Interviews By Uma: New Music From Holy Wars
A Mini-Interview With Kat Leon About The Band's New Single
One of the Fiercest (and Nicest) Front Women in Hard Rock on Using Music to Start Feeling
The LA-based band’s lead singer talks about the band’s new single, I Feel Everything - a rallying cry for a broken world
Last fall, in Boston, Holy Wars opened for The Warning and they laid down a blistering seven song set that left our ears ringing and jaws on the floor. Front woman Kat Leon leaves it all on the stage and the band is ruthless and loud in its delivery. After the show, we met Kat and the band and Uma and Kat just seemed to bond.
Last January, Uma’s long interview with Kat dropped and since then Kat has been a presence in Little Bean’s life, corresponding with her, responding to us on social media and sending her encouraging notes. (Sidenote: I’m incredibly grateful to her and basically a fan for life.)
So, a few days ago when word of a new single from the band started circulating, Uma jumped right on it! Holy Wars released a little teaser for the single, “I Feel Everything,” and a bit of information. What follows is a short interview Uma did with Kat about the new song, which officially dropped late last night. Uma wanted to be the first reporter to write something about it.
Keep in mind this interview was done based on the teaser and BEFORE Uma had heard the whole song or watched the music video.
As always, Kat was honest, authentic and gracious about the song and how personal the new music is to her life. She also talks about the official music video and what’s in store for Holy Wars and touring this year.
Stop by the band’s website here: Holy Wars Website. Give Uma’s first interview with Kat a read right here: Kat Leon Interview. Finally, give the new song and video a listen, but be warned, it is brutal! (But in a good way.)
We hope you enjoy the latest Interviews By Uma with Kat Leon!
Interviews By Uma: Kat Leon, Take 2
Uma Szczesny (US): The new song seems to start quiet and gets kind of loud and it looks a little scary! Can you tell me what the song is about and what it means to you?
Kat Leon (KL): Thank you, that was a little teaser of what we have in store for our fans. We were excited to share some bits that are more like Easter eggs that are meant to unfold in time.
The new single, "I Feel Everything," is a push and pull of emotion from fast, driving guitars/drums, shouty vocals in the verse and then the release in a sailing, emotive chorus. We wrote this song as a callback to the first release we ever put out in Holy Wars called "I Can't Feel a Thing." This is a full circle moment because that song was written about grief and the sudden passing of my parents in 2015 (song and band debuted in 2017). In that song, I talk about how grief makes you disassociate and now all these years later, my sister unexpectedly died in 2024 which brought me right back to the beginning of all of it. Grief, loss, life after death and where I am at now.
The song is very personal and important to me but we also wanted it to speak to the world beyond grief as the world is in such a state of turmoil. “I Feel Everything” dares listeners to stop escaping and start feeling... a rallying cry for a world ready to face itself.
UM: In the last interview, you said that you do all the costumes. Did you do the costumes for this music video? Did you make the crown?
KL: I did make the nail/thorn crown. You will see this again but I hinted at it in some social media posts where I talk about the beginning of this band and the songs and grief that started all of it as a way of healing. I started to see some fans notice I was building this crown as I was talking to you all in the video and I just love that... when people start to notice the little Easter eggs I like to lay here and there.
US: Where was the video filmed? How did you make the liquid in the video? It looks like blood!
KL: The video took place in Topanga Canyon, CA. It was a very long and full day but we wanted a night-lit forest to give that tone for this song. I did some solo close ups on another day but we got most of it there at that location.
I did all the wardrobe and made the props. However in the trailer, I did not do the tar like goo.. that was our set designer Olive who made that so awesome. It was cold and heavy. Haha and I drove all the way home which was over an hour and stopped through a late night burger drive through completely covered in goo. Because the location was outdoors, I had no access to the shower and that was the last shot of the day. I was freezing but that shower at the end of the night was cathartic haha.
US: The big question is, will you have a new album and American tour coming this year?! We hope so!
KL: We have “I Feel Everything” coming out now as our single and our first release since 2023 but unfortunately that is all I can say for now :( We are headed to Europe and the UK for a tour on June 4th, but we will definitely be back in the US for more tours! We just announced today that we are playing ShipRocked 2026! We are so excited to play that one. It'll be our first time on that boat!
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Great interview Uma.Thats great they will be on Shiprocked. TheWarning really loved when they were on there with other great bands and it's where the whole collab with DPS with the track HURT got started .
I love how Kat is so generous to spend time with fans at their shows, and genuinely appreciates us. She deffo shows it on their socials too. Giving Uma 2 interviews is next level tho. It's the little things that make the biggest differences. We see it!! Nice job Uma. Thanks Kat!!