September 22, 2024 • 25 mins
Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and raised in the mountains of Southern New Zealand, Holly Arrowsmith is a multi-award-winning songwriter known for her poetic storytelling. With a focus on the deeply personal aspects of life, her lyrics resonate - exploring what it means to be human through prayer-like responses to our struggles.
A leader in New Zealand’s contemporary Folk and Alt-Country movement, Holly's music blends tradition with innovation. Her dynamic vocals and nuanced lyrics create a stunning sonic portrait of life’s ups and downs, moving effortlessly from powerful to intimate. She has captivated audiences not only here but also in Australia and North America, sharing the stage with notable artists like Sixto Rodriguez, Tami Neilson, and Marlon Williams.
Holly’s accolades include the APRA Country Song of the Year for "Slow Train Creek" (2020) and the Tui Award for Folk Album of the Year for her album For The Weary Traveller (2017). Most recently, she won the APRA Best Country Music Song for "Desert Dove" (2023). NPR praised her music as "utterly beautiful," highlighting her ability to draw listeners in and create a reflective experience through her songs.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection, It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Gaday, Welcome to our life. I'm John Cowen. Holly Arrismith
joins me tonight. She's an alternative country singer. She's won
this year's APRA Country Music Song of the Year. She's
won it before in twenty twenty and a two year
award for Folk Album of the Year before that, and
she's just released her third album, Blue Dreams, and about
to go on to around New Zealand, so she's got
(00:53):
a lot to talk about. So welcome Holly, Thanks for
having me, and congratulations on winning it another award. It
must be a bit of a buzz.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, Yes, it's always nice to be recognized for what
you're doing, and especially these ones that are pair voted
that that always feels.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Good, right to be honored by your fellow musicians. And
is it a nice community of musicians when you get
together with other muso's, is there a nice feel to it?
And because there can't be that many musicians on the ground,
so when you get together it must be quite quite
fun in New Zealand has.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
A beautiful little community of songwriters and musicians and it's growing.
It's probably bigger than most people think. But it's very
kind of cooperative and everyone supports each other.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
It's not like a competitive environment.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, oh that's nice. And giving birth to a new album,
it always sounds like it's such a huge thing getting
these things out. How long has the album been in
production or how long has it been to produce it?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, it took about four years to make this record,
but mostly because I had a baby in that time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So so a baby and to an album. Yes, that's okay,
and all that's going well for you.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, Parenthood, I mean it changes your life in many ways,
but most of them.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Good and that comes out in this album too. Isn't
it his aspects of it that refer to your becoming
a mum?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yes, definitely. The other title track, Blue Dreams Especially, is
a song that I wrote in those early early months
of parenthood where it was a pandemic. It was lonely,
it was isolating, and I had no idea what I
(03:00):
was doing, and I was very, very sleep deprived, and
I was I wanted to hear a song that I
could take comfort in because I thought, oh my gosh,
I didn't know it was meant to be this hard, and.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
I couldn't find a song. And I think most.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Mothers are probably too busy to write songs, so there's
not many songs about being a mother. So I somehow
found the time to write that song that I wanted
to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I've sometimes heard it said that the first year of
your first baby is the most stressful of your life.
So I'm just amazed that within that sleep deprivation and
stress and business, you actually found time to write a song.
Or are you looking back reflecting on it reflecting.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Yeah, No, I wrote it in that time, and I yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I recall having my baby lying on the bed next
to me kind of you know, they lie there and
kick their arms and legs around and talk to the ceiling,
and I had my guitar and I was trying to
put my experience into words.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Wow, that must be. Is that the way you've coped
with other losses and trauma in your life?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I mean this record is a very human record, and
it has experiences of death, identity changing, new life, the
loss of ideals, and yeah, this songwriting is absolutely how
(04:44):
I process all these things.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Could I just reassure people after having her described this
as about death and loss and things like this, you
don't need to take a couple of alien before you
listen to it. It's actually a lovely, melodic and upbeat album.
