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Features Hollie Performance Monday, March 03, 2008 New Zealand Singer/Songwriter Hollie Smith Is Set To Storm Bluesfest.By Martin Jones
“Oh, not really,” New Zealand soul sensation Hollie Smith laughs when I ask if word is starting to get out about her in Australia. “I’ve only been here for three hours, so we’ll see how that goes.”
It takes less than three hours… believe me! Forty minutes with Smith’s stunning debut Long Player in your ears and you’ll be phoning every discerning friend you know. An hour of watching Smith on stage, and you’ll be converted for life. Such is the power and grace of the young singer’s talent.
In Australia to complete a few industry-type showcase gigs late last year, Smith dropped a giant rock into the Oz industry pond – the ripples gradually building into waves of appreciation. The shows earned her a spot on this year’s Byron Bluesfest bill and though there are some amazing voices billed this year – Mavis Staples, Michelle Shocked, Brandi Carlile, Ruthie Foster – Smith’s could well be the one that everyone walks away talking about.
Indeed it seems that we Australians are the last to discover Smith’s talents. Back in New Zealand, after ten years singing with outfits like Trinity Roots and Fat Freddy’s Drop, Smith’s debut reached the Number One spot on the NZ album charts and she was invited to support Bob Dylan’s August tour.
Meanwhile, further north, Hollie Smith’s songs and voice caught the ear of Blue Note Records President Bruce Lundvall who signed her to his Manhattan Records label, claiming “you know right_away- this is somebody very special.”
“No, not so much,” Smith confirms that the “overnight sensation” tag she’s inevitably facing in Australia doesn’t fit too well. “But even people in New Zealand said that, it was like ‘how do you feel, all of a sudden’ and I was, ‘well I’ve been doing this for ten years, so about fucking time!’”
Smith reveals that she began singing jazz gigs at the age of 15 and gradually began exploring her love of funk and soul, first gaining recognition out front of Wellington reggae/soul outfit Trinity Roots. What lead Smith to jazz and soul at such a young age, her parents’ record collection?
“Kind of,” Smith recalls.” I mean my dad was a blues rock guitarist so there was a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan lying around being played. But I sort of found a James Brown tape when I was about six or seven which totally mesmerised me so some of the slower, ballady tracks, the more soulful stuff, I really, really loved. So from a really young age I kind of found a direction with that and went on and found other stuff. Even from Dad’s blues rock stuff I went on to really enjoy BB King and John Lee Hooker, went on little journeys with what I liked and what I heard.”
That said, Smith readily confesses to a passion for chart pop as well, admitting that the first cassette she ever bought herself was Kylie Minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky!’
All that has coalesced in Smith’s contemporary take on soul music in Long Player. Splashes of modern production and aesthetics combine with old school soul, funk, gospel and jazz to powerful effect on Long Player, putting her in the league of the ilk of Chaka Khan and Jill Scott. Yes, she projects that much style and prowess – astonishing for a debut record.
Though, as mentioned, Smith is a seasoned live performer, she admits she’s far less confident in a studio.
“I hate recording,” she laughs, recalling the production of Long Player. “I mean musically it was fine because we did all the music live in one room, but I did the vocals separately ‘cause I knew I’d screw it up (laughs). But I find it incredibly hard to sing in the studio, I’m someone who really has a great time performing live and always enjoyed performing live and it is not often that I feel like I had a really shit show, but recording’s just one of those hard things to do with energy, you’re literally in there and it’s all just on your vocal ability and if somehow you can feel inspired in this weird little box. I find recording particularly hard, I’m still getting used to it, I still hate hearing myself being recorded.”
So what does Smith hear when she listens to Long Player?
So what do you hear listening back to the record.
“Well obviously I feel like I’ll never be able to listen to it how everyone else hears it, I’ll never be able to hear what other people are hearing. That’s why I find it so hard to explain my music ‘cause it’s like I don’t know, ‘cause I don’t know what you’re hearing. But I’m really happy with it musically and the kind of mindset I went into it with, like I’d been developing these songs for a long time and writing a lot of the parts and arranging them so I knew I’d be happy with them so I’m proud of the music and I’m getting better at accepting my vocal takes. No, I’m pretty stoked with it, it’s been a long time coming and a lot of energy and I’m glad that it’s done!”
Talented and modest. Long Player is one of the most rich, assured, accomplished debut albums you’ll ever come across, and it heralds the rise of an international superstar.
“We’ve had a pretty crazy couple of months – or crazy year,” Smith admits. “And it’s getting crazier.”
Long Player is due for a March release through EMI. Hollie Smith plays Byron Bluesfest on Monday March 24.
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