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JASON SMITH TALKS ABOUT NEW ALBUM, RELEASES NEW TRACK
The music –The first thing that will strike you about the album is the fact that it is COMPLETELY different from anything I’ve ever done before. There’s no bombast, very little theatrics, and it’s extremely, extremely human, as opposed to drifting off into outer space. Anyone who’s expecting Mind 2.0 or even Still Waters 2.0 will be very disappointed, since there’s not one trace of metal on this album. Not one bit. There’s no screaming, no heavy guitars, nothing that links it to hard rock, even. It is a folky, dark, gentle, weird, funky, breathy, trippy, emotionally manipulative piece of experimental indie music. There is still some unusual time structures, especially on the last track, but I want to run as far away from this image of me as some sort of metal, rock star person as possible. Whilst the fact that it’s indie may be repellent to some of you, it has got a lot of substance and variation and every track is completely different. You can go from a quiet, dark folk song to psychedelic neo-funk and then into a catchy, melodic post-punk revival track. Not only is the music itself different, but I’ve taken my vocals into places that I thought I never would. As I have mentioned before, there is no screaming, but there is also no operatic vocals and it’s very rare I even use a “loud” voice, so to speak. A lot of the tracks involve quiet, smooth, unobtrusive vocals of varying pitches, but on the tracks where the vocals are one of the main elements, I use emotion as opposed to technicality to control the song. As well as the traditional instruments, guitar, bass, drums and vocals, I have brought into some more unusual ones, like hurdy-gurdy, accordion, a harp in places and a bit of synth as well. There are orchestral elements, although they are few and far between and, as I’ve said, aren’t bombastic and loud, but are actually there for a reason. The lyrics – There are no alien overlords and weird time travelling dream creatures in this album, I can tell you that. Everything is very human and rooted in reality. This is the first time an album of mine hasn’t been tied with a unifying concept, although there are recurring lyrical themes that you can spot pretty easily. I talk a lot about death, both physical and metaphorical, existentialism, acceptance and, the biggest theme of all, love, which has been portrayed in both a positive and a negative light throughout. One of the songs (Pop Song for the Plebeians) is about the music scene at the moment, as well as the relevance of... you know, new ideas and originality in modern day pop music. That song is also about the excess of fame and stuff. You’ll see, I’ll talk about it in due time. There are various specific events that helped shape this album... obviously, you have my marriage and relationships and stuff, which I won’t delve into, because you no doubt have heard all about it. Also, the death of my best friend, Eric, which sent me into a depression, was the main influence for a lot of the tracks, in particular, Gone. A couple of the tracks, which were the last ones written, have been influenced by being a father. Or, as I’m afraid to admit, how shit of a father I’ve been. You’ll hear more about that on a later album, probably, since most of these were written prior. Of course, some of the lyrics just fitted in quite well, so I added them, but they’ve all probably been subconsciously influenced by something, yeah. The production – Producing and mixing this album was absolute hell, to put it lightly. Mayhem. This came about due to the fact that I wasn’t sure whether to do my usual wall of sound thing and put layer on top of layer, or whether I should try a new approach to producing it. The result is a strange, unique mix of the best of both worlds, I like to think. Whilst I would usually add industrial and noise effects to everyone to make it sound dark and sludgy, instead, I have just used more natural sounds, chatter, wind, gentle ambience, the sea... that sorta stuff. This is probably the first time I’ve ever produced an album where the focus hasn’t been mainly on vocals and guitar. Of course, they’re still core elements, but I’ve also put a lot of effort into making the rest of the instruments as vital a part. In some of the songs, it’s the drums and bass that form the main body and carry it through. As I have mentioned before, there is ambience on this album, but instead of making whole tracks ambient pieces of work like in Still Waters, I’ve just spaced it out so it can carry your attention, whilst still sounding pretty lush. The mixing took forever this time around, even longer than it usually does, and I got really, really irritated with it. When you mix an album, you want everything to be absolutely perfect, but it never is. I spent days just fiddling about with things, trying to get the sound I was aiming for ABSOLUTELY right... I think I’ve come pretty damn close, I have to say. The influences – There have been an immeasurable amount of influences on my album, both musically and thematically. If I was to write a full list of the bands/ artists who have influenced this, it would probably spread across two pages. I’ll try and get across the rudimentary influences though. The folky side of it has come from bands like The Middle East and Animal Collective, who also influenced the structure of some of the songs. The dark, atmospheric elements came from indie bands like The Antlers, post-rock bands like Mogwai as well as some dark ambient artists like Atrium Carceri. Arcade