Defining the Dreamscape – In conversation with ĦOLMASONIKA
Find out how you can win a free festival ticket!
The year was 2019, and Eyes to Argus and The Velts joined forces to organise a gig for the very first time. The event took place at the short-lived Cloudberry in Sliema, and also featured melancholy-drenched singer-songwriter Adolf Formosa under the alias Philein, who now goes under the monicker Is-Suffarin.
The name of the event? ĦOLMASONIKA. It was an instant hit when pitched (and for the life of me I cannot remember who pitched it), but we never thought at the time that it would be anything more than a one-and-done type of deal.
The gig went well and was the start of a pretty solid relationship between Eyes to Argus and The Velts – which eventually led to the idea of ĦOLMASONIKA coming back, this time as a larger-scale festival experience.
We got to work and made it happen in time for an early 2023 edition at the legendary Liquid Club, featuring a packed line-up focusing on psychedelic, shoegazey bands alongside electronic acts.
The venue was full; the vibe was great. Clearly, there was something to this, and there was a strong desire to turn this into an annual festival. With one main change going forward – while the 2023 festival was a true collaboration between both bands, it became an independent venture then on out, just to keep band activities focused on, well, band activities.
I’m not personally involved in the ĦOLMASONIKA organisation team at this point in time, but Samwel Mallia, Sean Borg, Luke Ellul have continued to steer the ship and followed up with a 2024 edition that featured even more collaborators and acts on bill.
And in 2025, the 15th of February marks the advent of ĦOLMASONIKA 3, featuring a star-studded line-up – Hunter’s Palace, The Shh, Skimmed, Capitol K, GHSTT, Naqara, Bennie Blue, Mauve, and Cardona (DJ).
I spoke to the team ahead of ĦOLMASONIKA 3 to discuss what’s in store and how the festival has grown over time. I’ve also partnered with ĦOLMASONIKA for an exclusive giveaway:
Simply tell us who your favourite artist on the festival line-up is in the comments section below for the chance to win a free ticket to ĦOLMASONIKA 3 (email readers, you’ll need to go to the article page). Three winners will be chosen at random.
And while Eyes to Argus and The Velts won’t be performing at this year’s edition, we will be playing at the unofficial pre-party at Storeroom on the 25th of January alongside Dafne. See you there!
Without further ado, let’s get to the interview.
ĦOLMASONIKA combines psychedelic, shoegaze, and electronic music into a single festival experience. What was the inspiration behind bringing these particular sounds together?
Sam: The general idea behind it was born out of a shared desire to pitch a live band within a space that normally doesn’t see it, specifically an electronic music venue where the overlap with electronic sounds and setups would also be ever-present. Liquid Club was always THE spot I dreamt of seeing this happen. The initial conversations surrounding ĦOLMASONIKA becoming a festival between Sean and myself were steeped in our mutual love for these overlapping sounds, with Eyes to Argus and The Velts both being part of these sonic worlds, so what better way to represent this crossover than by setting up a fully curated, audiovisual experience of our own favourite dream-adjacent acts. I’ve personally also always loved the idea of bands or artists curating their own festivals (Le Guess Who’s 10th-anniversary edition in 2016 being the core moment of galvanisation for me as you can attest to, Ben).
Luke: The zeitgeist of the local scene has moved away from more standard band setups we might have been used to back in the day, as well as the generally straightforward rock sound of the early 2010s. We wanted the festival to represent this trajectory of where the scene is going. The overlap and hybridisation with electronic setups became more of a natural standard for the exploration of present sounds that we love and cultivate in our own acts, and it made a lot of sense for us to tap into this.
Sean: The time of the year was also a determining factor. Where generally the first two months of the local event calendar are relatively bare, we wanted to set up a proper one-day alternative, genre-blending festival to start the year off. We feel this has proven very successful in the past two editions and we’re at a point where we feel the scene now associates this dreaminess with ĦOLMASONIKA and expects it to happen at this point of the year.
