Meet Wayne Smith

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wayne Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Wayne, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

Wayne: I am consistently inspired by different instruments and what they can do. If I am not feeling overly creative on the guitar on a given day, then I will switch to piano, bass, mandolin, ect…
There are so many styles and genres of music that appeal to me, so I am always listening, studying and practicing.

Carla: I am always looking for inspiration from other artists, not just musicians, but writers – good books, poetry, essays, as well as design. I love looking at architecture, fashion, etc to feel something inspiring. My spiritual life is also a big part of my creativity, as well as, nature.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Wayne: I feel like my new recording, STILL (album) is unique and special in many ways. I played 90% of the instruments myself. So there’s guitar pedal steel, Mandolin, Wurlitzer electric piano & so on.
I think the most unique thing about it all is that it was primarily recorded live, in complete passes —-where I would play one part and then immediately add the second and so on.
It is so common in today’s recording industry to play everything on the grid and fix & repair so that it’s perfect using pitch correction on voices and instruments, lining up everything to rhythmic perfection- none of this I wanted to do.
The music that I grew up, loving, had imperfections, and it was spontaneous and live, and had a feel to it.
The challenge was seeing if I could do that playing all the instruments myself.

Really the inspiration for all this started during Covid when my friend Brett was sending me demos of his recordings and I was inspired and intrigued by the great sounds he was getting in his basement, so I invited myself over to see if he would be interested in recording some of my material. The first session went really well, but when I said I want to fix a part, he said well “I’m not really good at that” (meaning : what is known in the recording world as punches or overdubs). Brett’s suggestion to me was “well, why don’t you just record it again and try to play it better.”
So those first few recording started the album.
I played a few of the recordings for friends. I thought all of those songs would remain instrumentals, but Carla wrote a great melody and lyrics to Frozen Lake and that started us on a more structured and deeper path.

Carla: We could not have made this record without Jason Deutsch. Jason helped in engineering, production, and overall encouragement. He is an artist and songwriter also, and understood our vision for STILL, and helped us make it happen. He is so talented, in his own right, and worked with me especially, in capturing my idea for the sound and atmosphere of our record. Our lastest record, STILL, is a departure from our previous records. Our sound has always been very rock – 70’s inspired and punk, but we took a different approach with STILL. We wanted less editing, purer production, and more atmosphere. We also wanted to really enjoy the writing and recording process and let it flow organically. We’re always trying to find a balance between growing and trying new things, as musicians, but still maintain our “sound”. We hope people will take a listen and find a connection with the songs.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think the drive to just practice and play instruments to the ability that I wanted too, I’m not going to be a virtuoso on every instrument, but that doesn’t really matter, as long as I try to create a very creative part and play for what the song needs.

I feel all artists struggle with releasing their art out into the wild. And it’s very easy to judge things by numbers and sales but I would encourage anyone to just put their music out there. I do think it’s good to be critical in wanting to put out the highest quality you’re capable of, just as long as it’s not a detriment to ever releasing anything!

It’s very important to see projects come to completion. I struggle with this all the time, because I really only enjoy the writing and playing and creating the music. Unfortunately, you have to deal with all the other stuff to make a project complete.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

Carla: As an artist and musician, I tend to struggle with confidence in myself and being able to manage and streamline my ideas, when writing songs or other writing projects. Add time management into the mix, and I get easily overwhelmed. I’ve found that, when writing a song, if I am having trouble getting my thoughts out, I step back, forget about what i think sounds interesting and break my idea down into basic thoughts and words. This helps me simplify and clarify what I’m really trying to say, and then when I have a grasp on it, I begin to add in the more complex thoughts, etc. When I need a boost in confidence, I like to work with and hear other people’s ideas. Seeing other people doing what they do, reminds me that we’ re all trying to make things happen – so, just get over yourself and push on. Wayne is my song writing partner, so having someone to bounce ideas off off and being able to hold each other accountable to getting things done really helps in reducing the overwhelming feelings.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Jason Deutsch
Charlotte Vevers

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