Is it intended to sort of reflect on those things
but to be sort of get you through it, to
be a little bit sort of therapeutic even.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yes, And I think you know, I don't want to
leave people with a sense of hopelessness or myself, so
I always try to think about that when I'm writing.
And there are some songs that are sadder than others,
but the last song on the record as very uplifting
and swan dive. It's called with the idea that just
(05:30):
when you think that things will never get better.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
They do.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And sometimes when you're in a bit of a dark spot,
a bit depressed, it's great to lean on someone else's
experience and hope and to pull them through.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah. So the songs in the album, there are some
that are quite soul form a lot of sort of
more country style songs, and others are really quite upbeat,
is the I think the term Americana. Is that the
term that people use to describe the more rocky, upbeat
ones or is it?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, Yeah, there's definitely an American a strong Americana influence.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
The first half of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The records, quite driven, quite intense, a little bit yeah,
like definitely influenced by rock.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
We've got a beautiful full band playing on it with
incredible musicians from New Zealand, Anita Clark on strings, Tom
Harley on pedal steel and electric guitar, and Alex Freer
on drums, caspazl on bass.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
So the yeah, first half is a more upbeat driven
kind of.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Portion of the record, and the second half really goes
back into kind of my folk roots and the more
country feel.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Right, it must be fun touring with a band. I
think most of the touring and performing you've done, you've
just been on stage yourself with a guitar, So it
must be quite different being out there with a big group.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Yeah, And I mean I haven't really done that yet.
I'm about to do it. I've done it here and
there in the past, but you're right, I've mostly played
solo or with an accompanist and it's so nice having
your friends on stage with you, and it really takes
the pressure off of you kind of holding it all
(07:26):
down yourself.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The album also pays tribute to your granddad, and on
the album cover there is a beautiful brooch that I
believe that he made.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
So he didn't make it, but it was my grandmother's brooch.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Yeah, yes, and he my grandfather. So they were American,
my grandparents.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
They lived in New Mexico and then Arizona, and they,
particularly my grandfather, he collected and sold art and antiques
all his life, and mostly Southwestern style antiques. So I
don't know where he found this brooch. It might be
Navajo and made of silver and turquoise, and yeah, it
(08:16):
was my grandmother's and it's a bucking horse and I've
always felt this strong affinity with this horse, and I
wanted to make it the album cover.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I saw an old Instagram post that you put up
where you had laid out on a table the things
that you take with you on tour to sort of,
I guess, make you feel at home. And the brooch
was right there in the middle of it. And there's
also a guitar strap.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah, my guitar strap is a beautiful hand carved leather
belt that my grandfather used to wear, and I just
tied some of his shoelaces, leather shoelacers.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Onto the end and turned it into a guitar strap.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So why does he figure so large in your life?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
I grew up.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I grew up next door to them for the first
four years of my life, so they were in that
really foundational period and as I've learned becoming a parent,
the first three of four years are really important to
the child's development. And they were, Yeah, I guess they
were attachment figures for me and.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
I.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
When we moved to New Zealand, we remained very close,
even though there was this huge distance between us. And
there's just something about perhaps that other part of my
life or my identity that is almost mythological because I
(09:56):
was removed from it. Of the desert and the music
and the style of the Southwest, and my grandparents they
were kind of rarely embodied.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
All of that, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
They they wore cowboy hats and turquoise rings, and I
just love all of it.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Isn't it sad that those formative experiences and as you say,
they're the most probably the most important ones we ever
have in our life. They drift into amnesia that there's
so many experiences and cuddles and interactions that we had
back then, and for most of us it's just a
blank do you have you? But you do have really
(10:41):
early memories of the American West.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
I do, and I also have was lucky to kind
of make more memories as I got older, because I'd
go return quite a lot. But Yeah, even though they
drift into amnesia, I think that they are also quite
deep somewhere within your subconscious and the things that I'm
(11:06):
attracted to now visually are things that mirror that place.
