Laura Smith

Laura Smith's voice is rich with an undeniable passion for making music. The North Vancouver singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is dripping with talent that's continuing to get her noticed -- clearly, she's an artist on the rise.

Local audiences will get to experience Smith's live show when she plays at North Vancouver's Beans on Lonsdale on Monday, April 21 at 8 p.m. A week later, Smith will embark on a Western Canada tour opening in Calgary.
Deep Cove singer/songwriter Laura Smith performs Monday, April 21 at Beans on Lonsdale prior to heading out on a Western Canada tour. She returns home for a New Music West date May 16.

says. "It's great playing music every single night. Once I got a little taste of doing that, I just wanted to do it all the time."
The tour wraps up back in the Lower Mainland when Smith will play a New Music West Showcase at Vancouver's Café Deux Soleils May 16 at 8 p.m. The show is part of the New Music West 2008 Music Festival and Conference held May 14-18 in Vancouver. Smith is incredibly excited about the opportunity, viewing it as a "step in the right direction."

"I'm hoping lots of people will come out," she says. "It'll be a good show because we'll just have gotten back from our two-week tour . . . so we'll be really tight."
According to the event website, New Music West is the largest and most influential new music event in Western North America. Conferences, networking events and educational workshops are held in addition to the showcase of more than 200 bands. Past performers include Stars, Marilyn Manson, The Flaming Lips, Liz Phair and Modest Mouse.
Smith says it's important to take advantage of these types of networking opportunities as you never know where connections may lead.
"I think it's just good, at this point, for me to have people from the industry see me perform live, and not just hear my recordings on MySpace, and see what I can actually do live. I like to think it's better than the recordings," she says.
Smith has a history on the North Shore, having attended Blueridge elementary before moving to Victoria when she was 11. She returned after high school to study vocal jazz at Capilano College and the 21-year-old now calls Deep Cove home.
She got into music at an early age, picking up the piano when she was six years old, singing in choirs, playing in bands and often made up her own songs.
"It's just been kind of an ongoing thing and I didn't really realize it was something that I wanted to pursue until my last year in high school," she says.
Now finished at Capilano College, Smith is ready to focus full time on her career. She's so far released two demos. Her first, a self-titled work released in 2006, received two Island Music Award nominations, for female artist of the year and song of the year. Her second, 2007's Picking Flowers was produced by Bill Bell (who's worked with Jason Mraz and Tom Cochrane) and features Smith on vocals, piano, trumpet, glockenspiel, and clarinet.
Smith has recently gotten started on her debut full-length album with the help of a friend's portable studio.
"The demo that I put out was pretty slick and I think that I wanted this recording to sound a little bit more organic and not quite so polished," she says. "I love the sound of mainstream polished music but I want the whole album to have a little bit of a different tone."
She hopes to release the record in the fall.
Apart from her own career, Smith is active in the local music scene. She's collaborated with a number of Vancouver writers including Dave Pickell and plays with up-and-coming Vancouver indie rock band Said the Whale as well as artist Prairie Cat. She also often works as a studio musician.
At her North Vancouver show as well as on her tour, Smith will be performing with fellow North Vancouver resident Andrew Braun. Like Smith, the Manitoba native delved into music at an early age. According to his MySpace page, as a teenager he fronted a number of successful indie rock scene ventures and shared the stage with members of the Arcade Fire, the Weakerthans and Moneen. He went on to study jazz in Iowa and later enrolled at Capilano College to study composition and is graduating this spring.
Smith and Braun met while studying at the college.
"It just seemed like a really good fit," says Smith. "His music is different enough but similar enough that I think it's a really good match for the tour."
Smith's demo CDs are available at Bean Around the World at Parkgate Village as well as through her websites www.laurasmithmusic.com and www.myspace.com/laurasmithmusic.


- Canwest - NorthShore News - April 18, 2008

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A while back, I talked about Vancouver’s Hey Ocean! – a catchy as hell pop band that really helped jump start the summer – and realized that I kind of overlooked the pop driven side of the Vancouver scene in place of the gritty rockers and country tinged balladeers.

