As Packapalooza approaches on Saturday, Aug. 24, Technician talked to Brittany Hölljes, the lead singer of Packapalooza headliner Delta Rae. According to Delta Rae’s website, the band is made up of vocalist Brittany Hölljes; vocalist Liz Hopkins; vocalist, pianist and guitarist Eric Hölljes; vocalist and guitarist Ian Hölljes; bassist Grant Emerson; and drummer Mike McKee.

Brittany Hölljes discussed Delta Rae’s sound, genre and performance along with the band’s connection to NC State and the future for the band.

In your opinion, what is Delta Rae? 

That’s a great question, because it’s actually been the core question for us for many years, and we’ve yet to be able to answer it in a succinct way, but we are a genre-bending band that can’t really fit into a box. We’re four-part harmony, Americana, rock, pop, country, gospel, soul, and it is mostly just that we love huge harmonies and huge drums and putting on a transcendent live show that is kind of more of an experience beyond just a musical performance.

Where did the name “Delta Rae” come from?

Delta Rae is the name of the lead character in a book that my mom has been writing for the past 20 years amidst raising us kids, but she’s working on the final draft now, and it is about a girl from the South who awakens the Greek gods to save her family, and it’s a really cool magical fantasy novel. And, just for the record, the band does consist of myself and my two brothers, as well as our childhood friend Liz and our drummer and bass player, who are both from North Carolina.

Do you have a personal connection to NC State?

My dad actually went to NC State to get his master’s degree back in the ‘80s. That’s why my brothers were born in North Carolina. My parents were both in college at Duke, but then my dad went to State for grad school, and then after 25 years later, my dad came back and was a professor for a few years in the school of design in entrepreneurialism and innovation.

What makes Delta Rae unique?

I think that we are a band that just creates music directly from our hearts and souls, and our influences are so varied that what comes out is something that is very hard to compare to any other band, because it doesn’t have a genre leaning … it’s not going for anything other than to be really captivating and magical. Like I said, we’re two women, best friends, three siblings, four lead singers, four-part harmony, and we don’t really fit into a genre. So, if you’re the type of person who just says “I like all music,” then it’s the type of thing that would hit every chord with you. If you’re somebody who can’t listen to an album because every song sounds the same, we promise you that will not be an issue if you listen to a Delta Rae album. It’s like putting on a road trip mix that’s already ready to go, because you get a variety of singers and a variety of genres all in one band. 

Can you give us any sneak peeks or hints of what the performance is going to be like? 

We actually are just coming out with, well, we’ll be wrapping up our Kickstarter. I’m not sure if you all have heard anything about that, but we just launched a Kickstarter to go independent and to fund our next two albums, called The Light and The Dark, and the reason being because there are two really distinct sounds that we create. One is a soulful and summery and super upbeat, like dance party, no holds barred, and the other is a witchy swamp gospel with totally raw, crazy murder ballad-style singing. So if you come to see the show, you’ll get a very cinematic dose of “the light” and “the dark,” … it’s just full-out singing and full-out drum playing. We leave it all on the stage, and it’s just a ton of energy. Like I said, I don’t know if you all know much about this Kickstarter that we’re doing, but so far we’ve raised about 1000% of our goal. So we asked for $30,000 and we’re at $300,000, so it looks like we’re definitely going to make these two records, and our next stretch goal is to make an actual southern gothic musical à la True Blood and Brother, Where Art Thou?

What makes you most excited about performing at a college campus as opposed to a venue?

We are so excited to perform at NC State specifically because it’s our home town and because we spent a lot of time on campus, just because we lived there and have been to events and have dear friends who went to State and family who went to State, so it does have a very real, personal connection to us. Beyond that, though, we love performing on college campuses because the students are all really excited. When people have pride in their school, it means that the energy that they bring to an event is really cool and fun, and I think that people who are in school, in college, they’re looking for magic. They’re looking for something to get lost in and to get amped up with and for something imaginative, and I think that’s what Delta Rae loves to create. We all started singing together when we were in school, and my brothers went to college together to keep writing music, so that’s kind of where the first ideas for Delta Rae were born. So it’s just a really fun thing to return to and know that these young people are right at the beginning of a really cool journey. They could make anything, and we hope we inspire people to create, and I don’t know, college campuses are a really fertile ground for that.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would love for you to mention the Kickstarter. I think it’s really exciting that we’re getting to come back to our home town to play this really fun event with all of the exciting news that we have, and it’s going to be the last week of our Kickstarter, so people still have a chance to donate and pledge, if they want to, and be a part of this next chapter of our journey, and we will just be on cloud nine and excited to celebrate with all of the students as they go back to school, and it’ll be our first hometown show as an independent band in almost a decade. I’d also like if you mentioned our record, The Light, which is coming out in March of 2020, to be followed shortly by the sister album, The Dark.

Delta Rae will perform at Packapalooza on Saturday, Aug. 24, at 8:45 p.m.

To learn more about Delta Rae’s plan to go independent or to contribute to their goal, visit the band’s Kickstarter.