And when I go back to New Mexico and I'm
in that environment, I really feel at home.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That's amazing, isn't it. It's embedded in there. So you're
embedded in that part of the world, and you've been
growing up in New Zealand all your life. When you
look at your music, can you see some music that
you think, yes, that comes from my American heart and
other bits of music, yes, that comes from my New
Zealand experience, or is it all just blending together?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
I do love American music and particularly the singer songwriter
Americana country folk style. But then I also think you
know my New Zealand heritage, which is Scottish and Irish
and English. There's a lot of folk tradition and those
(12:07):
places as well, and maybe that's why why there's a
there's such a strong kind of Americana music scene in
southern New Zealand, particularly in christ Church.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
If you've just joined us, I'm talking to the best
import we've made from America since my father's Chevy, Hary Arrowsmith,
and we'll be talking more after the break about her
quite stellar career in country music. This is real life
on news Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news
Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
To Waking.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
To Know, to face crime, weakness, Welcome back to real
I'm talking with musician Holly Arosmith. She's well honored, she's
(13:13):
won all sorts of awards, she's just got a new
album out and the song that we're listening to there, Holly,
what are we listening to?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
That was Desert Dove, the song I wrote in tribute
to my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's a beautiful song and you're talking about your grandfather
before the break and your ties back to America. So
you have been back to America? Have you toured in America?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I've done kind of living room concert tours very diy
in my twenties, And yeah, I mean, you could just
tour there forever if you wanted to.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
But do you want to or do you feel I mean,
do you feel drawn back to America or do you
think No, New Zealand is really where it's at for me?
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I actually don't. I don't want to live there and
I don't want to tour that particularly.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
The reasons are that.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I've kind of reached a time in my life where
I have a family and touring is actually very risky.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
It doesn't guarantee to make money.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And yeah, I guess I'm just a bit tired of
taking such huge risks. And also with the States. I
just think when you compare New Zealand and America's places
to live, I think we're very very lucky here right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
One of the things about touring is that you can
have all your dates on the calendar and then in
a day they can vanish. Yes, it's sounded like you're
getting set for a very very exciting time.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I booked this whole tour myself through Europe and the UK,
and I was going to showcase it south by Southwestern
Texas and it all went up in smoke overnight.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yep. Yeah, you were I think you were hiking at
the time and out in Lake Brunna. Was that it?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Yeah, out of reception. I should have just stayed there,
I think.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And you come back into reception and look at your
phone and bang your worlds collapsed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well
it did bring another love into your life at that
time though. A bus. Yes, tell us about the bus
because I've seen pictures. I've seen pictures of it. Is
it still feature in your world?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
You still have?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe this is a painful.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Story, then it's all right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
We bought this, My husband and I bought this nineteen
sixty one Bedford busy, beautiful old railway transport bus with
the curved skylight windows, and we.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Were very naive.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
We thought it would take us three months to kind
of change a few things and then move in, and
it ended up taking three or four years because everything
that could leak did leak, as we discovered when we
pulled off the lining, So it was a huge, huge
(16:29):
nightmare of a job. But I can now replace window
seals and use a Rivet gun and all sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So all sorts of fantastic DIY skills and a musician needs. Look,
I've been through your Instagram posts, and often they just
self and other people's Instagram posts, would I say, are
usually just self indulgent ego, skating and things like this.
Yours is just a constant tribute to nature. You're obviously
(17:01):
such a country girl. I can smell the wood smoke
and the damp woods and the sea spray as I
go through your picture, as you're a real artist there.
But obviously nature is a huge thing in new life.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm glad that that's the feeling you get when you're
on my Instagram, because it is kind of a horrible
pit of.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yeah. I mean everything.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I am other people's play other ones, yes, not yours. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I grew up I mean obviously the first four years
in the Southwestern America, and then I lived in Alexandria,
the tiny town in central Otago. We had a df arm,
and then I spent the rest of my childhood in
arrow Town. So I've been very, very lucky to live
in beautiful places, and I am a country girl for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, it's totally spoiled you for anywhere else in the world.