So when I got an email from Laura Smith asking for us to take a listen to her jazzy pop influenced piano ditties, who was I to say no? Laura earned her stripes playing with Prairie Cat and Said the Whale, but I’m not sure fans of either band would necessarily gravitate to her solo work.

What I like about Laura is that she keeps it simple, and I mean that in the best way possible. Her keyboard and piano melodies offer up emotion and her band thickens up the sound (with horns, bass, drums and guitar), but they never jeopardize melody for complexity. She never risks losing the listener by transforming every song with the intricate transitions that derail so many classically trained musicians. Smith is happy to ride the melody she crafts, confident that the emotion she presents is strong enough to keep your interest.

She can keep it light – Can’t Stop - but isn't afraid to retreat to the shadows on songs like It's All About You or the swirling Sea of Stars. A few of the songs stumble into the musical theatre realm (Swashbuckler’s Song for example) but the small missteps are overshadowed by the consistency of the debut. She manages to balance the freedom of the young girl flying down hill on her bike with a maturity that is needed to make sure the record doesn't become too sweet. At the end of the day she offers the intimacy you look for when you hear “a girl and a piano” but writes songs that are much more and exceed that simple description.
- www.herohill.com

Laura Smith’s dress is almost as pretty as her voice, but not quite. Catch the whole band June 12 at the Lo Pub. Photo courtesy of Judy Chee .
Although Laura Smith’s band is her namesake, she makes it clear her work is not a solo project.
With frequent referrals to her song-writing partner and multi-instrument playing bandmate Andrew Braun, one gets the impression that Braun is sometimes the anchor to Smith’s careening sailboat.
He puts his degree in composition to good use, she said, as it is him who does the in-studio tinkering, and in this way, he perfectly balances her own love to perform.
And Smith’s love to perform comes through clearly in the band’s work, which is most easily defined as indie pop, but includes hints of jazz, classical, folk and rock.
But Smith also has a lot of admiration for the rest of her band - bass player and fellow Capilano University alum Jeff Riedlinger and drummer Johnny Andrews, who has played with the likes of Tegan and Sara and Holly McNarland, and is the newest addition to the band.
The band has already received some success since the release of their first full-length album, 2008’s Sea of Stars. Various songs from the album have made their way onto CBC Radio One and CBC Radio 3, and they’ve performed with Mother Mother, Said the Whale, Current Swell and The Liptonians, amongst others. June marks the band’s they first cross-Canada tour.
But the band’s goals remain fairly simple.
“We just want to improve and play good music. Hopefully that will get us somewhere,” Smith said.
It’s hard to believe that none of this might have happened if it weren’t for a certain well-received high school talent show Laura took part in.
It was then Smith realized, ‘Oh, I can do this’ - she decided that music was a realistic career choice after all, and really began to discover the world of recording and song-writing.
Today, the music Laura Smith offers their audience is rich and varied in sounds and lyrical content. But that doesn’t mean it was always that way.
Smith had little previous experience with an accordion when she sought one out and purchased it on Craigslist. However, she has nonetheless worked it into the music, and with excellent results.
And as quirky as that is, Smith also cryptically works current world issues into her music as well.
“We are the monsters,” Smith explained in reference to the lyrics of “I Spy a Monster,” a song that comments on how bad society has let global warming become.
This article appeared in Volume 64, Number M/J of The Uniter, published May 20th 2009.

by Cindy Doyle (Volunteer)
- The Uniter - Winnipeg -The official student newspaper of the University of Winnipeg