How do you approach curating the festival’s line-up to keep it fresh every year? This is the first edition where founding bands Eyes to Argus and The Velts are not playing; has this made it easier for you to pivot in a different direction with the line-up?
Sean: Seeing as the festival in its current iteration is a one-day event and we have limited spaces for artists to perform with proper timeslots, we felt it made sense to give these slots to more names we wanted to see at the festival.
Luke: We always planned to have bigger acts on the lineup, and we’ve had people in mind since before the first edition years back that we couldn’t fit into a cohesive lineup. Freeing up these slots allowed us to simply have more time to let other acts have their moment. Since every year we strive to keep the lineup fresh and new, we thought that it was time for the bands to take a step back. This is especially relevant because ĦOLMASONIKA consistently having an entirely new line-up year after year for its third year running now is a point of pride for us.
Sam: All of the above – ĦOLMASONIKA became its own fully fledged project from the last edition moving forward but somehow that association with Eyes to Argus and The Velts remains, with reason seeing as we’re still active members of both bands, and it’s a nice little connection point to what brought us together in the first place (we’re still playing the unofficial pre-party as a way of “ushering” in the new edition), but it was perfectly natural to give those slots to more acts we wanted to see play live. We also always have long conversations about how we should strike a better momentum and time balance between “alternative” gig-goers and “electronic” party-goers, without removing anything from what the artist needs to fully realise their set.
We think about how gigs tend to start and end earlier than electronic events – a headlining set at a gig typically ends when an electronic event would be in its early hours. These are conventions we keep in mind when curating the line-up, giving people the chance to dip in and out as they please, but our wider aim is to unite both audiences through a cohesive experience – transforming the idea of “lingering around” after a gig into continuous immersion. We never want to repeat ourselves and two years on we feel that we have struck a balance that is a nice compromise for this blending of scenes, that really and truly have largely melded into one another.
Not playing this year has allowed us better vantage points to organise and plan these moving parts better. On a personal level, not performing means that I can focus more on stage management and ensure everything is set up to plan and everyone is ready to go as we change over from stage to stage.
This is your third edition coming up. What major lessons from the first two editions have informed ĦOLMASONIKA 3?
Sam: Fewer acts on the night allow for better flow. But we want alllll of our favorite artists there every time kjasfjhasfjhasf
Luke: We have clearly not learned this lesson yet. However, we keep refining the flow between acts over the course of every year, so that the event gets tighter and flows better from a logistical and curatorial standpoint.
Sean: ĦS4 will be the year!
Sam: But in all seriousness, despite still having a good amount of artists on the lineup, the overlap we mentioned earlier does keep getting more dynamic between live and electronic stage set-ups. Figuring out how to plan for an electronic act to start in the DJ booth back to back with a live act finishing their set on the stage in front, for instance, to keep the momentum going, has become more seamless. We feel that, moving into ĦS3, we have a better understanding of how to flow between stages more dynamically and efficiently, and we have better foresight into how to make use of our tools and resources, given that every year our collaborators keep growing as well.
As ĦOLMASONIKA grows, what's your vision for scaling while keeping the festival's core identity intact?
Sam: As mentioned in the previous question, we want to keep focusing on having special artists that have always embodied the nature of hybridisation and position them in lineups alongside newer names that are likewise carrying this torch for the breaking of barriers between setups and sounds. We are ecstatic about the comebacks happening at ĦS3. The scene has accepted hybridisation as the natural order of things, as opposed to a time that might have seen this overlap as more of a novelty. Embracing these crossover sounds will keep allowing us to build on this core vision with more like-minded entities (and without removing anything from all that such entities have already built up).
Sean: We wanted to include certain big names in the lineup this year as a show of gratitude for how inspiring they have been to our generation and will be to the next generation to come. We want to celebrate their impact on local alternative culture. Some of these acts have not played in years and might not play in this format ever again, so we want to keep curating a special line-up that positions such acts within a special setting such as that at Liquid and to offer the unique experience of being able to witness this rare happening that newer generations would have never been able to witness.
