DON’T MISS
SMOKEY BRIGHTS
SEATTLE rock band Smokey Brights will be hopping across the pond to headline a big show at Nottingham’s Rough Trade this October. Here, husband-and-wife duo Ryan Devlin and Kim West talk about their unique sound and what it’s like to be “Canada’s Favorite American Rock Band”.
How would you describe your sound?
We are a total blend of 70s and 90s rock’n’roll. Fleetwood Psych is a quick and kind of funny way to capture it. Smokey Brights is a female/male-fronted, harmony-driven band, so we get a lot of Fleetwood Mac comparisons. We’re also inescapably Seattle-grunge-sounding as well. It’s where we were raised and it’s the sound we were raised on. Luckily, both genres encapsulate what we love: big rock songs with choruses to shout along to, hooks that get in your head, jangly guitars, and warbly synths. We take these familiar elements and sounds that we love and use them as vessels to serve up fresh ideas, with lyrics rooted in modern-day experiences.
What inspires your music?
We try to make music that sounds like the stuff we love, because we want more of it in the world. This spreads a wide gamut for us everything from 70s rock n roll, d–isco, to 90s RnB. We’re also total thrift shop junkies. The process of digging through generations of forgotten and strange fashions and constructing one’s own style is a lot like what a rock band does.
Can you give us some background about your most recent release?
About two years ago, this producer from London, well, Portsmouth originally, named Sam Bell heard a Smokey Brights song on the radio. He had just moved to Seattle and was working on a record with Seattle band Minus The Bear. He reached out, we grabbed a beer, and we became fast friends. A few months later we were at the legendary Studio Litho making Come To Terms, the first EP we released in 2018. Our latest release, the Different Windows EP, is the second batch of songs we made with Sam. He’s has been a crucial part our process, providing an objective outside voice we hadn’t really had before him. If Sam says, “that’s brilliant!” then you know something’s working. He also has no qualms about letting you know what sucks, too.
What do you like most about touring?
The best part of tour is hard to put into words. Yes, tour is full of driving all day, not knowing where you’re going to sleep, economic tosses and turns, and wondering how you’re ever going to get vegetables into your body. But, this uncertainty is part of the magic. It’s what allows you to have completely random, unexpected experiences that you could not have planned and will never forget. It takes you out of your comfort zone, which is a good thing for all humans.
What can people expect from your upcoming Nottingham gig?
We are crazy excited to play the UK for the first time and we could not think of a better way to kick off this string of dates than playing at Rough-Friggin-Trade in Nottingham! Expect stupid grins on all of our faces that will not leave and all the energy we’ve pent up from our flight over. We cannot wait to rock.
What are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
When we’re not performing live music, we DJ under the name Lite Smokes. DJing keeps us really digging for new stuff, revisiting old classics, and revaluating things you thought you had a fixed opinion on. At home it’s usually a lot of Rick James, Al Green, Eddie Money, Fleetwood Mac, and other comfort classics for us. On the new record end, we’ve been obsessed with Sunflower Bean out of New York, Juana Molina out of Argentina, Timber Timbre out of Canada, and are in love with everything Leikeli47 releases. We’re really diggin lots of neo soul too these days, like Anderson.Paak, Bilal, and Steve Lacy.
What’s been your best live gig appearance as a performer?
That is truly a tough one to pin down but I guess it would be our Vancouver BC play with the Head and the Heart a few years back. We had to go through hell and high water to make the show work, dealing with Canadian immigration issues and the like, so the night was months in the planning. When we finally took the stage, you couldn’t really see the crowd but we could tell it was a packed house. We finished our first song and then WHAM, the roar of the crowd hit us like a wall of sound. We played a killer set for a sold-out room of 3,000 people. Largest crowd we’d ever played for. And they loved it. We jokingly call ourselves “Canada’s Favorite American Rock Band” now because that was our one Canadian date, which was a sold-out show at an incredible venue, so our record there is pretty undefeated, ha. ■ Smokey Brights will be at Nottingham’s Rough Trade on October 22. Entry to the gig is free with no tickets needed.