Fire dictated the symphonic placements and melodies of a lot of the tracks, in that, they’re sombre and dark, but catchy and easily singalongable. Radiohead, as always, were a massive influence too... The National and Joy Division got me into post-punk, so I thought I’d add a few elements of that in as well on some songs. I get the weirdness both from my warped little mind and bands such as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. Icelandic folk music, in general, played a big part in the melody and structure of the songs. The album is also influenced by what I’ve touched upon in lyrics; love, death, existentialism, nature, light and dark, etc. Too many to name. The release –As you may or may not know, I’m gonna be making no profit from this album. All of the money is going towards the Huntington’s Disease Association England & Wales in Eric’s honour. The album is being released through Chaos Records sometime later this year, it depends on many factors. I’m still working out an album cover, but the NEW tentative album title is simply Jason Smith, since I am a boring bastard. I’m gonna be doing lots of promotional shit for it, including a tour at some point, hopefully. If you’re interested in being a support act or anything, ya know, hit me up. Anyway, I will leave you with a new track that is probably the biggest indicator of my direction. Enjooooooy! Bite the Bullet (5:08) (Art Rock/ Indie Rock)Immediately, you hear a guitar play a singular note over and over again relatively quickly for a few seconds. Soon after this, a relaxed falsetto vocal by Jason alongside some deeply mixed low synths comes into the song. As soon as the vocals come in, the guitar switches to a dark, yet strangely upbeat melody, which is simple, but extremely effective. As Jason sings these lyrics in his falsetto, you can very faintly here another vocal track of him harmonising with a low pitch baritone, although it’s not clearly audible. This carries on for a quite a while, building up atmosphere and ambience in the background, with most of the track focused primarily on the lyrics of the song. After the first couple of verses, a drum beat, somewhat resembling a relatively slow march, enters the fray, as do some symphonic elements, although they are downplayed and not extremely noticeable. Another guitar layer is added on top of it, in the same key and with the same feel as the main melody, but slightly different in that there are only two notes. A simplistic bass guitar is also added at this point. Once all the instruments have been added into the song, Jason continues singing his falsetto, alongside other vocal tracks of harmonised falsetto, tenor and baritones. The music gets gradually louder and louder, with more unorthodox instruments like flutes, harps and accordions being added in playing similar melodies until it reaches a symphony of different sounds. After another verse, all the sounds boil back down into the simple acoustic guitar that was there at the beginning. Jason continues singing in the same melody, before all the instruments are reintroduced, with a slightly faster marching beat now in the song. There is also slightly more ambience than there was before, making it somewhat resemble Sigur Ros. One more verse of the song is sung, before it all slowly fades back into the guitar and Jason singing, except there isn’t any ambience anymore, it is just a lo-fi recording of Jason and a guitar, so as to give the song a more “pure” and “natural” sound. Once all the lyrics have been completed, both Jason and the guitar finish, and it fades into relatively loud ambience. A continuous drone of whale noises, radio broadcasts, synths and chatter go on for roughly 30 seconds, before everything cuts to a close. It was only in my dreams that that I thought I could save you,
My feelings were all there for you to misconstrue,
And I told you “there’s no point, because we are all dying”,
The leaves were falling round me and the wind was sighing,
I turned around and walked until my feet were bleeding,
Took shelter in my mind where my emotions were receding,
But no one ever forced you to look out for me,
The rain eventually fell back into the sea.
You toss and you turn, it was only a nightmare,
You’re crying in your bed, it’s a pitiful sight, well,
I wanted you to know I’ll always be there for you,
Cos in the end it’s always just us two,
And I too miss the comfort and conformity,
I’m the one to blame, babe, I’m really sorry,
But sorrow isn’t as good a healer as time,
And sorrow won’t guarantee that you’ll be mine,
Again, I ask of you “do you still love me?”,
And during the taking of breath, I wallow in pity,
I wait for an answer, my heart starts pounding,
I’m beginning to wonder how my words are sounding,
To you, you reply, and it begins again,
I cry and you cry, and we shake our heads,
We shake each other, trying to make each other understand,
Why this could never be more than a line in the sand.
I bite the bullet, you claw and you gnash your teeth,
At my soul all chewed up, and glazed over with grief,
We’ll look back on this, it’ll all come to haunt us,
Our demons at the door all constantly taunt us,
But we’re too good for them, we’re too good for mistakes,
We’re too good to bother cleaning the mess that we made,
Too good for love, we’re too good for lying,
We’ve always been too good, even though we’re dying.
The past is the past, the present is merely a footnote,
The future is the boring prose that I wrote,
I swear that I always will be watching out for you,
No one else anymore, it’s just us two.OOC: Just thought I'd get back into RPing and stuff. |
