Music Industry News

Award-winning Aotearoa-based alt-country and contemporary folk songwriter Holly Arrowsmith releases her mesmerising track ‘Neon Bright‘, continuing to define the Americana landscape in Aotearoa through the beauty and excellence of her craft.

Holly is a master at pairing dark and weighty topics with lighter, sometimes danceable music, and Neon Bright guides us through the gravity of depression with a toe-tapping, memorable tune. Holly says, “I like towing the line between serious and a little irreverent, and I think making fun of my own tendencies helps me work with them. ‘Sadness wants to talk? Well, put her on the line. Sadness at the door so I let her inside.’”

Led by accomplished producer Tom Healy (Marlon Williams, Bic Runga), and accompanied by an all-star cast of New Zealand musicians (Cass Basil, Anita Clark, Alex Freer), Holly has composed yet another winning work with ‘Neon Bright‘. The song has a an Alt-Pop lean which was newly explored territory for Holly, drawing on styles like that of Kurt Vile meshed with a circling, alt-country vibe accentuated by Holly’s playing of the Dobro (resonator guitar.)

The video for ‘Neon Bright‘ brings us into a world where feelings have literally taken control of the movement of Holly, as the main character. “I had this idea of being manoeuvred around by other hands, helping me to play the instruments, fix my face, stand up, and look ahead. I wanted to show the loss of vitality in this character: The feelings aren’t bad, they are just trying to serve a purpose. In the end I have a standoff with Delaney Davidson, the perfect cowboy villain, whose attempts to intimidate me go unnoticed. I love this trope in Western movies, and we gave it our own design with a spinning plinth instead of a dusty street. The heroine finds courage again, to turn face to face with this charading character, to see it for what it is.”

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Photo credit: Si Moore