The Nathan Smith Project

Originating from the need to write for the song, rather than a genre, The Nathan Smith Project is a four-piece group from Pretoria. Their style is best described as rock music, with elements of blues, jazz, pop and folk plugged into it. Polished by their precise approach and experience in the session industry both locally and abroad, they use different angles in both music and style to create a rather unique blend.

These talented musicians put their focus on using their music as a means to describe their journey through life, “Our music is an extension of our creative expression, a means to deal with how we relate to the world around us,” says Nathan Smith. Nathan recorded a self-titled studio album ‘Songs from a diary’, which then stemmed into forming a band to perform the music, hence…the project.

Having formed as early as June 2007, The Nathan Smith Project draws on musicians from largely varied backgrounds. Nathan has been working towards a musical career since the age of eleven when he first started taking lessons from his dad who was himself an accomplished musician. Their father also taught his brother, Patrick Smith, from an early age, who found his expressive outlet on the bass guitar. Their life-long friend, Mark Heydenrych found his way into the band as the second guitarist and backing vocalist. And along came Kyle Rutten, the drummer, who met the trio via a friend, of a friend.

Although The Nathan Smith Project is in itself a young outfit, the individual members are no novices to the music industry, with some of them having performed in numerous theatre productions including a successful European tour, various band projects, solo projects and television appearances. It is this blend of musicianship that creates the authentic flavour that The Nathan Smith Project calls upon to create their unique sound.