"We're a bit of a crazy band in some ways – our drummer lives in Hobart, I live in Launceston, Oscar's in Melbourne and our bass player's in Sydney, so it can be a logistical mindfuck to get everything happening." 

Such is the current state of play for Holy Holy, according to singer Timothy Carroll. Embracing their long-distance relationship has always been a necessity for the trans-city duo, but Carroll's not complaining. 

"I actually love the kind of the freedom of this modern life – working at home, or the airport, in a tour van, whatever hours I want to work. When I sit down at my laptop with a coffee and I'm planning gigs, organising music festivals, listening to bands, I am like 'Man, I never would have dreamed that this is possible to do as a job.'"

From his Launceston home, Carroll is musing about the changes that have shaped Holy Holy. Since catching ears with the edge in their indie-rock on 2014 EP The Pacific, Carroll and Dawson expanded their soundscapes for debut When The Storms Would Come in 2015, then polished the guitar/drum/bass set-up with extra keys and catchy singles on Paint in 2017. 

Along the way, Carroll and guitarist Oscar Dawson kept at their respective side hustles – starting music festivals and producing for big-name artists. Thus, it seems perfectly logical that the pair decided to take the reins on album number three, rather than rely solely on past producer and current touring band member Matt Redlich. 

"We self-produced this album so it was all on us," Carroll offers. "We were open to trying different things and changing the way we wrote and recorded quite a lot compared with previous recordings. There were a few moments where it was a bit scary in terms of us maybe not being on track. And then the last couple of sessions we made a lot of progress and it all came together – so I do feel a lot of relief. 

"Holy Holy often do this thing where we commit to a release date before we've even written or recorded the album. I guess because we feel like we have to do that – we've all got busy lives. If we waited until we finished an album, the cycles would blow out and it would just be too long. But that means that pressure to make it happen is there. 

"And now right before it's due out, I'm just trying to keep my head down and not think about it too much. I am really proud of the album and I feel like for a lot of us, progressing the sound and style is essential to keeping the project interesting and exciting for us. And I feel like we've achieved that." 

For their latest, My Own Pool Of Light, Carroll and Dawson maintained the intimate storytelling they're known for, and added a dash of the forthright and conversational, which Carroll puts down to “being largely at the mercy of chance” during this songwriting period.

“I don’t often go into those writing sessions with something on my mind, but [my daughter] Frida had been on my mind a lot,” he explains. “I have a son and a daughter. My son was repeating things that made me think that we had made more progress than that!

“I showed him a band on YouTube called [Vivian Girls], and they’re all females. And he goes ‘They’re all girls.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, girls are good musicians, good singers, good at guitar.’ And he said ‘Yeah, but not as good as boys.’ It was slightly troubling, but we’ll get there.”

Carroll and Dawson set parameters for themselves as producers on this new album. One way they were able to achieve the blend of their usual searing melodies, rich instrumental textures and joy spliced with melancholy was to experiment with writing songs with drums at their core, and letting the layers unfold around them; the other was to reach out to collaborators. Japanese Wallpaper, Ainslie Wills and Ali Barter put their stamp on a number of tracks, which Carroll said was key not only to the album's aesthetic but also to making the process fun.

"Oscar and I are really on the same page a lot of the time about what we want to do, which is great. But we kind of wanted to step away from the drums/bass/guitar aesthetic a bit and experiment and find interesting ways to compose songs," Carroll explains. "Holy Holy has lots of strengths but I always find it's nice to reach out to others who have the strength where you're weakest. 

"I guess taking the producer out of the mix by producing it ourselves we were keen to collaborate in another way. Now it's out of my hands to see what people think about it."