28 and a half thousand likes on Facebook and 2 shows selling out in under an hour each, does not even begin to define The Smith Street Band, if you haven’t heard of them yet, you definitely soon will. I am sure you all think of Taking the Alternate as screaming, loud, inaudible music. Though in this case if you’re a fan of folk music, The Smith Street Band is definitely for you. Your parents could happily listen to this! Fusing the two almost opposing genres of folk and punk, Smith Street manages to turn the genre on its head and create something everyone can jam to. October 31 will be the release date for their new album Throw Me In The River and we needed a way to find out some more about it, so what better way than to ask the vocalist Wil Wagner himself? Preparing for an intense over the phone interview, I was greeted with the laid back nature of Mr Wagner and he was more than happy to tell me everything you need to know about Throw Me In The River and their upcoming tour!
The recording process of this release was much different to any other recording process, the songs were collected over their last tour and were “scribbled into notebooks, or collected in [Wil’s] phone” this database was then turned into music, which was recorded outside of a studio, which honestly I feel added a lot more depth and honesty to Throw Me In The River. The boys recorded the whole LP in a secluded town in the Ottoway’s, with a population of 170 the whole town knew of their presence and made sure to make them welcome. A majority of the album was recorded in a tiny cabin which Wagner said released a lot of pressure on what they’re generally used to in a recoding process, “there was no stressing over drums at 3 in the morning”. The town its self played quite a large part in production, the photo that forms the cover taken at local pub The Wonky Donkey and the recording being done in the cabin itself and the nature around it forming the world’s most laid back recording studio which can only be suitable for a laid back band.
The Smith Street Band managed to sell out their hometown show in under an hour with the second show being sold out in about the same amount of time, the third show currently is still on sale and (fingers crossed) will still be on sale now, so definitely do yourself a favour and buy some tickets. Wagner himself had no idea that the show had sold out and managed to nap through it, another perfect display of the laid back nature of this band, and being the humble man he is, Wagner assumed his mum had bought 300 tickets to the show.
Wagner, having played with some big Australian and international bands has learnt a lot- but his biggest lesson being, “be a good person and it will shine through”. The boys in The Smith Street Band love what they do, and as a spectator of shows, you can see when someone loves what they do, their whole stage presence is natural and not something that’s been taught.
Germany is currently Wagner’s favourite country to play and Tasmania his favourite place in Australia, so come on Melbourne, Smith Street is our band, we need to change this opinion and head out to their shows, get this third show sold out! Head to thesmithstreetband.com to get some tickets.
MILLIE RANSOM