Tim Smith

Debut album fuses youth and maturity
Classically trained musician Tim Smith gets the pop polish from Toronto producer Bill Bell

Francois Marchand
Special to The Journal

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Local singer-songwriter Tim Smith released his debut album, Between Buildings, last week. The album was produced by Bill Bell (Tom Cochrane, Danko Jones, Jason Mraz).

Edmonton singer-songwriter Tim Smith admits that, in the age of social networking, the competition among artists vying for exposure can be overwhelming.

Much to his surprise, however, an impromptu message sent through Toronto producer Bill Bell's MySpace page paid off.

Bell, who has produced the likes of Tom Cochrane, Danko Jones and Jason Mraz, was so impressed by what he heard after being invited to listen to Smith's violin-based demo songs that he agreed to produce Smith's debut album, Between Buildings.

"Bill came out to St. Albert for the first half of the project and we laid all the beds," Smith says. "Then I flew out to Toronto and we finished the record at his place."

Smith, 24, is a bit of a musical oddity.

Raised playing classical and Celtic violin, Smith eventually became a music teacher working on original material as a hobby.

His demos surprised many.

Bell identified Smith's strengths immediately, as did Rawlco Radio and Magic 99, who helped fund the recording of Between Buildings.

"When I'm writing songs, I like to explore poetic ideas," he says. "I'm a very visual person, so I like to take a look at something and try to describe an image.

"I'm not especially political or passionate about expressing a viewpoint on a particular item."

Released last week, Between Buildings definitely boasts a modern pop sheen reminiscent of Bell's other projects -- Smith's clear, high-pitched vocals sitting atop well-defined layers of sound where the violin and guitar play a key role.

In a way, Smith's dynamic pop -- because, ultimately, the Celtic, rootsy or classical hints are skilfully hidden in the mix -- stands at the intersection between the genre's many generations: polished and "adult," yet youthful and exuberant.

"A lot of it was based on impulse, so there weren't a lot of notated arrangements on the album," Smith says. "It was mostly us improvising and developing ideas and going with it at the time and then re-working the mix later.

"I think that kind of impulse and the ability to try new things is really what has helped make this sound what it is."

While other acts have embraced the violin as a novelty or a defining statement -- California pop punksters Yellowcard, for example, have been milking their frontman violin player's unique appeal for all he's worth for a number of years -- Smith says he would rather not be put in a box where people only recognize him for his quirks.

Instead, Smith says he's looking to the future, hoping to get enough attention from Between Buildings to pursue a musical passion that started when he was only nine years old.

"I'd like to experiment with a lot of different ideas," he says. "I don't want to pigeonhole the sound. I would like to maybe do something completely different down the road.

"What I don't want is for this sound to become something that the door is closed on and then everything after that has to be the same way. I want to have fun with it. There was never really a time during the whole production process where we got so serious that we couldn't loosen up a bit."
© The Edmonton Journal 2008 - Edmonton Journal

