Award-winning Holly Arrowsmith
shares mesmerising single 'Neon Bright' -
second release from new album

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."

Neon Bright is released globally via all streaming platforms on Thursday 9 May.

For more information and interview requests contact:
Xan Hamilton
Susie Says! | 0275101134
xan@susiesays.co.nz

Neon Bright (single)

Holly Arrowsmith: Vocals, Dobro
Tom Healy: Electric Guitar
Cass Basil: Bass
Anita Clark: Strings
Alex Freer: Drums, Percussion

Neon Bright (music video)
Directed and Produced by Robyn Jordaan
DOP Martin Sagadin
Starring: Holly Arrowsmith, Delaney Davidson, Jessie Shanks, Chris Wethey, Amiria Grenell, Naomi Haussman
Colour Grade: Loren Kett
With help from NZONAIR

About Holly Arrowsmith:

Born on the high desert in Santa Fe New Mexico and raised in the mountains of Southern New Zealand, multi award-winning songwriter Holly Arrowsmith is both poet and storyteller. With the conviction that the deeply personal is also the universal, Arrowsmith's lyrics orbit around what it means to be human, and offer up prayer-like responses to our most intimate struggles.

A leader in New Zealand’s contemporary Folk and Alt-Country movement, Arrowsmith’s sound pays homage to tradition without being too reverential. From driven, glittering 90’s guitars with rich layered vocals reminiscent of Mazzy Star, to her falsetto lilt and stripped back emotive performances (think Joni Mitchell) Holly shape-shifts from powerful to intimate with ease.

She has won the hearts of music lovers close to home and abroad, touring throughout Australia and North America and sharing stages with Sixto Rodriguez, CW Stoneking, Tami Neilson, Jessica Pratt, Nadia Reid, Marlon Williams and Tiny Ruins. 

NPR described her music as ‘Utterly beautiful, anchored by a voice that pulls you close and cancels the noise outside.’ In 2020 she was awarded the APRA Country Song of the Year ("Slow Train Creek"), after receiving the prestigious Tui Award for Folk Album of the Year in 2017 for her opus For The Weary Traveller. Recently nominated as a finalist for the 2024 APRA Best Country Music Song for 2023's "Desert Dove", Holly continues to release captivating music.

If a great song can act as a mirror for the listener’s own inner landscape, then this is songwriting at its finest.