5 May 2011
Britomart Country Club, George FM, NZ Music Month and Absolut are proud to present:
HOLLIE SMITH
(With Live Band)
Thursday 5 May
7pm
Britomart Country Club
With Support from NICK D
"Time had crept by since Hollie Smith's voice was last seen wandering through the minds of her adoring New Zealand public. Those who had cherished Long Player but wanted more had started to ask where in the world she was hiding. Hollie Smith had been hiding, but also biding her time and searching for the inspiration to begin crafting the songs that would say the things that were floating around inside her head and her heart. Creating a new album would make up her next musical voyage, and she felt ready to do that.
March 15th sees the release of Hollie Smith's eagerly awaited second album: 'Humour And The Misfortune Of Others'. A twelve song journey into the realms of soul, funk, blues, psychedelia and even country, all led by a young womans voice that careens between delicate beauty to spine tingling power. It is an album Hollie is proud of, one that will stand the test of time, and one that shows she has grown as a composer and an artist since the release of her critically acclaimed debut album Long Player.
"I felt a lot more out of touch from what was happening in the music world around me. Because of that the songwriting did change a lot. I was sort of writing a lot more for myself, so the songs then became more personal, a little bit more cathartic too as I was letting go of a little bit of stuff, and I was not really caring about who heard them or not. I had to start writing again. And because I hadn't really been involved musically and creatively for a couple of years, the songs were a lot more song orientated than they are on the last album which is a lot more musically orientated.'
It wasn't a chance to unleash demons, but more the hope of a soulful and cathartic musical experience that led Hollie Smith and her band of misfits towards the forest to record at Revolver Studios in Waiuku. Egos were left at the door, the band enjoyed each other's company inside and outside the studio and slept where they fell at the end of long and productive days of recording. Having always respected Wellington multi instrumentalist, visionary and friend Riki Gooch, she knew she had found the producer of her album after seeing what Gooch had created with his multi instrumental orchestra Eru Dangerspiel live at the Auckland Town Hall in August '09. There was a mutual respect between the two and and open palate for her band to contribute towards arrangement of the pieces Hollie had created, where as on Long Player she arranged more of the bands parts and directed them in the playing.
"I've always respected Riki very much as a musician and a friend. Essentially he was the driving force behind a lot of this record. I mean with him being a drummer you can really see his influence there with him and Darren (Mathiassen - drummer) having such a mutual respect they would feed off each other and create these amazing melodic drum pieces, just his whole presence and lack of ego made for such a smooth process."
The chemistry between Gooch, engineer Brett Stanton and Smith and the musical calibre of Hollie's band - Darren Mathiassen (drums), Tyson Smith (guitar), Crete Haami (bass) - meant that songs were played live and usually completed within 3 or 4 takes. Two songs 'Finding Home' and 'Will You Be The One' where Hollie has played on the grand piano are both captured with her singing live vocals and completed in one take with no editing on the final version. Two other tracks on the record were sung completely live with the band and completed with minimal takes. Hollie has always refused to use vocal doctoring such as auto tune on her voice and always minimal editing on her songs which are not recorded completely live. Humour And The Misfortune Of Others explores different musical sounds and styles throughout it's twelve tracks and reiterate's Hollie Smith's love for creating soulful music laden with groove.
The first single 'Mamma', to be released to radio in Feb '10, gives a sneak peak at the album, and it's funk guitar and gospel like harmonies combined with Hollie's voice make for a song that sounds like Janis Joplin singing an Outkast song. The music video due for release to TV also shows more artistic vision and features a variety of cameos from an all star cast.
Hollie made her first real inroads and impression with the New Zealand audience after the release of her soulful self titled EP in 2005, and captured us further with her heart wrenching lead vocal on the Don McGlashan-penned 2006 chart hit 'Bathe In The River'. The anticipation had built dramatically by the time Hollie's full length album, Long Player was released in May 2007 and it's success showed how much of a fan base wanted more with the album selling double platinum. International interest in Hollie and Long Player was huge and before long she was signed by legendary American R&B/blues label Blue Note and around this time spent a number of weeks touring through Australia and Europe. Due to unforeseen circumstances to do with a global EMI records (owners of Blue Note) buy out, Hollie's Long Player was never released outside of New Zealand or Australia. it was a huge blow for Hollie to not only lose the release through Blue Note records, but to enter into complications with a global music giant on an album she considered 'her baby' and the result of years of toil. What followed was Hollie's quietest musical period since she was a teenager.
Although Long Player received unanimous praise, several New Zealand music awards, and had sold over 30,000 copies in New Zealand alone, Hollie was still disillusioned by the music industry and the way the international release of Long PLayer had been treated. It was almost two years since she had the means and desire to begin writing again. But when she did, it began to pour from her and the result are a collection of uplifting and heartfelt songs which talk of love, loss and hope.
"None of these songs were necessarilly planned for an album. I just knew that I had to write again. A lot of the messages are a lot more obvious than I might normally to do as I tend to keep things personal, or private. A lot of them will make sense but again. like in a lot of my songwriting you can kind of take from them what you want." Humour And The Misfortune Of Others is Hollie Smith's greatest musical offering yet, and show's one of this country's finest musical talents returning to a public eagerly awaiting any song, album or live show they can get their hands on".
Very limited tickets available from www.iticketexpress.co.nz and Real Groovy.
Thanks to Absolut Vodka, Tiger and Redbull.
http://holliesmith.co.nz/
www.britomartcountryclub.co.nz