Laura Smith and her band perform at The Habitat in Kelowna on June 4.
It started with a fetish for garden gnome murder and dreams of playing on stage.
From those long-lost seeds of inspiration as songstress for her Grade 9 band The Gnome Hunters, 22-year-old Laura Smith has grown a talent of, apparent, galactic proportions.
This year she is a Galaxy Rising Star Award nominee at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and her unique sound put her back on the national scene Monday morning with a featured song on CBC Radio 3.
“At this point we are rocking out a lot, but a lot of our music is sort of jazz-influenced pop rock,” said Smith, whose debut album Sea of Stars has earned accolades for the youthful easiness with which it sails through musical genres.
By day, Smith’s life is still “you know, pretty cliché” for a young musician, she says, with revenue streams in teaching (voice and piano) and the usual service stomping ground. Yet, while the waify indie artist puts the talent away for at least a part of the day, give her a little time on stage, or YouTube, and it’s pretty easy to see what all the fuss is about.
“I just want to tour all the time. That’s, like, my number one goal,” she says.
“Some people like being in the studio, but I just like being on stage and sharing what I’ve created with the world.”
One of her biggest creations is her current collaborative, a four-piece ensemble including Johnny Andrews, better known as Tegan and Sarah’s drummer, longtime friend Jeff Riedlinger, who played with Sam Bradley (of Twilight fame) and guitar/keyboard player Andrew Braun.
Their debut album, Sea of Stars, was released in November and they’re already on their second major tour in under a year.
In Kelowna next week, they will play with local bands Treelight Room and Kingdom Cloud—young bands Smith describes as “really young, but really awesome.”
It’s a tag line one might apply to Smith herself.
A graduate of the Capilano University music certificate program, she hooked up with guitar player Andrew Braun in school to assemble this particular project and says it’s the kind of music she’s always wanted to make.
“In high school, you’re a band geek; you’re not really that cool. But once you get out of school, if you’re in band, all of a sudden things are a little different,” she says.
In the last six months the band has accepted invitations to perform at JunoFest, Whistler’s Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, two live CBC shows including Canada Live, opened for Mother Mother, and has had a sold out show at Vancouver’s Media Club.
Yet celebrating accomplishments is nowhere near as interesting as looking for that next big thing in her world.
“I keep thinking about Sasquatch this week; I would love to play Sasquatch because it’s the most beautiful venue,” she said of the Sasquatch Music Festival in The Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington this week.
Laura Smith is in concert at The Habitat June 4. For information on Smith and the tour see http://www.sonicbids.com/laurasmith or http://www.myspace.com/laurasmithmusic.
jsmith@kelownacapnews.com
- Kelowna Capital News - Black Press

Sea of Stars - Laura Smith
Following stints with Said the Whale and Prairie Cat, North Vancouver/Victoria-based Laura Smith has now dropped her own, self-released debut album. Smith’s high-pitched youthful vocals are the major standout on the album, especially on “I Spy a Monster” and “It’s All About You,” complimented just fine with her piano. “Break” shows Smith’s multi-talented abilities with the introduction of an accordion; as if it wasn’t hard enough to classify her as indie pop or jazz! The title track is a gradually-building song that takes full advantage of how high Smith’s vocals can traverse. “Can’t Stop” is a more traditional pop-oriented song but based on her other songs, it’s not all that traditional after all. With her soaring vocals and upbeat tempo, her songs are bright and cheery like the morning sunshine.
http://www.myspace.com/laurasmithmusic
- Jon Brazeau
http://www.spillmagazine.com/html/body_cd_reviews.HTM#LauraSmith
- Spill Magazine

LAURA SMITH - SEA OF STARS
Independent - 2008


3.5 stars
North Vancouver/Victoria, British Columbia singer-songwriter Laura Smith has written or co-written (with Andrew Braun who also contributed brass, woodwind, guitars, organ, synths, percussion and vocal arrangements) all of the songs on her captivating and eclectic indie pop debut, Sea of Stars. This unique genre-crossing album offers combinations of alternative pop, folk, rock and jazz songs brought to life by Laura’s mature lyrics and lilting, little girl soprano vocals. Greg Bevis’ powerful drumming and Derek DiFilippo’s funky bass beautifully compliment Braun and Smith who plays everything from piano to accordion to Glockenspiel. I should probably mention that her former school chum, Jeff Riedlinger, plays bass in her touring band.

Sea of Stars opens with an upbeat, sweet-sounding, pop poem with a strong bass line and dominant drums called “I Spy a Monster.” Fans of artists like Lisa Loeb, Ann Vriend, Jill Barber and Sarah Slean will certainly appreciate her too. Smith’s music is immensely enjoyable and infused with infectious melodies and frequently, the spirit of another era.

