Indie-Rock Quartet Kimball Premiere New Single “Hollow”

Your summer isn’t complete until you’ve allowed yourself to be carried away by dulcet harmonies of Kimball’s new single, “Hollow.”

While this indie-rock quartet are working on a follow-up to last year’s “North Wilson,” they posted this new tune online yesterday to preview their show this Saturday at the Loving Touch in Ferndale.

The lyrics are contemplative, but the drums evoke a sense of wild impossibility. And that fits Kimball perfectly.

Early on, they had to quickly gain their footing. The band’s first show was to a street-sized audience at Arts Beats & Eats in Royal Oak. The band — guitarist/singer Austin McCauley, singer Emily Barr and drummer Brodie Glaza — started playing music together, when on a whim that they submitted a video performance and got the call confirming they’d been booked for the fest. 

Since then, Kimball, all barely in their 20’s, have been playing local venues and festivals. The band lost some members before adding guitarist Jack Mullen a year ago, solidifying them as a quartet. 

This song, as well as Kimball’s most recent EP, were recorded at the Aashrum studio up in Ortonville, Mich. “It’s a secluded space in the woods,” says McCauley, “so it allows whomever is recording there to just be creative and feel distanced from everything around them.”

McCauley said that “Hollow” is about “the petty difficulties of letting go” of anything in your life, be it a job, a relationship, or anything pulling you down.

“The song bounces back and forth between being ready to ditch the bad feelings that come with holding onto something, and simply holding onto something even if it’s unhealthy,” McCauley says.

He’s candid when he says the single isn’t a demonstrative of the group’s evolving sound. That’s the point. Kimball is always ready to change, move-on and advance.

Kimball is playing this Saturday, Aug. 3, at 7:00 pm at the Loving Touch in Ferndale. Admission is $12.