Bozeman Magazine

When it comes to creating music, Austin singer-songwriter Ali Holder doesn’t believe in the casual approach. To craft the songs on her EP, From My Veins Will Fall (Sept. 18, 2015), she went total immersion, isolating herself on a 10-day retreat at a ranch in Medina, Texas. She saw the ranch manager once; her only other encounters involved buffalo. “I had to drive through three different gates and cattle guards to get to the main house for the barest of Internet connections,” she recalls. To reward herself after a day of intense effort, she would dive into chapters by one of her favorite writers, horror novelist Stephen King. As most King fans well know, his works have a way of clinging in the brain — and even inhabiting dreams — especially if absorbed before bedtime. At one point, Holder flashed onto a rather intriguing, if unsettling image. “I thought to myself that if someone were to cut me open, Stephen King words would fall out,” she says. Such is the stuff of inspiration.