Working for assholes turned out to be a really great course in how to never treat people. It was a valuable lesson we learned while working for a startup in San Diego during the late 2000s. So we quit and decided to reboot Holiday Matinee out of a co-working space where we went on to publish our first book, throw tons of events, create a line of merch, make a few films, host a radio show, and share everything we learned along the way.
People often ask what Holiday Matinee is and to be honest, we never really settled on definitions. That always felt limiting. What started in 1999 as a PR and marketing agency for bands (Death Cab For Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, Sigur Ros, The Album Leaf, No Knife, Braid, Superdrag, Cursive, Bright Eyes, The Faint, Cat Power…) and companies (Ford, Microsoft, W Hotels, Zappos, Apple…) grew into a hybrid of so many creative ventures.
Running Holiday Matinee‘s blog wasn’t easy — to be candid, we often struggled to make money but we loved our work and worked our love. And damn was it fun. For the past 14 years, we covered the creative scene we believed in — the blog wasn’t just a blog — it was a community. It may not have been the intention, but by creating this small community we connected people that now raise families together, became business partners, or best friends. We raised money for some very deserving causes and helped other find jobs and start new careers. So if that wasn’t worth it — we’re not sure what is.
And now it’s time for another reboot. We’re going to focus our efforts solely on Holiday Matinee’s General Store. We love creating physical products that inspire creativity and have several exciting launches in the months to come. Hit that follow button to stay in the loop and if you’re looking to relive all the great content we covered on the blog (mixtapes, How to Be Creative series, 5 Minutes With Kumar, etc), it will still be here. Big virtual hugs to everyone we met and supported us along the way and especially our incredible team of contributors - Catrina, Monique, Gregory, Hannah, David, Lisbeth, Kelly, Aaron — who spent their valuable time helping keep the blog fresh and turning us on to new things.
We were never guys that could sit idle for very long, so we're already exploring projects called Maplewood Theater Club and Salton Sea Nymphs. Though they may seem very different, at heart they're really both about bringing people together — something we've always believed in.
Hugs and tacos,
Dave & Kiran