When one puts on their headphones and presses play on a track from Chicago’s Hollowhenry, they’re immediately whisked away to another part of the universe. Hollowhenry’s spacey, yet focused and honest delivery, provides the listener with a unique auditory experience. The Chicago artist can do it all. In the same breath that he’s made a grainy, hazy instrumental, he’s already laced a personable yet potent verse to pair with it. After releasing his debut EP “insideoutside” in 2021, Hollowhenry looks to capitalize on his work ethic with even more music, production and collaborations on the way. 

Growing up in North Carolina, Hollowhenry had creativity permeating the family line. It was no wonder he became involved in the arts. “My parents are both music enthusiasts,” he explains, “I would constantly pick their brains about the music they were listening to.” His parents groove to classics from David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles and others and his aunt is a painter. “The use of imagery and symbolism in her work as it pertains to the subjective inner-world, among other elements, is a connection that I’ve recently realized,” Hollowhenry says. On top of this, Hollowhenry has a natural infatuation with music. He played the violin from a young age all the way through college. In the process of learning the violin, he teamed up with his best friend who knew how to play the piano and they both ended up learning how to play the guitar. With so much family history and organic curiosity about music, his destiny was sealed. 

Hollowhenry brings a combination of spacey soundscapes, personal and introspective verses while flexing his own lyrical muscles. Tapping into the era of sound of Flying Lotus mixed with a dash of Madlib, Hollowhenry is in the next generation of artists pushing the sound forward. This is evidenced perfectly in his first project to hit streaming services “insideoutside”. The 12 minute EP introduces the audience to multiple facets of what Hollowhenry can do. We get atmospheric production, collaborations, solo tracks and beat changes all in one EP. “It was a challenging point in my life and I think the songs reflect that,” he explains. “I was creating at a much higher output than I ever had before and knew that my sound had leveled up significantly.” The seven tracks are meticulously curated, bringing the listener on an adventure. Once the EP ends with “final frontier outro” one can’t help but crave more from the North Carolina native. 

“I am hopeful that the soundscapes could lead the listener to explore their own patterns of thinking,” Hollowhenry explains, “Additionally I want them to walk away with some new music to listen to while they’re doing their favorite activity.” 2021 saw Hollowhenry continue to grind on new music. Alongside “insideoutside” he also created the score for a short film called ‘Almost Human’ directed by Jack Reichert. Now in the New Year, Hollowhenry has tons of music ready to go: from beat tapes to singles, brand new collaborations to a new album, but his current focus is growth. “Right now, I just have a couple of EPs out and I think this next project will be somewhere between the homegrown EP style and a formal studio album,” Hollowhenry says.

Insideoutside was followed up by 2022’s ‘The Imaginer’, in which he expanded on his instrumental skills by focusing on production and songwriting that was more guitar and piano based. ‘The Imaginer’ featured co-production from Kevin Smith, and verses from Michael White and The God Fahim.

Since relocating to Chicago in 2021, hollowhead stepped into a new phase in his creative career, which has been rooted in collaboration. The first tangible result of these collaborations was showcased in the outro of Devin’s “Pote Baby”. 2024 will see the release of the highly anticipated debut of Wil Infin8, which is fully produced by Hollowhenry. Additional release plans include work from Dialect Tre, Freddie Old Soul, and HollowHouse compilation tapes.