An earnest vulnerability combined with an uplifting message to seize each moment has buoyed Hollow Coves and their fans through a journey of mutual understanding — the dream isn’t success but rather the acute awareness of life’s fragility.

Hollow Coves is the indie-folk voice of connection to beauty and community — a reminder to look inside the self and embody gratitude for the natural world. Living on the Gold Coast and weaving their own perspective on paradise, Matt Carins and Ryan Henderson are equal parts songwriters and vocalists, alternating lead roles to best serve the song.

After meeting through a mutual friend at the end of 2014, Matt and Ryan recorded a handful of songs in a friend’s garage. Ryan spent the next year traveling as they went back and forth over Dropbox, layering vocals and instruments as a means of creative release. After uploading a few songs to SoundCloud, thousands of listens poured in overnight until they amassed over a million clicks. Stunned, the boys phoned each other from across the globe. Deciding to follow whatever it was that chose them, Matt put aside his carpentry job, and Ryan gave up being a civil engineer to see where a life in music could lead.

Organic listening has grown their audience ever since, with over half a billion streams worldwide and nearly a million followers across their platforms.

That twist in fate led them to release their debut EP Wanderlust in 2017. Travel stories and ruminations on landscapes from years past defined their sound and their purpose as a group, and Hollow Coves unintentionally became known for writing indie-folk anthems for the great outdoors. Fan favourite ‘Coastline’ became one of the top 20 most used songs on Instagram Reels in Summer 2021, and was certified Gold in Canada and Australia.

As opposites that attract, Ryan’s keen sense for detail as a classically trained pianist compliments Matt’s easy-going surfer approach. The yin-yang pairing of their personal polarities allows them to flip complex musings into poetic simplicities, evoking a palpable feeling of weightlessness.

In 2018, they retreated to the countryside of Devon in the south of England to record alongside producer Chris Bond (Ben Howard, Justin Nozuka, Xavier Rudd), leading to the 2019 release of their debut full-length album Moments.

A hand-crafted acoustic journey that pulls you out of your world and into something mellow and free, Moments was well-received, with praise from the likes of Billboard, PASTE, Clash, Sunday Times, OnesToWatch and more. The band toured around the world with artists such as Tom Walker, The Paper Kites, Passenger, and most recently The Lumineers.

As the pandemic swept everyone into isolation, Hollow Coves moved into a house on the Gold Coast. They sourced second-hand equipment, put Matt’s carpentry skills to use building a soundproof recording booth, and learned the basics of recording together through trial and error. Their EP Blessings was recorded and self-produced at the band’s home in 2021.

“We wanted the album to be the musical equivalent of some sort of new age retreat where people might go to sit still, renew their mind, and shift their focus to something more positive,” says Ryan.

Their narrative-driven lyricism pushed them beyond day-to-day life, capturing hard-learned lessons and hopefulness during tough times. The EP resonated with listeners seeking guidance and levity, and vulnerable stories and messages of gratitude poured in from fans.

Driven by the energy of their audience, a grounding oceanside lifestyle, and a sound that genuinely reflects their mindset, the band continues to push forward to live their own recipe for a good life. Now, the band is finishing an album with an exciting group of collaborators including Australian singer-songwriter Matt Corby while continuing to tour the world.