Dallas songwriter Steve Holt survives industry spilt

...Steven Holt has continually peered over the precipice of mainstream success. He has also come to terms with the responsibilities of fatherhood, worked with an erstwhile member of N'Sync, and, somewhere along the way, become a songwriter of surprising maturity and depth. vIn late '99 Holt returned to the stage with a new band called Bicycle Thief. After a slow start and some legal wrangling over the use of the name, his new outfit re-christened themselves OHNO and began crisscrossing the country, without the support of a label. They played prestigious gigs in New York and L.A. They opened for The Strokes and recorded with Dave Matthew's Band's producer, John Alagia. OHNO built its reputation on melodic, emotionally charged, keyboard driven pop songs and Holt's soaring, rough-around-the-edges voice.

After four years of being the next big thing, OHNO decided to call it quits in June. "It was just time to end it," Holt said, on the band's demise. "I was tired of chasing the carrot. We had exhausted all our resources and it just wasn't fun anymore. We're all still friends."

But the end of OHNO hasn't spelled the end for Steven Holt. Appropriately calling themselves The Now, Holt, along with OHNO guitarist Vince Martin and members of Tripp Fontaine and Vibrolux have started playing music that they enjoy. "It's a very exciting time right now," Holt says. "Everybody in this band is on the same page and everybody is contributing, which makes it a lot more fun." The Now has only played a handful of shows so far, but the buzz is building fast.

Comparisons have ranged from The Stone Roses to Radiohead, and Holt sees them somewhere in between.

"The Now songs are very emotional, straight-forward rock songs. It's just fun to play. My only ambitions, for this band, are to have a good time and to make good music that we're all happy with," he says.

As for the business of writing songs for Chris Kirpatrick, formerly of N'Sync, Holt is defiantly unapologetic.

"I had a one year old son at the time," he says, without a hint of remorse. "I just needed to make money. My agent approached me about it, and I was reluctant, but I just thought, 'you know, I've been writing songs for a really long time and it's something I do well. If I can make money to support my family doing that...'" Holt trails off, but then returns to the point.

"Honestly, I don't regret the time I spent with Chris at all. I kind of felt for the guy; I mean, he's been abandoned by the industry now. There's nothing really happening for him, but he just keeps chugging along. He's a survivor."

Maybe the two of them aren't such a strange pair after all.

-- North Texas Daily (no idea what the link is).
-- Thanks to Jackie on the *NSiders board for the article.