On the weekend, they played at the Hi-Fi Bar in their hometown Brisbane. It’s thought to be one of Australia’s first live Silent rock shows, an expansion on the concept of Silent Discos. The 600-strong audience were given their own headphones and used the volume control to decide their personal atmospherics. This weekend The Smart play at the Hi-Fi in Melbourne for a 3D show incorporating upcoming visual theatre artists. They did the show in Brisbane last year: the audience was given green and red 3D glasses while the band performed below 3D visuals.
“3D is such an awesome concept,” admits Johny Leighton, who plays keytar, a cross between keyboard and guitar. “The first time I saw 3D was in Avatar. It was such a cool experience that the three of us, and some friends from the trade, started working out how to apply it to the live situation.”
Audiences these days, he adds, want to be entertained. So it’s up to the bands, regardless of the size of their budgets, to think outside the box and shift people out of the safety of their lounge room DVD players.
“People who see The Smart for the first time invariably go ‘what the?’ You get these crazy guys coming out in crazy gear, and their immediate reaction is ‘what a bunch of wankers!’ But once they hear the music, it makes sense to them. What’s more, they have a really good time. With The Smart Silent Show, we did something different to their senses, along with the visual effects and the light show. All these pictures came together.”
Who are some other acts that he thinks provide a great live experience? “In terms of rock, Muse stick out. You go their shows expecting the music to be good. But in the end, you just go ‘Wow!’ Lady Gaga is another. You’re shocked but it’s a good shock, because you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Leighton, singer Jeremy Peter Allen and bassist Paul Wright met while playing in a band at their local church. They used to jam together, and out of this came The Smart. “Even before we became a band, there was already a connection between the three of us,” Leighton recalls. “As soon as we got together, we started writing songs. [Title track of their first EP] Midnight Goodnight was the first one we wrote, it came together in half an hour. Then about five or six other songs came quickly.”
All three have different tastes. Allen is partial to the quirky folk of Jeff Buckley, Wright is into Rage Against The Machine, and Leighton, who also moonlights as a club DJ, is into electronica as well as the theatrical rock of Muse, Queen and Korn. They were all classically trained and their singles City Lights, Electrical and Cold Dark Room were championed by triple j and quickly crossed over to Nova and Triple M after they won commercial radio’s New Artists to Radio competition. This airplay on major networks in turn led to The Smart snaring the Bon Jovi support, testing out their stadium-rock inclinations before a crowd of 30,000.
The epic element of Smart music comes out in their new single Hands Of Shelter. It was inspired by the work of a Cambodian charity called The She Rescue Home, which rescues girls, some as young as six, from prostitution and slavery. It takes them out of harm’s way, and ensures they get a good education as the road to a good life.
The lyrics are a dialogue between two people. One is a little girl about to be sold, “The love you never could deny/ Has fallen flat before my broken life.” The other is an adult, “There is a darkness in your eyes/ Not gonna take the time to ask you why/ Time to take this photograph/ Time to tell the world about.” This second character can be, depending on your spiritual bent, either the one who spreads the message or brings salvation.
“We’re not about preaching,” Leighton emphasises. “If [the song] inspires people into action, that’s fine. If they just like the song, that’s fine too. Musically it came together quickly, in about 20 minutes. We had the concept, we jammed one night, and we worked around the piano riff.” From the first time they added it to their live set, the song has been a show-stopper. “A lot of people dance to our music at the shows. But when we play Hands of Shelter everyone stops and listens, there’s pin drop silence.”
BY CHRISTIE ELIEZER