March 18th, 2009

Home-grown singer-songwriter Tim Smith is kicking off his first tour as a solo pop artist with two shows in Okotoks this month.
In 2002, Smith graduated from Holy Trinity Academy (HTA), packed his violin and headed to Edmonton. On March 21, Smith will return home to perform at Broken Stone Coffee and Wine Bistro in Okotoks to play a benefit concert for the Rowan House Emergency Shelter. Six days later he will be joined by his band to play a benefit concert at HTA to support children living in war-torn areas of the world.
Smith left Okotoks as an experienced classical violinist and touring fiddle player and is coming back as a solo pop artist with a repertoire of original, guitar-driven songs influenced by folk and soul. The concerts kick off Smith’s first CD release tour, with seven dates in Alberta and B.C.
The transformation into singer-songwriter happened while he was studying philosophy at the University of Alberta. In his spare time he was playing violin for the pop band Kitchen’s Passport and he would improvise on the violin and create melodic texture to the music. He put down the violin and picked up the guitar when he realized a it allows for singing and playing at the same time, while a violin does not.
“I really enjoy the whole creative process,” said Smith, now 24. “I like the culture of music, I like playing with other musicians and I like seeing how arrangements unfold.
“I enjoy bringing an idea forward to a group of people, seeing their reaction to it and learning from each other.”
Smith will be playing songs from his debut album Between Buildings at the two shows in Okotoks. They are his first forays into songwriting, which began when he was in university.
“I notice when I look through the songs that they’re a snapshot of how I felt in a certain time — something I was studying or a way that I felt about the world at a certain time,” said Smith. “My hope is to treat this music like photographs and always try to progress beyond that and improve myself as a musician and move beyond where I’ve already been.”
On his Myspace page Smith lists Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and John Mayer among a long list of influences. The page, at www.myspace.com/timsmithmusic offers a sample of his songs that feature his soft voice and gentle and melodic sound rich with a texture created by a variety of instruments, including French horn and cello.
His band mates, percussionist Matt Grier, bassist Keith Remple and electric guitarist Dave Barber, will join him onstage for the concert at HTA, which will support the Shropshire Music Foundation.
Smith said he is pleased to be supporting this foundation because it provides instruments and music education to children to help them cope with the trauma of living in war-torn countries.
“I think music fosters peace, it’s a kind of communication and in a lot of cases it’s therapy,” said Smith. “So I feel positive about the effect it can have on people.”
Tickets for the Hope and Healing benefit concert and silent art auction on March 21 at Broken Stone are $25 and are available at Broken Stone. Tickets for the concert to benefit the Shropshire Music Foundation at HTA on March 27 are $15 and are available at the school.

tneely@okotoks.greatwest.ca - Western Wheel, Okotoks

March 19th, 2009

It seems The Zoo is starting to pick up a bit as a venue. A Friday evening trip in there last week found it to be a bit ‘bump’n’. Although it hasn’t seen the wild party-life environment it’s had in previous years (look far enough back and it was there), it seems as though some minor renovations to the electric system have given it a new lease on life. It also looks as though the Execs may not have to be as active in trying to bring in live music, because Zoo staff are now planning their own concerts.

A week after Hamilton artist B.A. Johnston invaded The Zoo, we’ll be privileged to hear the soulful voice and musical genius of Edmonton’s Tim Smith.

Smith spent his undergrad writing music on the side while pursuing his BA in philosophy, but on completion, he began compiling years’ worth of material into his latest album, Between Buildings. A native to Alberta, Tim Smith has spent time in Alberta’s major centers. “I was raised in Calgary, primarily, then Okotoks towards the end of high school and then after that I moved to Edmonton and did my degree.”

Tim now bases himself solely out of the provincial capital. When asked what he likes about Edmonton, Smith jokes, “Not the cold.” He continues saying, “I like the community for the arts here. It’s pretty good in terms of the support that artists offer each other, and the ability to meet other artist who are doing similar things.”

As for Between Buildings, Smith says, “We had a lot of fun making it. We recorded half of it in St. Albert and the other half in Toronto. It’s go ten tracks on it, which are kinda a collection of songs that I wrote over the last few years. There’s a lot of incorporation of violin and electric guitar. I’m looking forward to bringing a lot of those sounds to a live performance as well when we go touring”

The Zoo is among the first stops on his Western Canadian Tour. Smith wanted to visit some other areas, and will be traveling through Alberta and B.C.

Smith draws on a wide range of influences, everything from Jack Johnson to Damien Rice, to create his alt-pop style. However, Smith is not as traditional as most musicians. That’s to say that he’s active in the composition of his own music. “[Music]’s always been predominant in my life, but I think over time it’s become more and more something that I care about in a lot of different ways. I enjoy researching it, I enjoy learning it, I enjoy teaching it, so it’s really fueled my life in a variety of different aspects.”

He has an extensive classical background, and regularly employs that knowledge into his music. You can check him out online at timsmith.ca.
- The Meliorist, University of Lethbridge