Undoubtedly one of Aotearoa’s strongest voices, Hollie Smith emerged in the late 1990s, working with the likes of Fat Freddy’s Drop and Trinity Roots, she then cemented her place as one of the country’s most cherished acts with the 2006 Don McGlashan penned single ‘Bathe In The River’. Hollie’s following albums have entered the NZ charts at number one, with her debut LONG PLAYER selling double platinum and winning Hollie ‘Best Producer’, ‘Best Female Solo Artist’ and ‘Breakthrough Artist of the Year’ at the 2007 VNZMAs.
2016 sees Hollie offer up her third full length solo release, WATER OR GOLD. The 11 songs that make up the album were written over the past couple of years, and span times of both joy and sadness. A lot of that joy, she explains, comes from her helping to raise the son of a now ex-partner. “It’s definitely made me more of a positive person, and a lot happier. You know, learning how to sacrifice and not holding on to things, looking at the simpler things in life.”
Also included on WATER OR GOLD is Hollie’s heart-breaking tribute to her good friend and media personality, Helena McAlpine, who died in 2015 after a long battle with breast cancer. ‘Helena’ captures the strength of Hollie’s vocals, as well as the strength of a long-standing friendship. In the last few weeks of Helena’s life Hollie moved from Tauranga to Auckland to help care for her and pulled in a couple of favours to finish the song for the record. “We ended up finishing it the Tuesday night. We played it to her in the morning and she passed away that afternoon. She always saw it as an incredibly hopeful song. It’s become a pretty significant track, which represents so much.”
WATER OR GOLD was produced by Hollie and mixed in New York with Kiwi
producer and engineer Aaron Nevezie. Aaron has been based in the States since
1998 and has worked with the likes of The Black Keys and Danger Mouse.