Probably you've probably lived in some of the most beautiful
places on the planet. So, but the that comes through
your music, you think, do you actually get charged up
and inspired by what you absorbed from nature and that
paus into your music, do you think? Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Definitely.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And I think I think that's such a huge part
of folk music throughout the ages, is this connection to
the natural world and an appreciation for the fact that
we are connected to it and we're not separate from it,
and there's a spirituality in that, and there's a.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
I think it's just one of life's richest gifts that we.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Get to partake in.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
There's hints of anxiety and depression in your album. Is
nature part of that process of getting through and getting
beyond those tough times?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:59):
For sure? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And I think winter. I find winter so hard as
someone who struggles with mental health at times, and I
think it's because you're just stuck inside so much and
everything looks dead, and as soon as spring comes, I
can just feel myself coming back and I'm really enjoying
(19:25):
that right now?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Oh great?
Speaker 6 (19:27):
And I know that you that you've paid tribute to
lots of musicians and that you get inspired by having
musicians and it's and you've said, it's not so much
their style, but the way they see.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Life, and that you resonate with that. And if this
isn't too big a question, how do you see life?
And if that's too big, let's break it down. You
know what is it that about modern life that that
chills your heart?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
So I did have a lot of influences in this record,
kind of philosophical influences like Patti Smith's Shanad O'Connor, Mary Oliver,
Wendell Berry and New Zellen's Janet Frame.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
I Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think what I love about them is that they
tell the truth, and that's what I try to do
when I write. There's a beautiful quote from Joni Mitchell
where she said people deserve to know how other people feel.
And I think modern life, I mean, there's so many
things that are wrong about it, but I think one
(20:43):
of them is that in our culture, we're obsessed with success,
achievement and how we how people perceive us. We're very
selfish inward looking at times. And I think that when
(21:03):
you expose vulnerabilities about yourself and art of music, it's
kind of terrifying, you know, saying here I am I
found motherhood hard in the first year. Well, here I am,
I get depressed sometimes. It's very antique, kind of the
(21:25):
Western way of.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Isn't that amazing because it's such a universal almost experience
And you'll probably find that people will just soak up
your music because you do tell the truth.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, And I think that's definitely what I've found is
that when you make something real, then people have a
real connection to it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You experienced success as a musician and the songwriter very
early on. I think you're winning your first awards at
sixteen or seventeen, but your career you seem to have
been quite happy to keep your your career on a
low boil. Don't sound like a very driven person. Is
this to sort of get a long term sustainability into
(22:15):
your career or just don't have much as career drive.
How do you see yourself in that respect?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, I think I am ambitious in some ways, but
my ambitions are more to do with how I want
my life outside of my work to be and I've
found that the more I push into the music industry
and the way that it's set up, for example, extensive touring,
(22:43):
being away from home all the time, I actually feel
like I lose what I actually want, which is to
be with the people that I love, and to be
in nature and to have peace and privacy and all
the things I think that make a good life. And yeah,
(23:07):
so it is. I've I've had bouts of being more
ambitious and kind of trying to break through or push myself,
and then every time I just kind of come back
exhausted and on the budget, burnout and thinking, yeah, honestly,
the music industry is just not set up for artists.
(23:28):
It's set up to benefit from.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Them, right. Well, I know that we benefit from the
music industry, and I don't suppose we really appreciate what
a toll it takes on those people that are furnishing
those lovely sounds and songs that help us and hear us.
But I hope though, that you do enjoy touring when
(23:50):
it's around New Zealand. And I know that because you've
got a tour coming up. If people want to catch Holly,
they can catch here. On the twelfth of October and
christ Church and Wellington on the twenty seventh of October
and a couple of dates in early November and Auckland.
