Meet George Holliday | Music Producer & Founder/Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with George Holliday and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi George, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Work life balance has always been a struggle of mine. I think about what I do for a living every single day because I love it! I always recommend to everybody and anybody to try your utmost best to make your passion your career because it’s your passion that will ultimately drive it to become successful and give you fulfilment. If you are thinking about your passion all the time then that’s the thing in your life that you will have the best ideas for, and the best motivation for so it makes complete sense! However, it does also mean you’re most of the time in work mode. I go to sleep thinking about my career, and mostly wake up thinking about it – new ideas, people I need to message, things that need to happen … all of it! The huge positive is that wherever I am I’m getting inspiration. I’ve intentionally chosen a lifestyle of travel and adventure because there’s where I get my best song writing inspirations and best sounds for my productions. Even the people I’m meeting and enjoying time with feed into the big pot of inspiration for stories, sounds, cultures etc. The main part of ‘work life balance’ I’m working on now is how to slow things down a little and offload some work. An intern is my next stop, free up some mind space for more creativity because I’m heading more into admin world as things get busier and it’s not a place want to spend too much time!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was a performing artist for nearly 9 years. I played for artists all over as well as the usual function event circuit (weddings, corporate events etc.). After my time in the industry I knew I needed to commit to a leap into music production if I was to ever take that to a full-time career status – that leap of faith just needs to happen at some point right? However I didn’t want to give up the travel I enjoyed so much with performing. Being a pianist as my primary instrument I couldn’t just hop on a plane with my guitar or microphone on my back and go and so I had this idea to build a studio in a van so I always had my equipment with me. That idea developed and I ended up building a bus that became my full time home for (to this date) 4 years. I’ve been all over from the beaches of Croatia to the skylines of Copenhagen. What this did for me was create a story, a story that everybody enjoys to hear and remembers, and then comes the word of mouth. To this day I can’t believe how many conversations I start with industry professionals that know about the bus. It’s been featured on Channel5 (uk), Discovery+, QuestTV as well as features in Lonely Planet, The Insider and more… It’s been THE best way to cut through the ‘noise’ of a very busy industry but what has it given me most of all? Freedom. Inspiration. Culture. Adventure. Friendships. All things that have elevated my creative process and allowed such amazing opportunities to not only come to the table, but to be executed in ways that I don’t feel would have been achieved conventionally. Technology has allowed me to pack everything into a bus (and now even a suitcase) and yet still create adverts to a top industry level that get accepted by massive industry names. For example, just before writing this we’ve just had a Sky TV advert accepted… RECORDED FROM MY SUITCASE.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Okay, so this is probably the most difficult question simply because I don’t have an ‘area’… I would most probably take them to Croatia. I have such fond memories of recording and then jumping in the sea, recording a little more and then pizza and beers on the beach. The scenery is so amazing, the people are so friendly and the coastlines are straight from the movies for a road trip. The beauty of the bus is we could pull up anywhere and have a different experience each night – from the famous Plitvice waterfalls to the local lakes in the south, there’s an adventure around each corner and I’d want to confidently suggest we didn’t make too many plans other Than to explore!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Carl Bahner. My mixing engineer. Carl is basically a member of my team and daily routine. He’s there to offload frustrations, he’s there for encouragement, he’s there to ultimately provide my music production company with a service that 100% elevates the work we do. I also want to equally shoutout Nicholas who has the same role in the team for our mastering phase of the process because they come as a great pair.
Carl and I approach business in a very similar manner creating systems and services that compliment our process. I’ve learnt so much from our conversations and I’ve become a better music producer and business leader because of him. We live the opposite side of the world to one another but it’s a testament to his personality that I truly call him a friend due to the way we have worked together.

Website: www.madeontheroad.co.uk

Instagram: @georgejazzmanholliday

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNrF0YvFhsPrSnWUuIxI4Q