Interview - Hollie Smith - November 2015
By Ben Doy
Hollie Smith is back with her latest single 'Lady Dee', and a New Zealand & Australia tour which kicks off in Raglan tonight (all dates below).
With a new album in the works for release next year as well, we had a chance to catch up with Hollie before she hit the road.
You've just released your latest single Lady Dee, what's the story behind the song?
It started from watching a couple of friends who were in detrimental type relationships and everyone kind of knowing about it... and them just having to figure it out on the own. You say everything that you can say, but then having to step back and know that you're going to have to wait for them to figure it out. About just staying friends regardless of your friend's decision basically.
It's quite a stunning video clip for the song!
Yeah, a friend of my Preston who's with a production company called MoFresh, did pretty much all the music videos from ‘Humour And The Misfortune Of Others', and I just got them on board for this one. We wanted to do something really simple and Preston just came up with the concept and all that imagery behind it. It ended up great, it was a really easy video shoot which is even better.
And you're working on a new album at the moment?
Yes. So this is this is the first single and we'll try to do a second release late November or December.... just a little sort of soft push. Then we'll look to release the album in March. But it's all a bit stressful at the moment because I've got to finish the album in the next two months and I'm quite busy (laughs). So I'm not too sure how I'm going to pull that one off just yet. They'll be no weekends, birthday or Christmas this year. It's been on of those years.
Where are you recording it?
Kind of all over the show. This time round I did some work in Wellington at my drummer's studio, so we just sort of did the band stuff there. But we've done things a little bit differently, he's got a V-Drums which is an electronic kit. So have been working on it differently in that regard as opposed to having a full live band set up like I had for the other albums.
So it's a little bit different... like the guitaring has been recorded completely separately. And I haven't done any of my vocals yet so not so sure what we'll do there.
Have you had to make a shortlist of songs that will appear on the album?
Unfortunately for me I'm not the most prolific writer in terms of volume. So I basically have about 13 songs and hopefully most of them will get on the record. I'll be going to New York at the start of January to mix it with a really good dude over there, cause I need quite a lot done on the post production. So I'll go over there to make sure nothing gets lost in translation. So I have to have it done by then!
Are you using a producer?
So far I've been doing that. I'm not sure if that was a great idea or not. But I kind of knew what I wanted everything to sound like. I thought I'd try to do it and if I get out of my depth will bring someone on. Which might happen soon (laughs). But at the moment I'm just trying to piece it together and get my ears around it a little bit more and see what happens.
You played at the Queenstown Jazz Festival just recently, how was that?
It was great! It was a little bit of a tough gig, my best friend passed away not long before so I hadn't really been out and about, and it was my first performance since then. And it was quite a late gig and everyone was a bit rowdy... so I was a little bit shy. But we did some new stuff and that seemed to go down really well; it's a lot more up and bit more edgy... a bit rockier. They seemed to enjoy that aspect of it which was good.
And you've got a tour of New Zealand and Australia about to get underway...
Yeah, we've got 4 shows in New Zealand and 3 in Australia. Doing a festival over there and a show in Melbourne and Sydney.
So we'll get to hear some of the new stuff at the shows?
Yeah, am kind of road testing to see how it comes across live. Just gauging where to push the audience really. But it'll be really cool, I'll be touring with the whole band so it'll have a good vibe and will be fun.
Following the tour and the album release, what are you plans then?
We'll do like a full proper New Zealand tour probably at the end of April, and probably an Aussie tour if we can manage it. At the moment we're kind of going year on year off with proper international tours like Europe, we save up and can get there bi-yearly. So ideally once we've got the album out I'd like to push more into those territories. But that might be later on the year if we can make it work.
Lady Dee Single Release Tour
Friday November 6 - YOT Club, Raglan
Sunday November 8 - Detour Lounge, Whakatane
Friday December 4 - The Cabana, Napier
Saturday December 5 - King Street Live, Masterton
Tickets available from www.eventfinda.co.nz
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December 29- January 1 - Rhythm & Vines Festival, Gisborne
Tickets available from www.rhythmandvines.co.nz
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Thursday November 26 - The Howler, Melbourne
Tickets available from http://www.h-w-l-r.com/
November 27 and 28 - Queenscliff Festival, VIC
Tickets available from http://www.qmf.net.au/
Sunday November 29 - The Basement, Sydney
Tickets available from http://www.thebasement.com.au/