And if you're interested in finding out more details about
her tour, then go to Hollyarosmith dot com and you
(24:14):
can purchase tickets and also find out about her back
catalog and all her music. Holly, it has been fantastic talking
with you, and we're going out on another one of
your songs. What have you picked for us to finish today?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Oh, thanks so much for having me, And I've picked
Blue Dreams, the title track of my new record.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Right, it's a beautiful song. So let's sit back and
listen to a little bit of that. And Holly, thank
you so much for making time for being on real life.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'm John Cown, looking forward to being back with you
again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcast on iHeart Video
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection, It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Gaday, Welcome to our life. I'm John Cowen. Holly Arrismith
joins me tonight. She's an alternative country singer. She's won
this year's APRA Country Music Song of the Year. She's
won it before in twenty twenty and a two year
award for Folk Album of the Year before that, and
she's just released her third album, Blue Dreams, and about
to go on to around New Zealand, so she's got
(00:53):
a lot to talk about. So welcome Holly, Thanks for
having me, and congratulations on winning it another award. It
must be a bit of a buzz.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, Yes, it's always nice to be recognized for what
you're doing, and especially these ones that are pair voted
that that always feels.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Good, right to be honored by your fellow musicians. And
is it a nice community of musicians when you get
together with other muso's, is there a nice feel to it?
And because there can't be that many musicians on the ground,
so when you get together it must be quite quite
fun in New Zealand has.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
A beautiful little community of songwriters and musicians and it's growing.
It's probably bigger than most people think. But it's very
kind of cooperative and everyone supports each other.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
It's not like a competitive environment.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, oh that's nice. And giving birth to a new album,
it always sounds like it's such a huge thing getting
these things out. How long has the album been in
production or how long has it been to produce it?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, it took about four years to make this record,
but mostly because I had a baby in that time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So so a baby and to an album. Yes, that's okay,
and all that's going well for you.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, Parenthood, I mean it changes your life in many ways,
but most of them.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Good and that comes out in this album too. Isn't
it his aspects of it that refer to your becoming
a mum?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yes, definitely. The other title track, Blue Dreams Especially, is
a song that I wrote in those early early months
of parenthood where it was a pandemic. It was lonely,
it was isolating, and I had no idea what I
(03:00):
was doing, and I was very, very sleep deprived, and
I was I wanted to hear a song that I
could take comfort in because I thought, oh my gosh,
I didn't know it was meant to be this hard, and.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
I couldn't find a song. And I think most.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Mothers are probably too busy to write songs, so there's
not many songs about being a mother. So I somehow
found the time to write that song that I wanted
to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I've sometimes heard it said that the first year of
your first baby is the most stressful of your life.
So I'm just amazed that within that sleep deprivation and
stress and business, you actually found time to write a song.
Or are you looking back reflecting on it reflecting.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Yeah, No, I wrote it in that time, and I yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I recall having my baby lying on the bed next
to me kind of you know, they lie there and
kick their arms and legs around and talk to the ceiling,
and I had my guitar and I was trying to
put my experience into words.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Wow, that must be. Is that the way you've coped
with other losses and trauma in your life?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I mean this record is a very human record, and
it has experiences of death, identity changing, new life, the
loss of ideals, and yeah, this songwriting is absolutely how
(04:44):
I process all these things.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Could I just reassure people after having her described this
as about death and loss and things like this, you
don't need to take a couple of alien before you
listen to it. It's actually a lovely, melodic and upbeat album.
Is it intended to sort of reflect on those things
but to be sort of get you through it, to
be a little bit sort of therapeutic even.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yes, And I think you know, I don't want to
leave people with a sense of hopelessness or myself, so
I always try to think about that when I'm writing.
