High Holy Days

Forming in North Bay, Ontario, during 2002, blue-collar Canadian rock outfit High Holy Days developed a melodic guitar-driven approach that fused post-grunge textures with hard rock echoes from the 1970s and 1980s alongside soaring alternative rock elements. Their debut album, All My Real Friends, brought commercial traction in 2004.

Marc Arcand on vocals and Bill MacGregor on guitar anchored the lineup that also featured Jeremy Galda on bass and Jason Guindon; these musicians had previously played together in the Arcand Band back in 1998 before adopting the High Holy Days name. A 2003 agreement with Roadrunner Records set the stage for recording, and the finished All My Real Friends surfaced two years afterward, earning strong mainstream rock radio support as both the title track and “The Getaway” connected with listeners across Canada and beyond.

Further acknowledgment arrived in 2005 when the Canadian Radio Music Awards nominated the group for Best New Band. Sessions for a follow-up album began in 2006, yet the completed LP stayed shelved while the members continued intermittent live performances over the subsequent years. In 2020 the band made All My Real Friends available again through digital streaming and download platforms.