John Smith
It has been a while since we have seen John Smith release an album but he is back at the end of the month with his new album Great Lakes.
I caught up with the singer songwriter to chat about the new collection of tracks, the writing struggles he has faced in recent years and the tour he is about to embark on.
- You are about to release your third album Great Lakes so what can fans expect from the record this time around?
Hopefully better songs (laughs) - that is what I have been pushing for. Seriously I think that it is the best sounding record that I have made; we recorded it in a really beautiful converted chapel. I have got some really great musicians and I think that it is the strongest sounding record that I have made.
- It is quite a sparse sounding record so how did you find yourself going down this path in terms of sound - it is slightly different to what you have done before?
For the last few years I have been listening to a lot of those great West Coast seventies records like Jackson Brown and Neil Young and just trying to get hold of whatever it is that those guys did - the really close and dead instrument sounds.
So I wanted to make something that sounds like you are there in the room listening to it.
But at the same time I wanted it to sound like a good acoustic folk record so I just made sure that each song was recorded as live as possible and with as few over-dubs as possible. I think that that does makes it sound much more intimate.
- It's very acoustic and guitar driven so do you find that this style and sound suits your vocal and writing style?
Actually my vocal and writing style suit my acoustic guitar playing - I have always been a guitar player first and foremost and my singing and writing have come out of that.
Really I have always played acoustic guitar and everything has just been a happy accident to be honest.
- There are still a couple of weeks to the release of the album but how have you found the response to the album so far?
So far it has been very very positive and everyone has given me some nice feedback. I have played it to a lot of my friends and a lot of my musician friends and they have liked it so far.
I have been listening to it so much over the last six months or so that I can’t really hear it anymore - I can only hear the mistakes - so it is good to hear what people think.
It has been pretty positive so far and I am looking forward to reading some reviews and seeing what people think.
- As I said earlier this year your third album so how does this record compare to the albums that you have made before?
There is not a murder ballad in sight (laughs); it is not as dark I think. I have grown up a lot since the last record and I have been through a few things that I hadn’t before.
It is very hard to say about your own work but I think I just feel more like a grown up where as before perhaps I didn’t; maybe this is more of a grown up piece of work.
- This leads into my next question really how do you feel you have developed as a musician between the release of your debut record and this?
I have certainly played a lot. I have tried to gig every night of the week for the last ten years - I haven’t managed it but that has always been my aim. So I am always practising and working.
I suppose I feel much more confident now walking out on to a stage then I did when I started. When I was playing my first record I would still have people in the audience talking and I wouldn’t know how to deal with that.
Now I am very fortunate that most of the people who come to my gigs are there to listen and I can walk out confidently feeling that I have got something to say. When you are first starting out you don’t feel that confident and it really is horrible (laughs).
But now I really enjoy it and I like stepping out and holding my head up and singing my songs and knowing that people will listen - it is a really good feeling.
- I was reading that this album almost didn't happen after you suffered a bout of writer's block for 2 years so what brought you out of that drought?
I met two really great men Joe Henry and Dennis Elisworth, an American and a Canadian who are both songwriters. I met them entirely separately but spent some time with them both writing and talking.
I went to Dennis’ place in north easy Canada just to hang out for a while and we just wrote and ate great food and all of these great songs came out of it. Same with Joe we just went back and forth on emails writing songs together.
After that happened I went back home and was hold up in my flat in London and ten songs just happened - I worked nine to five on song-writing for a couple of months and all of these songs just appeared.
- What do you think they triggered in you to make that problem all of a sudden disappear?
I think a little confidence, perhaps. I have never been a very prolific writer and it has always been quite a process for me.
I think I had really hit a wall and it was like something was stuck in a doorway and someone saw it from a different angle and gave it a little shunt from beneath.
- How much do you enjoy writing with other people? And what do you think Dennis and Joe’s input have brought to this record?
I have really enjoyed it because for me it was about letting go of a little bit of pride as I have always hung onto the idea that this is my music and these are my songs. Collaborating reminds you of possibilities that are outside of you.
It is always really inspiring and actually writing with other people is a great way to get new ideas; there are songs on the record that would not exist if I had stayed by myself and they are some of the best songs on the record. I am really glad and I will continue to do it.
- I was wondering if writing with other people was now high on the agenda going forward?
Quite possibly. I am continuing to do some writing with Joe and we are actually doing a bit of writing for his next record.
To be honest my next set of priorities is going to be around touring so whatever happens with the record will probably just burst out of nowhere and take me by surprise.
So if there is any song writing on the cards in the next two years I will take that and consider myself lucky to catch any songs that come my way.
- You are about to embark on a headline tour this March so how excited are you to get out on the road and start playing these tracks live?
I can’t wait, I am really excited. I know a couple of the gigs are sold out and a couple of them are close to selling out so I am feeling really excited and it is great to know that people want to come and see me play. So I am going to put on the best show that I can.
- So what can people who have a ticket that perhaps hasn’t seen you live before expect from the show?
This is where I should say pole-dancing or lion taming (laughs). I am just going to play the guitar the best that I can and sing the best that I can.
I am a stronger player I was when I left the scene a couple of years ago so hopefully I will get a couple of converts on board. The most you can hope for is that people enjoy themselves and go home feeling alright.
- You have mentioned that you have tried to gig every night for the past ten years so what do you personally get out of playing live that perhaps you don’t get out of writing or being in a studio?
It is just a thrill standing in front of people when they are listening to you. There is a connection that happens when you are on stage that doesn’t happen in any other area of… certainly not in my life.
I just really enjoy performing and I love playing guitar - if I wasn’t performing and was doing some other job entirely I would still go home every night and play guitar all night. I love it.
- At the end of last year you supported Richard Hawley so how was that experience?
Brilliant, I can’t recommend supporting Richard Hawley enough. He is a really really nice man and he was very very kind to me.
It was a great tour and a great audience - people were already there to listen to a man with a guitar sing romantic songs and so I had a tailor made audience. I was very fortunate to do that.
- So where did your love and interest in music start? And what artist and bands did you grow up listening to?
My father’s record collection is where it all started for me. So I grew up listening to Paul Simon, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan.
My dad had, at the time, what seemed like thousands of records and every one was widely different so that was very much the start of my musical education.
- Finally what is next for you as we go through 2013?
Hopefully playing every night of the week (laughs). I am just going to continue to do what I do and keep practising guitar and hopefully playing in as many towns as I can.
John Smith - Great Lakes is released 25th March.
Click here to download John Smith - Great Lakes