“I’m glad that you said it was balanced, it was definitely what I was aiming for. I knew it was going to end up sort of on the experimental side of that balance on this album,” he says, ‘balanced’ meaning there are fewer songs about girls and more about serious topics and social observations. On (800) Human Smith sings about seeking false fulfillment through materialism and infomercials (as in ring 800-etc.), but when quizzed about any philosophical or existential meaning Smith turns the tables on me. “There is an existential theme to it. What did you get out of it?” I hesitate to explain it, I like the lyrics the way they are. I know what I was trying to say but I’ve never heard anyone explain it the way I do to myself.”
After fumbling through some sort of response (Albert Camus was mentioned, I’m an idiot) I manage to move the discussion onto another track All In The Wrist, a song that seems to lament the frustrations of a futile existence, but also celebrate it as well. “The mundane is always there and I guess I’ve oscillated to the belief that if you approach it in right way you can get past the boring, uninteresting or frustrating aspects of the mundane that [are] always looming or threatening to ruin our life day by day. I guess I’ve been taught it’s the beholder’s fault if life seems mundane.”
If the new album sounds more philosophical than what you might expect from Darwin Deez, then it’s by design, not fault. Smith wrote the lyrics for many of the songs before the music, moved from New York to the quiet of Asheville North Carolina, and arranged much of his life around the creation and recording of the album. Whereas songs such as Redshift, which uses the universe as a running analogy (‘You loved all my quarks / So what went wrong? / Don’t superstring me along’) came “tumbling out” almost independent of himself; others like Free The Editorial Me were more difficult and considered. “I enjoyed making that one, it was hard for me to finish it,” he says of the track. “I enjoyed the different lyrical approach wherein you reference printed form, [such as] the rejection letter; linguistic forms we’re sort of familiar with.” The former is more akin to material on the first album, the latter and others are the products of a concerted effort to add more depth. Songs For Imaginative People is more lyrically advanced and less minimalistic production-wise, but it still maintains Smith and company’s eclectic and upbeat approach.
“This album [was] more exciting, the stakes were higher, I had no expectation of an audience [on the first album] but on this one I definitely have an expectation from an audience and an expectation of myself. When I sat down I decided I would compose an entire album and people were going to hear it and judge it and I was going to judge it as well.” If it sounds like the kind of pressure that could crush a man, Smith doesn’t really show it or let on during our conversation – he seems calm and quietly enthused. “The first I made for myself; there was no other pressure besides that. This one had that pressure and expectation of the people that had not only heard the first record but actually liked it; it gave me something to work with. I had a really exciting time doing it.”
As well as being open to discussing his views on the world and the album’s creation, Smith is also quite candid about the difficulties of touring and also in maintaining friendships and relationships off tour. We broach the topic after discussing the song Alice that he wrote about an Australian woman he met on tour, a relationship that never advanced due to the “logistics of being so far away.” It’s a similar problem back home, he says. “The interesting thing is how to structure your social life when you’re off tour. Tour comes in and interrupts your life and it’s hard to stay connected to your friends.” Maintaining friendships is a greater priority nowadays, though he can see how people may be reticent to get close to him. “I’m not the smartest investment emotionally speaking, to other people, to be my friend or my lover,” he says, but even on that topic he does not sound negative – just realistic, if not a touch optimistic.
BY GARRY WESTMORE
