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'You'd be forgiven for not having heard of Sam Smith, but if you're not humming his tunes after this, I would go straight out and get your ears checked.
Fresh from a move across the country two weeks earlier, Smith brought his unique blend of pop and coastal acoustic rock to our first solo Spankin' New Session.
His opener, Running, takes a poptimistic three minutes and lays his husky voice over acoustic jangling guitar. An infectious song, Running will have you whistling the chorus for days after.
Changed Man takes a simple chord progression and turns it into another catchy tune. Sounding almost like a costal version of CCR, Smith kicks out a beautiful, solo pop song.
The infection keeps spreading with the last track, Away. The Damien Rice-esque song capped off Smith's beautiful, memorable session.
"I only found out about an hour before it started that I was going to be doing this," Smith told MTV. "For preparation, I was singing in the car on the way over, much to the hatred of my friend sitting next to me," he laughed.
Choosing his path from an early age, Smith picked up his first guitar at aged five, and while the rest of us were avoiding cooties and watching He-Man, he was being taught Smoke On The Water by his elder brother.
"I remember in grade one at school, I filled out a form asking what I wanted to be. I said I wanted to be a chef and a musician, and that's what I am now," He said smiling at his follow through.
A small town boy, Smith spent his early, impressionable years creating a sound in response to his untouched environment.
"Up until I was 20 I lived in Port Lincoln, a little coastal town in South Australia. There is just a really vast space down there. I didn't have many influences live musically and it drew me to create a unique style," he said. "I never had guitar lessons when I was a kid, I was fully self-taught and I guess playing with my friends around the campfire up in the desert drove me to find this way of playing."
Smith's sound reflects this open space. His tunes are whimsical but still immediate. Given room to breathe, the music seems to flow over an audience, like the rolling waves or desert landscape.
Moving to Perth as a 20 year-old, Smith spent the next seven years fighting to pull audiences to his blend of acoustic coastal rock and pop.
"The rest of the scene, it didn't really suit what I was doing I think. So many times you would play to only five or ten people and you get over that. It's hard to move on when there are only ten people watching," he said.
Feeling connected to contemporaries John Butler and Angus and Julia Stone, Smith finds an analytical approach to working out the makings of a song and applies that to creating his own music.
"I love Angus' voice, the softness and the fact that the softness can capture such a massive audience, reach such a random demographic of the audience," Smith said. "I like listening to any music that's a hit. I like working out why it's a hit, what makes that song catchy."
Releasing his debut LP last year, available through iTunes and at shows, Smith expects his mammoth move across the country to get his creative juices flowing, heralding in a new musical chapter for him.
"A change of environment is always a massive spark to make people write music," he said. "I tend to write a lot of music while I'm surfing, so living near the beach here means I can get myself into a non crowded place. It means I can get out of the way and just write."
Keep your ear to the ground for Smith's next offering and you'll be whistling your way to pure, catchy happiness.'
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By: Keely Kovacevic from MTV's 'Spanking New Sessions'
mtv.com.au/spankingnewsessions
What the frick is up my nerdlinger??? With the release of our new album The Out Of Money Experience (Red Tape/Interia) being released nationally on April 9th, we thought it was the perfect time to let you know how to get your advanced pre-order copy from JB HiFi!??When you click on the banner below you can buy the new album for $22 and have it delivered to your door! The first lucky ones in will also receive a signed poster of the handsomest rap group you know... No, it's actually of The Optimen. Yeah.??So get your pre-order on NOW because ... well, it's just a really good album is all - we promise!
We're giving away exclusive BLACK Wii's, XBOX360's and tickets to the upcoming MISTAKE TOUR featuring CONFESSION and THY ART IS MURDER!! Check out these exciting new teams to WIN. It's FREE!!!! :)
Hey thanks for being our friend!! If you wanna help out some awesome bands (currently Cassette Kids, All Time Low, House Vs Hurricane, Kisschasy and MORE) and win some awesome prizes, click the link below. It's 100% FREE!
Hey Sam! How are you? Just letting you know, my EP "Imaginary Mind" has finally arrived! It can be bought from my website for $10, which is found on my page, and along with that i have also uploaded two songs from it! So please have a listen if you have time, would be great to hear what you think! All the best!
Sam i fully thought we were already friends but apparently we were not.!!
Well i hope life bsck home is going well, was good chillin with you in good ol Woombye and brissie.. hope to see you playing again sometime! Come to Tassie!!! =)
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