Among my favourite tracks on this CD are “It’s All About You”, a jaunty piano ballad with interesting lyrics; “Break”, a Parisian, cabaret-style, lament highlighted by Smith’s theatrical accordion; and, “Queen of Hearts”, a song that took me to a dive jazz lounge in the 1920s where Smith sits demurely at the piano singing her heart out to a group of down & out, wannabe literary types. Her music easily invokes old-world charm, such as on the piano folk ballad, “Swashbuckler’s Song” regarding the romantic adventure that is the life of a pirate. But it can just as quickly morph into contemporary pop with a bopping backbeat that you’ll find yourself wanting to dance to - like the splendid “Can’t Stop” – a perfect pick for today’s rom com soundtracks; or the upbeat, lavishly produced, pure pop ditty, “Such A Long Way To Go”, unexpectedly but delightfully punctuated with trumpet, trombone and saxophone.

Laura Smith will be touring Western Canada and Ontario for NXNE this June with her band and with regular play on CBC Radio, she will undoubtedly be capturing the hearts of alternative and pop music lovers across the country. Sea of Stars is a charming collection of indie songs that Laura Smith can always be proud of. You can listen to them on MySpace at www.myspace.com/laurasmithmusic and purchase them from CD Baby at cdbaby.com/cd/laurasmith. Go on now, what are you waiting for!
- Party in Kingston

Former Victoria singer-songwriter Laura Smith packs a wallop inside her quaint little voice. Her debut album Sea of Stars features the North Vancouver songstress singing over piano chords and accordion hooks, with a folk-pop blend to every tune. Smith will be returning to Victoria to launch her debut CD at a show Nov. 15.

Smith left Victoria a few years ago to study jazz vocals at Capilano University where she received a diploma in jazz studies. It was there she hooked up with fellow musicians Andrew Braun, Jeff Riedlinger and Greg Bevis. Braun helped with the writing of Sea of Stars, said Smith. “We sort of all got together and decided to start writing some songs,” said the 22-year-old Mount Doug high school grad. “We started recording them in June, it was kind of a collaborative effort. Most of the songs were written by me, Andrew came in and helped me write two of the songs.”

Smith, who was born in Toronto, released two demo CDs, in 2006 and 2007. Her first demo received two Island Music Award nominations including Female Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. Her second, three song demo produced by Bill Bell (Jason Mraz and Tom Cochrane) can be heard on CBC Radio from Victoria to Toronto where all the songs have aired.

For Sea of Stars Smith said she took some old tunes, mixed them with some new songs, and went into the recording process with a game plan. “We knew that we had a wide array of songs with varying influences, and we kind of decided we wanted to make a more upbeat album, less jazzy. We didn’t want anything to feel forced at all either.” The lead single on her MySpace page for Sea of Stars also features a rather interesting instrument. The song starts with a folksy-sounding accordion hook. “I just saw it on Craigslist and I thought I had to get it,” said Smith of the accordion. “I’ve always loved the sound it produces, I know some people don’t like it but I do.”
In terms of the title of the record, once again it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, much like the accordion purchase. “I think that line just happened through Andrew and I bouncing lyrics off of each other. And Sea of Stars was really a beautiful line, the imagery. I’ve always found that I’m drawn to the ocean and there’s a lot of references and metaphors in my lyrics about the ocean and the sea.”

Smith and her band recently went on a mini-tour of Western Canada which culminated with NewMusicWest Showcase, an opening spot for New York artist Nicole Atkins in Victoria and at Live Nation’s Vancouver show at the Plaza Club. They also performed at this year’s first ever local Rifflandia Festival put on by Atomique Productions. This year has turned out to be quite busy as Smith is on another Western Canadian tour which ends in Duncan Nov. 16. Smith said the touring life definitely has its ups-and-downs. “I’ve been on the road quite a bit in the past year, and it’s definitely not glamourous by any means. It’s sketchy at times, but I love it a lot, just being able to drive across Canada, it’s such a beautiful country.

patrickb@vicnews.com
By Patrick Blennerhassett
Published: November 05, 2008
- VICTORIA NEWS - Black Press

MUSIC
Laura Smith
Songwriter navigates a Sea of Stars

CAROLYN NIKODYM / carolyn@vueweekly.com

It doesn’t require a lot of listening to be taken in by Laura Smith. Her songs are colourful, stripy socks with old jeans and T-shirt. They are as catchy as they are unassuming. You can’t help but take notice.