And there are some songs that are sadder than others,
but the last song on the record as very uplifting
and swan dive. It's called with the idea that just
(05:30):
when you think that things will never get better.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
They do.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And sometimes when you're in a bit of a dark spot,
a bit depressed, it's great to lean on someone else's
experience and hope and to pull them through.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah. So the songs in the album, there are some
that are quite soul form a lot of sort of
more country style songs, and others are really quite upbeat,
is the I think the term Americana. Is that the
term that people use to describe the more rocky, upbeat
ones or is it?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, Yeah, there's definitely an American a strong Americana influence.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
The first half of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The records, quite driven, quite intense, a little bit yeah,
like definitely influenced by rock.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
We've got a beautiful full band playing on it with
incredible musicians from New Zealand, Anita Clark on strings, Tom
Harley on pedal steel and electric guitar, and Alex Freer
on drums, caspazl on bass.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
So the yeah, first half is a more upbeat driven
kind of.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Portion of the record, and the second half really goes
back into kind of my folk roots and the more
country feel.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Right, it must be fun touring with a band. I
think most of the touring and performing you've done, you've
just been on stage yourself with a guitar, So it
must be quite different being out there with a big group.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Yeah, And I mean I haven't really done that yet.
I'm about to do it. I've done it here and
there in the past, but you're right, I've mostly played
solo or with an accompanist and it's so nice having
your friends on stage with you, and it really takes
the pressure off of you kind of holding it all
(07:26):
down yourself.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The album also pays tribute to your granddad, and on
the album cover there is a beautiful brooch that I
believe that he made.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
So he didn't make it, but it was my grandmother's brooch.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Yeah, yes, and he my grandfather. So they were American,
my grandparents.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
They lived in New Mexico and then Arizona, and they,
particularly my grandfather, he collected and sold art and antiques
all his life, and mostly Southwestern style antiques. So I
don't know where he found this brooch. It might be
Navajo and made of silver and turquoise, and yeah, it
(08:16):
was my grandmother's and it's a bucking horse and I've
always felt this strong affinity with this horse, and I
wanted to make it the album cover.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I saw an old Instagram post that you put up
where you had laid out on a table the things
that you take with you on tour to sort of,
I guess, make you feel at home. And the brooch
was right there in the middle of it. And there's
also a guitar strap.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah, my guitar strap is a beautiful hand carved leather
belt that my grandfather used to wear, and I just
tied some of his shoelaces, leather shoelacers.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Onto the end and turned it into a guitar strap.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So why does he figure so large in your life?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
I grew up.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I grew up next door to them for the first
four years of my life, so they were in that
really foundational period and as I've learned becoming a parent,
the first three of four years are really important to
the child's development. And they were, Yeah, I guess they
were attachment figures for me and.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
I.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
When we moved to New Zealand, we remained very close,
even though there was this huge distance between us. And
there's just something about perhaps that other part of my
life or my identity that is almost mythological because I
(09:56):
was removed from it. Of the desert and the music
and the style of the Southwest, and my grandparents they
were kind of rarely embodied.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
All of that, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
They they wore cowboy hats and turquoise rings, and I
just love all of it.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Isn't it sad that those formative experiences and as you say,
they're the most probably the most important ones we ever
have in our life. They drift into amnesia that there's
so many experiences and cuddles and interactions that we had
back then, and for most of us it's just a
blank do you have you? But you do have really
(10:41):
early memories of the American West.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
I do, and I also have was lucky to kind
of make more memories as I got older, because I'd
go return quite a lot. But Yeah, even though they
drift into amnesia, I think that they are also quite
deep somewhere within your subconscious and the things that I'm
(11:06):
attracted to now visually are things that mirror that place.
