalist and songwriter best known as the lead singer and bassist for D.C. rock band Ekko Astral. Their critically acclaimed debut album “pink balloons” was Pitchfork’s #1 Best Rock Album of 2024. You can catch them all over the U.S. this time on tour with— oops, can’t talk about any of that yet. 😉

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