Scott Holiday
Artist • Producer
Scott Holiday is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, and composer best known as the founder and lead guitarist of Rival Sons. Over more than three decades as a musician—and across nine studio albums with the band—he has become recognized for a guitar style that blends blues-rooted phrasing with cinematic textures, vintage-inspired tones, and an instinct for atmosphere over virtuosity.
Alongside his work as a performer, Holiday has spent much of his career producing, writing, and recording behind the scenes. From early sample libraries and major-label sessions to co-writing, engineering, and producing for other artists, his work has often extended well beyond the role of guitarist. In 2025, that broader creative vision found its fullest expression with HOL1D4Y, an alternative music project that sees Holiday writing, producing, arranging, and, for the first time, stepping forward as the lead vocalist.
Throughout every stage of his career, one idea has remained consistent: follow the music wherever it leads.
Early Life
Scott Holiday was born on December 27, 1975, in Covina, California. He spent his childhood between Covina, Huntington Beach, and Hesperia, dividing his time between the Southern California coastline and the Mojave Desert. The contrast between those landscapes—ocean and desert, movement and stillness—would later become recurring themes in both his music and visual aesthetic.
Music was a constant presence in Holiday's family. Rock records played regularly at home, and family gatherings often revolved around music. But the defining moment came when he was around nine years old. His uncle Ted sat him down in front of a powerful home stereo system and played Led Zeppelin's film: The Song Remains the Same at full volume.
Holiday has often described that experience as the moment everything changed.
"Boom—that was it. I was locked. I wanted to do that. I had to."
A few years later, his stepfather brought home a used classical guitar. Holiday immediately began teaching himself songs by ear, learning television jingles, radio hits, and anything else he could decode simply by listening. Before long, his uncle Mike gave him his first electric guitar, while his father bought him his first amplifier and arranged a few formal lessons.
Although Holiday spent time in his high school jazz band, he considers himself largely self-taught. Rather than studying music theory in a traditional sense, he developed his ear by dissecting records and learning songs directly from the artists who inspired him. His uncle Ted introduced him to the guitar work of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Rush, and ZZ Top, providing the foundation for a lifelong fascination with tone, arrangement, and musical storytelling.
Long before he thought of himself as simply a guitarist, Holiday was interested in how records were built. He gravitated toward all the instruments involved, production, arrangement and recording as naturally as he did the guitar, developing an understanding of songs as complete sonic environments rather than collections of individual parts.
Early Career
Holiday's musical career began in his high school, where he played in a succession of bands including Mothers Dirt, which turned into Society's Engine. In his early twenties he formed Fantastic Planet and guested with with the Initiates International, eventually forming humanLab. Constantly sharpening his musical palette in the studio and in live performance. His musical interests, moved fluidly between rock, improvisational jazz, alternative, blues, psychedelia, soul, experimental music, and heavier styles.
While still in his early twenties, Holiday also began working behind the recording console. Around the age of twenty-one, he created and produced a commercial sample library designed for producers working with early hardware samplers such as the Akai MPC and E-mu SP-1200. It marked the beginning of a parallel career that would continue throughout his life: producing, engineering, arranging, and developing music for other artists.
His band humanLab later signed with Atlantic Records in 1999. Although the group's album was never officially released, the experience opened the door to years of studio work, including session guitar, writing, and production for artists associated with the label. Much of that work remained intentionally behind the scenes, with Holiday often contributing as an uncredited player, producer, or ghost writer.
Following humanLab, Holiday formed Black Summer Crush with vocalist Thomas Flowers, later joining in Michael Miley and then Robin Everhart. As the lineup evolved, Flowers departed and vocalist Jay Buchanan joined the group, which became The Pleasant Return. The chemistry between Holiday, Buchanan, Miley, and Everhart proved immediate, laying the foundation for what would soon become Rival Sons.
Looking back, Holiday sees those years less as a series of separate bands than as a continuous creative education. Each project expanded his understanding of songwriting, production, collaboration, and performance, gradually shaping the musical philosophy that would define everything that followed.