You wouldn’t be the first, either. It was getting a few nods from friends while still in high school that made Smith see music in her future.
“I was in Grade 12, and something happened and I guess a bunch of people were, like, ‘Wow, you’re really talented.’ And I was, like, ‘Really? Really?’” she says from her North Vancouver home. “And so I took off a year off after high school and just sort of mulled everything over, and then I went to Cap College for music and everything just kind of blossomed from there.”

Smith went on to be a member of Said the Whale and Prairie Cat, but ultimately decided to pursue her own project and has just released her debut LP—Sea of Stars follows up two demo EPs.

“It was something that I have been working on for four years, and just now I’ve been able to fully do a whole album. The timing for everything just fell into place,” she explains. “I was a little sad that I had to stop playing in other bands, but it’s too much when you are starting your own career and they’re starting their own careers and there’s a lot more extra work going into everything all the time.”

Running her own band—she hooked up with Andrew Braun, Jeff Riedlinger and Greg Bevis for the new album—hasn’t been too much of a stretch; she’s done it before, and it’s good to be back in the saddle.

”It’s a nice change for me,” Smith says. “Sometimes if I can be in a different band, to not have the pressure of running everything, I can show up and go, ‘Hey what’s going on?’—rather than having to know every detail. But this gives me freedom in my music.”

The room to breathe lends whimsy to Sea of Stars, where vocals float over the accordion—which makes it surprising when Smith admits that she isn’t the most patient in the studio.
“This time I was pretty hands on with everything,” she explains. “I was there for lots of the recording and some of the mixing, and that’s just not what I’m good at, being patient with that. I’d rather just be playing live.” V

Mon, Nov 3 (9 pm)
Laura Smith
With Chloe Albert
Wunderbar
- Edmonton Vue Weekly - October 30, 2008

Logan’s Pub
HOMETOWN GIRL LAURA SMITH RETURNS TO RELEASE
her first full length CD Sea of Stars at Logan’s Pub. This performance is the wind-down to a whirlwind 16-day tour of Western Canada in support of the album.

Smith seems unassuming off-stage and at only 22 years of age, she sings with crystal clear vocals and a polish that certainly belies her youth. This is the result of both talent and training. Growing up, she studied piano, and played trumpet in high school. She also earned a diploma in vocal jazz from Capilano College in 2007.

She has performed as a supporting instrumentalist for such bands as the Prairie Cats and Said The Whale and has worked as a studio musician. Now, she is striking out on her own. Her first demo CD in 2006 earned her two Island Music Award nominations, and her second demo, produced by Bill Bell, has aired nationally on CBC Radio. Talking about the transition from sideline performer to solo artist, Laura says, “It’s harder. It’s way harder, and I find that I’m way more relaxed when I’m not fronting a band. It’s fun, and I love singing. I think that’s definitely my favourite thing to do on stage.”

She does credit a lot of her current success to the talent and support of her backup band, Andrew Braun (guitar, keyboard, synth, accordian, vocals), Jeff Reidlinger (bass guitar), and Greg Bevis (drums). Andrew in particular helped give shape to her songs by adding arrangements and harmonies to her melodies and lyrics. He also helped to produce the album along with her alternate bass player, Derek DiFilippo. Says Laura, “It’s really cool having such a team effort for the album. I think that lots of solo artists don’t really get the opportunity to have a band working together like I’ve had....having my bandmates produce the album, play on the record and go on tour with me...[they’ve] been so helpful with everything. I think we’re off to a good start.”

