HOLSMAN

HOLSMAN will release their debut full-length Sally on August 28. Three years in the making, the album is rooted in Chicago punk but built with a broad melodic frame, landing somewhere between the bruised, big-chorus charge of The Menzingers and Against Me! and the loose, hook-first instincts of 1960s pop.

The record follows two twenty-somethings, both survivors of abusive childhoods, as they try to build an adult relationship out of materials neither of them was really given. Ryan Holsman describes the story in blunt terms: “The highs were really high, and the lows were really low.” Rather than flattening either side of the relationship, Sally tries to write both people with empathy, mess, and a stubborn sense of hope.

Lead single “I’ll Be a Dog in My Next Life” was written during a stretch when Holsman says his future felt uncertain and the past still had its hand on his shoulder. Its video leans into that strange mix of comedy and ache, putting Holsman in a full dog costume inspired by Wilfred, while the song turns that low point into something scrappy, melodic, and cathartic.

With Dan Tinkler behind the board and on bass, Sally plays as both a personal survival record and a tribute to the city’s long-running punk lineage. At its core, Holsman frames the album as a record about “unyielding hope” and a reminder for anyone still in the thick of it that there can be light at the end of the tunnel.