Rival Sons
Holiday founded Rival Sons in 2009 with a clear vision: assemble a group of musicians whose individual voices were strong enough to create something greater together.
"I wanted the most uncompromisingly talented, most colorful players and performers I could find."
The band's debut album, Before the Fire, reflected that vision before the lineup had even fully taken shape. Holiday wrote or co-wrote the album's music, melodies, and much of its lyrical content alongside producer Dave Cobb before vocalist Jay Buchanan officially joined the group. After hearing the material, Buchanan agreed to become the band's singer and quickly re-recorded the vocal performances, completing the lineup that would define Rival Sons.
Over the following fifteen years, Rival Sons developed into one of the most respected rock bands of its generation, releasing nine studio albums: Before the Fire (2009), Rival Sons (2010), Pressure & Time (2011), Head Down (2012), Great Western Valkyrie (2014), Hollow Bones (2016), Feral Roots (2019), Darkfighter (2023), and Lightbringer (2023).
Throughout that body of work, Holiday's guitar playing became one of the band's defining signatures. While rooted in blues and classic rock traditions, his approach consistently pushed beyond them, combining vintage tones with expansive effects, layered textures, unusual tunings, and a producer's sense of arrangement. Rather than treating the guitar as a lead instrument alone, Holiday often used it to create atmosphere and emotional architecture, allowing sound, space, and dynamics to shape the songs as much as riffs themselves.
Despite the band's growing international profile, Rival Sons has remained committed to creative independence.
"Over nine albums, Rival Sons has never compromised nor been coerced creatively—not once. We've always made the records we wanted to make and done everything we could to present a genuine picture of where the band was at that moment. That's an accomplishment not to be understated. It's rare."
The band's catalogue has earned two Grammy Award nominations and established Rival Sons as one of the defining live acts of modern rock. Over the years they have toured internationally and shared stages with artists including AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, and Queens of the Stone Age, while headlining theatres and major festivals throughout Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and Japan.
Although Holiday is widely recognized as the band's lead guitarist, his role has consistently extended beyond performance. Throughout Rival Sons' career he has remained deeply involved in songwriting, production, visual direction, instrument development, and the broader creative identity of the band. That multidisciplinary approach would eventually lay the groundwork for the next artistic vision that emerged through HOL1D4Y.
Production & Collaborative Work
Running parallel to Rival Sons has been a second, less visible career in production and collaboration.
Holiday has long divided his creative life between touring and the recording studio, writing, producing, engineering, arranging, and contributing guitar to projects across multiple genres. Much of that work has taken place quietly, often without formal credit, as Holiday has frequently worked under pseudonyms, as a ghost player, or behind the scenes in development roles.
Among his credited collaborations is his appearance on Randy Bachman's 2015 album Heavy Blues, where Holiday contributed guitar alongside an ensemble of internationally recognized musicians. He has also written and produced with the artist Gvllow, while continuing to collaborate with a wide circle of artists, producers, and songwriters.
For Holiday, these collaborations have never been departures from his own work. They have been opportunities to explore different creative languages, production techniques, and approaches to songwriting—experiences that continue to inform every project he undertakes.
By 2025, those accumulated experiences had begun pointing toward something new: a body of music that no longer fit comfortably within any existing framework.
That body of work would eventually become HOL1D4Y.
HOL1D4Y
In 2026, after more than three decades of writing and recording primarily within collaborative bands, Holiday introduced HOL1D4Y, a new creative identity that expanded his role beyond guitarist, songwriter, and producer to include lead vocalist.
The project emerged from a daily writing practice in which Holiday developed short musical sketches rather than complete songs. As the collection grew, he recognized a distinct musical language taking shape—one that felt more atmospheric, cinematic, and deeply personal than his previous work. Those early compositions were built around improvised drum performances by longtime collaborator Michael Miley (Rival Sons) and later expanded with vintage synthesizer arrangements by keyboardist Jesse Nason (Rival Sons, Mono Sources), while Holiday wrote, arranged, edited, and self-produced the project from his home studio.
Originally conceived as an instrumental record, HOL1D4Y took a new direction following a serious bicycle accident in late 2025. During his recovery, Holiday realized many of the compositions were asking for something beyond instrumental music.
