Award-winning singer-songwriter Holly Arrowsmith has criticised New Zealand’s music industry, saying it’s not set up not to benefit artists, but to benefit from them.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, the Christchurch-based folk artist said she’s been left “exhausted and on the verge of burnout” by the demands of the industry.

”I am ambitious, but my ambitions are more to do with how I want my life outside of my work to be,” said Arrowsmith, who has won two APRA country music awards and the Tui Award for Folk Album of the Year in recent years.

”I’ve found that the more I push into the music industry and the way it’s set up – extensive touring, being away from home all the time – I lose what I actually want, which is to be with the people that I love, to be in nature, to have peace and privacy, and all the things I think make a good life.

”I’ve had bouts of being more ambitious and kind of trying to break through or push myself, and every time I come back exhausted and on the verge of burnout.

”Honestly, the music industry is just not set up for artists – it’s set up to benefit from them.”

Arrowsmith, who became a parent during the Covid pandemic, said her latest record Blue Dreams is an attempt to push against our culture’s preoccupation with personal accomplishments and earning the approval of others by letting the world in on her struggles with motherhood and mental health.

Released in July, the album is heavily influenced by female singer-songwriters and poets like Patti Smith, Sinead O’Connor, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry and New Zealand’s Janet Frame. Arrowsmith says she appreciates these women for “telling the truth” with their writing.

”There’s a beautiful quote from Joni Mitchell where she said: ‘People deserve to know how other people feel’,” she told Cowan.

”Modern life, there are so many things that are wrong about it, but one of them is that in our culture, we’re obsessed with success, achievement and how people perceive us. We’re very selfish and inward-looking at times.

”When you expose vulnerabilities about yourself in art or music, it’s kind of terrifying saying ‘here I am, I found motherhood hard in the first year’ or ‘here I am, I get depressed sometimes’. It’s very anti the Western way.”

Arrowsmith attributes the rawness of her songwriting on Blue Dreams with the deep resonance many are having with it: “Definitely what I’ve found is that when you make something real, people have a connection to it.”

Singer Holly Arrowsmith.

For Arrowsmith, nature continues to be a huge inspiration for her songwriting. Her debut album For the Weary Traveller was deeply impacted by the striking landscapes of Otago, where she spent the bulk of her childhood, and much of this imagery has continued on Blue Dreams.

”[Nature] is such a huge part of folk music. Throughout the ages, there’s been this connection to the natural world and an appreciation for the fact that we are connected to it and we’re not separate from it,” she told Real Life.

”There’s a spirituality in that and I think it’s just one of life’s richest gifts that we get to partake in.

”I find winter so hard as someone who struggles with mental health at times, and I think it’s because you’re just stuck inside so much and everything looks dead. As soon as spring comes I can just feel myself coming back – and I’m really enjoying that right now.”

Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.