Lost in Holland Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 11th 2010 9:25AM by Steven Horowitz
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Lost in Holland is a duo of acoustic musicians -- Josh Hisle on guitar and Michael G. Ronstadt on cello -- who play powerful indie alternative folk rock. Many of the group's songs were inspired by Hisle's two tours of duty in Iraq as a squad leader in the Marine Corps. The two men, who are set to appear at this year's SXSW, graciously agreed to answer a list of questions from Spinner.

Describe Lost in Holland's sound in your own words.

Josh: It's weird. If we had to describe it I'd say -- if Neil Young and Yo Yo Ma had a child, and that child hooked up with Graham Nash, we would be that child. Sorry, I never answer that question well.

Mike: I would maybe say a folk duo influenced by rock and jazz, if I could take the more serious answer.

What are the origins of Lost in Holland?

J: I started Lost In Holland in Ramadi, Iraq, during my second tour with the US Marines. We had a beat up acoustic guitar and I'd just sit and play when we had time off. I wrote a bunch of songs and came home and put it out there.

M: I concur.

What are your musical influences?

J: NOFX, Neil Young, Tommy Emmanuel, Duke Ellington, and Django.

M: My family, Les Paul, cellists Nancy Green, Gordon Epperson & Yehuda Hanani, Brahms, Bach, Prokofiev, Stephane Grappelli.

How did you come up with the name Lost in Holland?

J: My son's name is Holland. I had a song named 'Lost in Holland' and someone said, "that is really sweet, you should name your band that". So, I did.

M: I concur.

What is your biggest vice?

J: Cigarettes and whiskey and Italian subs.

M: Water and Pastel De Tres Leches cake.

What's in your festival survival kit?

J: Cigarettes and whiskey and very little cash. It's our first time at SXSW, so we just went to default on the survival kit.

M: Cello, voice, and my wallet -- filled with very little cash, too.

Who was your first celeb crush?

J: Buffy the Vampire slayer. What was her name?

M: I don't know, but I'm sure it was someone maybe on a Nickelodeon show.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

J: t.A.T.u.,'Not Gonna Get Us.'

M: Not telling. I do like yodeling though.

What musicians have influenced the most?

J: Fat Mike of NOFX and Neil Young. I just love songwriters that have the nuts to say whatever they want. To me, that is a virtue rarely seen in today's music.

M: My cello teachers Gordon Epperson, Nancy Green & Yehuda Hanani, family's music, and all music with contrast, variety, and purpose.

Beatles or Stones?

J: Gun to my head? Beatles.

M: Beatles, no contest.

If you knew the world would only last for two more weeks, what would you do?

J: Go home and hang with Holland and Margot of course -- but, on the way home I'd spend whatever cash I had on two weeks worth of cigs and whiskey.

M: Play music with my family, and record some CD's to shoot into space.

If you could only listen to five albums for the rest of your life, which ones would they be?

J: NOFX, 'White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean,' and 'War on Errorism'; Neil Young, 'Greatest Hits'; Tommy Emanuel & Chet Atkins, 'The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World'; Tower of Power, 'Live'; Rage Against the Machine, 'Rage Against the Machine.'

M: Paul Simon, 'Graceland'; Crooked Still, 'Shaken By A Low Sound'; Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet, 'Self Titled'; Bach, 'Cello Suites 1-6' [Any great cellist]; Santa Cruz River Band, 'Volume 4.'

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