Her music leans towards pop, but it also borrows from a variety of different genres, giving it wide appeal. For instance, “I Spy a Monster,” a pro-environmental song, opens with jazzy-sounding chords. “Queen of Hearts” was inspired by the music of the French classical music composer, Francois Poulenc. And “Break” has a French cabaret flair to it. She’s definitely someone to watch out for.
- Victoria FOCUS magazine - Campbell Communications November 2008

Laura Smith

There are many things in this world that make me happy. Puppies (they’re just so cute and adorable! Except of course when they poop on the carpet), beer (especially on a hot summer day, or after work, or during a hockey game, or… well anytime actually), and music (duh!). If you combine all of that together, you get a perfect night of puppies playing hockey while drinking beer and listening to music. I know that doesn’t make sense, and it’s not really supposed to because even in a perfect world puppies would never play hockey. It’s not possible. Since we don’t live in a perfect world, I would settle for having a beer and watching a great local show, filled with great local talent. That’s just what happened when I set up shop at The Media Club to watch Laura Smith debut her new album, Sea of Stars, up on stage. I’ve heard her name constantly throughout town and I’ve always wanted to check her out, but I don’t really know why I never did. But I finally got that opportunity I so desired, and the show lived up to its hype.

As I mentioned in the intro, I’ve heard Laura’s name being thrown around town for quite some time now. This got me wondering, what’s so special about her? Maybe it’s her charming personality. Maybe it’s her modest qualities. Maybe it’s her music. Well it’s all of that and more. She is an amazing vocalist, a tremendous keyboardist, and wonderful songwriter. For those of you who don’t know, she used to be the keyboardist for Said The Whale, another talented group of musicians that are turning heads in the Canadian music scene. Laura has finally struck out on her own, and a with a little help from Greg Bevis, drummer of my favourite local band Loose Change Trio, musical boy genius Andrew Braun, and the talented Jeff Riedlinger, she has created a masterpiece and a live show that’s both entertaining and memorable. It seems like a small circle of talented Vancouver musicians stick together, and I can honestly create a connecting web of musicians, in which case I will do another time. The night being Laura Smith’s CD Release party, I expected big things from this tiny girl with a big heart, and I sure wasn’t disappointed.

As soon as the band went on, the entire stage lit up. This isn’t a metaphor, because the stage actually lit up with some nice Christmas lights strung out on the ceiling. It was a great display, and was actually practical for Alex and his low light photos. With these lights in the background, the crowd slowly but surely got out off their seats and jammed the front of the stage to witness Laura’s distinct and unique voice. She started off the night with the title track off her new album, “Sea of Stars” and I can only describe it as being epic. It was up-beat, melodic, and dramatic with a perfect ending. At one point in the night, Laura whipped out a white accordion for her song “Break.” Who knew an accordion could be so cool? It actually made me want to go out and buy one, just for the sake of being cool. With accordion in hand, Laura’s set seemed like a display of musical instruments, especially when a flute player came up on stage and played a few songs to accompany Laura’s beautiful voice. She has an undeniably enormous stage presence, especially for a small little girl like herself. Her music is bigger than her body, and when she gets up on stage, you get a little shock because you normally don’t hear such a full-size voice coming from such a small-size body. The entire band played with such vigour and passion, which was a great accompaniment to the heartfelt lyrics Laura had created. I could honestly picture each song being played on the radio, and I expect that will happen one day. For her last two songs, a full horn section, comprised of students from Capilano College, came up on stage. There were so many layers to her song “Such A Long Way To Go” that it’s hard to describe it all in detail, but I was especially impressed by the horn outro that made the crowd jump to their feet. It was one of the many highlights of her set, and when all was said and done, she received a standing ovation which led to an encore. In a small bar like The Media Club, you don’t normally see many encores, but the crowd wanted more and that’s exactly what they got. Laura was incredibly grateful for the wonderful reception, and hopefully this kind of acclamation will propel her to create more beautiful songs.

http://www.ronatron.net/jody-glenham-adaline-and-laura-smith-at-the-media-club/

- Posted by Ronatron in Music Reviews, Vancouver Bands November 14, 2008