And when I go back to New Mexico and I'm
in that environment, I really feel at home.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That's amazing, isn't it. It's embedded in there. So you're
embedded in that part of the world, and you've been
growing up in New Zealand all your life. When you
look at your music, can you see some music that
you think, yes, that comes from my American heart and
other bits of music, yes, that comes from my New
Zealand experience, or is it all just blending together?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
I do love American music and particularly the singer songwriter
Americana country folk style. But then I also think you
know my New Zealand heritage, which is Scottish and Irish
and English. There's a lot of folk tradition and those
(12:07):
places as well, and maybe that's why why there's a
there's such a strong kind of Americana music scene in
southern New Zealand, particularly in christ Church.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
If you've just joined us, I'm talking to the best
import we've made from America since my father's Chevy, Hary Arrowsmith,
and we'll be talking more after the break about her
quite stellar career in country music. This is real life
on news Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on news
Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
To Waking.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
To Know, to face crime, weakness, Welcome back to real
I'm talking with musician Holly Arosmith. She's well honored, she's
(13:13):
won all sorts of awards, she's just got a new
album out and the song that we're listening to there, Holly,
what are we listening to?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
That was Desert Dove, the song I wrote in tribute
to my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's a beautiful song and you're talking about your grandfather
before the break and your ties back to America. So
you have been back to America? Have you toured in America?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I've done kind of living room concert tours very diy
in my twenties, And yeah, I mean, you could just
tour there forever if you wanted to.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
But do you want to or do you feel I mean,
do you feel drawn back to America or do you
think No, New Zealand is really where it's at for me?
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I actually don't. I don't want to live there and
I don't want to tour that particularly.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
The reasons are that.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I've kind of reached a time in my life where
I have a family and touring is actually very risky.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
It doesn't guarantee to make money.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And yeah, I guess I'm just a bit tired of
taking such huge risks. And also with the States. I
just think when you compare New Zealand and America's places
to live, I think we're very very lucky here right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
One of the things about touring is that you can
have all your dates on the calendar and then in
a day they can vanish. Yes, it's sounded like you're
getting set for a very very exciting time.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I booked this whole tour myself through Europe and the UK,
and I was going to showcase it south by Southwestern
Texas and it all went up in smoke overnight.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yep. Yeah, you were I think you were hiking at
the time and out in Lake Brunna. Was that it?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Yeah, out of reception. I should have just stayed there,
I think.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And you come back into reception and look at your
phone and bang your worlds collapsed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well
it did bring another love into your life at that
time though. A bus. Yes, tell us about the bus
because I've seen pictures. I've seen pictures of it. Is
it still feature in your world?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
You still have?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe this is a painful.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Story, then it's all right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
We bought this, My husband and I bought this nineteen
sixty one Bedford busy, beautiful old railway transport bus with
the curved skylight windows, and we.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Were very naive.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
We thought it would take us three months to kind
of change a few things and then move in, and
it ended up taking three or four years because everything
that could leak did leak, as we discovered when we
pulled off the lining, So it was a huge, huge
(16:29):
nightmare of a job. But I can now replace window
seals and use a Rivet gun and all sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So all sorts of fantastic DIY skills and a musician needs. Look,
I've been through your Instagram posts, and often they just
self and other people's Instagram posts, would I say, are
usually just self indulgent ego, skating and things like this.
Yours is just a constant tribute to nature. You're obviously
(17:01):
such a country girl. I can smell the wood smoke
and the damp woods and the sea spray as I
go through your picture, as you're a real artist there.
But obviously nature is a huge thing in new life.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm glad that that's the feeling you get when you're
on my Instagram, because it is kind of a horrible
pit of.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yeah. I mean everything.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I am other people's play other ones, yes, not yours. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I grew up I mean obviously the first four years
in the Southwestern America, and then I lived in Alexandria,
the tiny town in central Otago. We had a df arm,
and then I spent the rest of my childhood in
arrow Town. So I've been very, very lucky to live
in beautiful places, and I am a country girl for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, it's totally spoiled you for anywhere else in the world.