Luke: We always have plans to expand the scale of the event, both in size and duration, as we cannot seem to fit our dream into the realistic package of a single-day event at Liquid. We’ve also considered exploring other venues and concepts, smaller or bigger, with the possibility of interim events as well, but it’s always a question of whether we should focus on the central core event or dilute it into smaller-scale happenings elsewhere. Do we increase the frequency of events or not? And if so, will we trade something off for the next big one? Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
Sam: Experimentation with the concept of hybrid acts within a “dreamy” space is at the core of ĦOLMASONIKA, and we’re open to having that build into any space or iteration that might come around. This hinges on whether we have proper funding and time to scale accordingly.
Luke: While we’ve managed in our first editions with out-of-pocket funding, it would really be nice to see a balls-to-the-wall fully funded edition of ĦOLMASONIKA.
Sean: Jump on the bandwagon, fund us to see your favourite local shoegaze act at a Liquid Club near you – it's your duty to help us keep building the alternative music scene in Malta!!! (Just kidding, of course).
And finally, for the uninitiated, what is the Dreamscape you guys are always alluding to?
ĦOLMASONIKA: What do you mean? Do you not believe in the dreamscape YOU yourself played at for TWO YEARS RUNNING Ben? You saw it first-hand man, you tasted it with your dream-soaked eyeballs – fuck your 8-string bullshit, who plays an 11-string bass anyway bro? Why do you need all those extra strings, AWKWARDDDDD
JKKKK WE MISS U PLS COME BACK TO ĦOLMASONIKA ORGANISATION TEAM
Sam: As mentioned in the beginning, the dream was to always create a sensory experience that blends the shoegazey, psychy sounds of live-meets-electronic acts within the confines of a club setting, with Liquid being the home for this kind of sensory, audiovisual experience for years and years. Regardless of whether this sonic experience comes to life through the format of a guitar or a synth, within a live band or a solo electronic setting, all of this would happen with a kind of visual overlap through short throw projectors or light shows that the venue is equipped with. This is the first year where we will be able to fully explore this audiovisual overlap alongside the inimitable Late. Interactive, alongside GHSTT coming back after last year’s mesmerising visuals) We’re very excited about turning any space into the intersection within which these shared characteristics meet, so on personal levels, this suspension of disbelief is always what we wanted to create and experience within the setting of the festival.
Luke: Curation is all. When you’re creating an event, some have to be a ‘big tent’ that houses everyone and everything under one roof, especially if your focus is on bigger crowds. We wanted to tailor every move to our contained, themed concept. When we book artists, we invite them to align their setlists and setups to our vibe. Acts have been grateful to be a part of this approach from the start, which has returned bands more officially to a club such as Liquid. We are in turn very grateful to everyone who understood what we were trying to achieve, since curation makes the dreamscape.
Sean: As stressful as it is to put things up, with help given from certain entities, and thousands poured into financing the fest (that has still proven to be successful) – it is also essential to the local music landscape, as this fest hopes to inspire and galvanise younger entities from the next generation to start their own projects – cohorts that rarely see this kind of energy which our generation would have seen more directly back in our day. Through this set-up, we hope to continue what we once had and what we were inspired by when we started out (including acts that are headlining this year’s edition). We are very honest about what goes into making this dreamscape a reality, and we are very confident in what we’ve achieved in our past two major editions. We are incredibly excited about our dreamiest, most magic-filled edition yet and would love for all of you to experience it with us.
Don’t forget to comment below for the chance to win a free ticket to ĦOLMASONIKA 3. Tell us who your favourite artist on the line-up is, and you’ll automatically be entered in the giveaway. Three random winners will be chosen. The competition is open until the 25th of January.
Or, to support the festival, buy your tickets here: