Smith finds own voice with debut
Rmike.alexander@fairfaxmedia.co.nz MATTHEW Smith has two young daughters. They are not old enough to go to any of his concerts but they have heard his songs on the radio and seen him occasionally on TV. They think he is famous. He laughs at the notion. ‘‘If only,’’ the Christchurchbased singer-songwriter says. ‘‘It’s a nice thought but the reality is my daughters are still quite young and when dad is gone, they think I am away doing the things that make me famous in their eyes. It can be quite difficult having a family life which is quite separate from my musical life. The nature of the work means that they have to be at home and I have to be on the road but I try to balance things the best way I can.’’
On the back of the release of his self-titled album, Smith, like fellow Cantabrian Nadia Reid who has also been given the golden touch by producer Ben Edwards at The Sitting Room studio in Lyttelton, might well become famous.
The Ashburton-born Smith has spent the last decade in Christchurch forging his musical identity in alt-rock band Von Voin Strum and then stepping out as a solo artist in 2014 with the acclaimed solo EP Before You Lay Down.
‘‘I didn’t think that music was a career and so when I moved to Christchurch it took me a while to find my feet,’’ he says. ‘‘Eventually I started doing covers until I realised I wasn’t happy. I wanted to do my own thing. My partner encouraged me to study music. At music college I met a bunch of other like-minded dudes and we formed Von Voin Strum.
‘‘It was great being part of a band but I always felt all of the members were doing their own thing and that contributed to the whole. For me being up front as the singer, I had to be confident in myself and rely on everyone else to do their job. In a way, that’s where my originality comes from. It was all part of finding my own musical voice and identity. I was always writing my own songs that didn’t fit with the band but it helped me transition.’’
And while the EP Before You Lay Down gave voice to his altfolk influences, which are as varied as Father John Misty and Bright Eyes, Matthew Smith, with its sepia-toned cover image of Smith is a statement about who he is as an artist.
‘‘I put my face on the album and self-titled it intentionally,’’ Smith says. ‘‘Music is always changing and evolving but, for my first album, I wanted people to be able to relate to where I amand who I am. Songwriting for me has always been a form of release. I probably started writing when I was about 13. If anything happened to me that made me feel overly emotional I would try to write down what was going on inside of me or I’d sit at the piano or pick up my guitar and play. If I wrote something it was more stream of consciousness but it was always a massive release. I’d really get into what I was feeling and sometimes it would spark a song or a lyric that I’d come back to later. That’s why I think of songwriting as a need.’’
That process has found its way into a collection of soulful songs that sometimes speak of heartache, loss and finding your way that aren’t necessarily reflections of his current personal life.
‘‘A lot of my songwriting is ambiguous,’’ Smith says. ‘‘I like people to make their own judgments. I feel that gives them more of a relationship to a song. If they feel a lyric or a song is about something, then that is what it is about. It doesn’t have to be spelled out. Sometimes the interpretation of a lyric is a lot different to the reality of it but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that people relate to it in their own way. I’m really proud of this record. I’d like to be able to live off music. That’s the dream but the dream changes as you change.’’