Probably you've probably lived in some of the most beautiful
places on the planet. So, but the that comes through
your music, you think, do you actually get charged up
and inspired by what you absorbed from nature and that
paus into your music, do you think? Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Definitely.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And I think I think that's such a huge part
of folk music throughout the ages, is this connection to
the natural world and an appreciation for the fact that
we are connected to it and we're not separate from it,
and there's a spirituality in that, and there's a.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
I think it's just one of life's richest gifts that we.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Get to partake in.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
There's hints of anxiety and depression in your album. Is
nature part of that process of getting through and getting
beyond those tough times?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:59):
For sure? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And I think winter. I find winter so hard as
someone who struggles with mental health at times, and I
think it's because you're just stuck inside so much and
everything looks dead, and as soon as spring comes, I
can just feel myself coming back and I'm really enjoying
(19:25):
that right now?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Oh great?
Speaker 6 (19:27):
And I know that you that you've paid tribute to
lots of musicians and that you get inspired by having
musicians and it's and you've said, it's not so much
their style, but the way they see.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Life, and that you resonate with that. And if this
isn't too big a question, how do you see life?
And if that's too big, let's break it down. You
know what is it that about modern life that that
chills your heart?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
So I did have a lot of influences in this record,
kind of philosophical influences like Patti Smith's Shanad O'Connor, Mary Oliver,
Wendell Berry and New Zellen's Janet Frame.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
I Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think what I love about them is that they
tell the truth, and that's what I try to do
when I write. There's a beautiful quote from Joni Mitchell
where she said people deserve to know how other people feel.
And I think modern life, I mean, there's so many
things that are wrong about it, but I think one
(20:43):
of them is that in our culture, we're obsessed with success,
achievement and how we how people perceive us. We're very
selfish inward looking at times. And I think that when
(21:03):
you expose vulnerabilities about yourself and art of music, it's
kind of terrifying, you know, saying here I am I
found motherhood hard in the first year. Well, here I am,
I get depressed sometimes. It's very antique, kind of the
(21:25):
Western way of.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Isn't that amazing because it's such a universal almost experience
And you'll probably find that people will just soak up
your music because you do tell the truth.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, And I think that's definitely what I've found is
that when you make something real, then people have a
real connection to it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You experienced success as a musician and the songwriter very
early on. I think you're winning your first awards at
sixteen or seventeen, but your career you seem to have
been quite happy to keep your your career on a
low boil. Don't sound like a very driven person. Is
this to sort of get a long term sustainability into
(22:15):
your career or just don't have much as career drive.
How do you see yourself in that respect?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, I think I am ambitious in some ways, but
my ambitions are more to do with how I want
my life outside of my work to be and I've
found that the more I push into the music industry
and the way that it's set up, for example, extensive touring,
(22:43):
being away from home all the time, I actually feel
like I lose what I actually want, which is to
be with the people that I love, and to be
in nature and to have peace and privacy and all
the things I think that make a good life. And yeah,
(23:07):
so it is. I've I've had bouts of being more
ambitious and kind of trying to break through or push myself,
and then every time I just kind of come back
exhausted and on the budget, burnout and thinking, yeah, honestly,
the music industry is just not set up for artists.
(23:28):
It's set up to benefit from.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Them, right. Well, I know that we benefit from the
music industry, and I don't suppose we really appreciate what
a toll it takes on those people that are furnishing
those lovely sounds and songs that help us and hear us.
But I hope though, that you do enjoy touring when
(23:50):
it's around New Zealand. And I know that because you've
got a tour coming up. If people want to catch Holly,
they can catch here. On the twelfth of October and
christ Church and Wellington on the twenty seventh of October
and a couple of dates in early November and Auckland.
And if you're interested in finding out more details about
her tour, then go to Hollyarosmith dot com and you
(24:14):
can purchase tickets and also find out about her back
catalog and all her music. Holly, it has been fantastic talking
with you, and we're going out on another one of
your songs. What have you picked for us to finish today?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Oh, thanks so much for having me, And I've picked
Blue Dreams, the title track of my new record.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Right, it's a beautiful song. So let's sit back and
listen to a little bit of that. And Holly, thank
you so much for making time for being on real life.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'm John Cown, looking forward to being back with you
again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcast on iHeart Video
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!