"What surprised me was that they stopped feeling like instrumental pieces," he said. "They started asking for a story. Once I realized that, the words just started emerging out in this stream of consciousness. That's when I knew I wasn't looking for someone else to sing these songs—I needed to tell these stories."
That realization led Holiday to become the lead vocalist on his own music for the first time in his career.
HOL1D4Y's debut album, Topology (2026), explores themes of perception, consciousness, and personal transformation through a blend of psychedelic, alternative, progressive, and cinematic influences. Holiday has described the project not as a departure from his previous work, but as the natural culmination of creative interests—including songwriting, production, visual art, and sound design—that had been developing throughout his career.
Style
Holiday's musical approach has always prioritized atmosphere, emotion, and storytelling over technical display. Although rooted in blues and classic rock traditions, his playing draws equally from psychedelic music, progressive rock, soul, folk, film scores, electronic music, and experimental production. Across his work as both guitarist and producer, he has consistently approached the guitar less as a lead instrument than as a tool for creating mood, movement, and emotional space within a recording.
"I try to play to what a song needs much more than simply fill space," Holiday says. "I prioritize economy, style, and color rather than eccentric overplaying. For me, intent is everything—the intent behind every note, every attack, and the overall emotional content of my playing. Color and texture have always interested me more than technical prowess."
Known for his extensive use of custom amplifiers, layered effects, alternate tunings, and custom-built instruments, Holiday's sound combines traditional blues-based phrasing with cinematic textures and modern production techniques. Whether performing with a single guitar plugged directly into an amplifier or constructing expansive multi-layered arrangements in the studio, his focus remains the same: serving the song before serving the instrument.
That philosophy extends beyond music. Holiday views songwriting, production, recording, instrument design, and visual presentation as interconnected parts of the same creative process. Rather than treating each discipline independently, he approaches every project as a complete artistic world in which sound, imagery, performance, and design all contribute to a single creative vision.
His personal style has evolved in much the same way. Over the years, Holiday has been known for everything from tailored suits and Chelsea boots to vintage denim, vegan leather jackets, and custom stage wear. More recently, his aesthetic has shifted toward natural fabrics, relaxed silhouettes, and influences drawn from Japanese and Indian design. Like his music, he describes his style as something that continues to evolve with each creative chapter rather than remaining fixed to a single identity.
Equipment
Holiday is known for his extensive collection of vintage and custom-built instruments, amplifiers, and effects, many of which have become closely associated with his recorded sound and live performances. Throughout his career, he has favored guitars by Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Kauer, and Banker Custom Guitars, alongside a wide range of vintage and boutique amplifiers from companies including Orange, Supro, Reeves, and Fender.
His approach to effects has become a defining part of his sound, incorporating both classic and boutique pedals and gear from manufacturers such as Dunlop, MXR, Way Huge, Electro-Harmonix, Strymon, Line 6, Fjord Fuzz, Isle of Tone, TV Jones, Seymour Duncan, and numerous independent builders.
Rather than maintaining a single signature setup, Holiday frequently develops project-specific rigs, often commissioning custom instruments and equipment to serve the musical and visual identity of a particular recording. This philosophy has continued through HOL1D4Y, including the creation of several one-off custom double neck instrument built by Banker Custom Guitars, created specifically for the project.
Partnerships & Endorsements
Throughout his career, Holiday has collaborated with a wide range of instrument manufacturers, recording companies, and apparel designers. Current and past partnerships include Orange Amplification, Supro, Kauer Guitars, Banker Custom Guitars, Yamaha, Guild, Gretsch, Line 6, Dunlop/MXR/Way Huge, Stringjoy, Couch Guitar Straps, JetSlide, TV Jones, Seymour Duncan, Electro-Harmonix, Fjord Fuzz, Isle of Tone, King Sonic, Ray Brown Custom Clothing, and John Varvatos.
Several of these collaborations have resulted in custom-built instruments, amplifiers, artist-designed equipment and clothing developed specifically around Holiday’s evolving creative vision.