Rapid-fire Questions
1. What have you been listening to lately?
Skinty Fia by Fontaines DC is a big one, Mercyful Fate’s Melissa, Dookie, the Used s/t. Refused. That kind of stuff!
2. You think Liam Gallagher has listened to your album yet?
Yeah, I think he said it was his album of the year. And that he wishes he had written it.
3. Favorite album of 2022?
Skinty Fia is definitely up there, Tay and Andrew really like the Momma album a lot, too.
4. Here’s an idea. You let me go on tour with you and I’ll open for you with 15 minutes of standup.
Only if you’re willing to play “Worm Wars” with Sam.
5. When I die can you play Sixpence None The Richer’s cover of “There She Goes” as they lower my casket?
Not if we die first
6. Which historical figure do you think would like your music the most?
The Moth Man would vibe for sure.
7. Last song that made you cry?
Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves gets me (Tay) but I have depression.
8. Make me cry.
For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.
9. Do you regret agreeing to do this interview yet?
“Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this”-Kelly Clarkson
10. Any local Cincinnati or Chicago bands that you think we should check out?
The Roof Dogs!! Watch out for them
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Isaac Gutierrez for Born Loser Mag: To start things off, can you introduce/tell us a bit about yourself?
Tay: We are Smut! I’m Tay, the singer. We have Andrew on guitar, Sam on guitar and synth, Bell on bass and synth, and Aidan on drums. We live in Chicago currently and just put out our first full length album called How the Light Felt!
How did Smut meet/form?
Andrew: Back in 2014 I quit a band I had been in since I was 13. After almost ten years I felt like I wanted to try something new, play an entirely different type of music than I had been. Me and Tay had just recently started dating, and nothing seemed like more fun than starting a band together. Our close friend Sam was in one of our favorite local bands, Nude Art. After playing him some stuff I had been messing around with he thankful agreed to pull double duty as our bass player. Nude Arts drummer Leo joined and together we fleshed out and recorded what would become our first tape. Sam eventually moved to guitar, and two bass players and 4 drummers later we are the band that you see today! Bell joined on bass about 5 years ago now and Aidan has been with us for 2!
Were you involved in any other music projects before Smut?
Bell: Quite a few. I’m not gonna count high school bands, but I grew up in NYC, and my first band there was called Amadels. I was freshly out of high school and got a crash course in being in a Real Band. We were pretty decent. We referred to ourselves as a “soft punk” band. After that band dissolved, I joined Nicholas Nicholas, the project of the inimitable Chris Masullo. There I learned what it was like to be in a band with nice people. When I moved to Ohio, I joined a ridiculous little band with my boyfriend called Pills. It was us as the rhythm section and another couple that was absolutely falling apart at the seams, and funnily enough copying Smut rather openly! Mercifully, Smut poached me a few months after the band was formed.
Amidst all of that, I had this ongoing solo project called Nice Knees. I released a few EPs and like a dozen singles - it was a visceral outlet for me as a person who ordinarily hangs towards the back as a bassist. The project evolved from this Best Coast wannabe jangly guitar music in 2013, to full blown dark experimental synth pop by 2018. I eventually decided to call it quits in 2020 - I had been in recovery from addiction for 2 years at that point, and the project was too closely tethered to drug use for me to continue.
These days, I focus on Smut. And I’m also in a country band called Toadvine with Aidan. I dunno what to tell ya. Music is life 😎
What has the transition from the Cincinnati scene to the Chicago music scene been like?
Tay: Everything really started to fall into place when we moved to Chicago. I’m not sure if we ever totally fit in the Cincinnati scene, at least in the circles we played in. It’s post-punk over there. Almost none of them came to our Cincinnati release show so I guess they felt similarly, lol.
Chicago was like coming into a family so that’s been great all the way.
Was there anything in particular that drew you to Chicago?
We wanted to be closer to the action! It’s a nice kind of central location for touring purposes and it just seemed like there were a lot of new opportunities to be had. The stimulus checks sort of decided for us, once we all had that moving money it was a done deal.
Congratulations on the release of your newest album, How the Light Felt! What does it mean to you to finally be able to share it with the world?
Andrew: thanks! This record has been written and ready for so long. We are just stoked that anyone can hear it now, and for the rest of time.
What did the writing/recording process like for you? And what are some inspirations behind the album?
Bell: Writing the album was a lot of fits and starts. We wrote it slowly and somewhat deliberately I’d say. I think we probably wrote about half the songs when everyone (except Aidan, who hadn’t yet joined the band) moved to Chicago and lived together in like, deep pandemic times. We would circle around in the living room and gently play and write in this almost tender sort of way. I think you can sort of tell by listening to the album for the most part which songs we wrote at home together. And then a couple songs, namely Morningstar and Unbroken Thought, were finished in the studio. We recorded the album at our old drummer Harold Bon’s recording studio, in Cincinnati. He played drums on the record, and it was kind of a sweet send off cos he had written a bunch of these songs with us.
Inspiration-wise, I think you’ll get a wildly different answer depending on who you ask. Certainly a lot of 80s and 90s jangly guitar pop, with some trip hop thrown in. We would often come in with ideas for guitar parts that were sort of openly influenced by a song we were really vibing with - we’d take it and spin it into something that felt like us, something original from a source we loved.
Did you have to do a bunch of demos while figuring out what you wanted on the album? I’m always curious as to what happens to the songs that don’t make the cut??
Tay: Almost every song we wrote ended up on the album. We don’t have a stockpile of songs or future albums planned out in advance, we typically start writing and if it doesn’t work we change it or toss it out and start again. We don’t waste a good idea on a song that isn’t album worthy, so if the riff works but the song isn’t good the song is erased and we start from the good bit and make something better. I think we’ve totally abandoned maybe 2 songs in 8 years.
Did you have an idea of what you wanted the album to sound like before writing, or did it kind of take shape as you went along?
Andrew: both! We knew we wanted it to be melancholic, nostalgic, bittersweet and a little dreamy. It was important to us that we took risks too. A few times that meant letting a song take shape in a logic demo instead of a live rehearsal, or in the case of Unbroken Thought, writing like half of it day of recording!
Was your approach to making this album different from previous releases like “Purse” or “End of Sam-Soon”?
Tay: This round of songs felt quite a bit more serious. The older stuff was a lot of fun and had energy and obviously with the events that inspired these songs the whole album turned into a more cathartic creature. We slowed down and really sat with the songs and took our time because we were label hunting at the time also.
I know that some of the songs on the album are songs that you’ve been working on for years. Does your relationship with these songs change at all as time goes by?
Bell: definitely. Even on just a technical level, playing the same bassline for 5 years gives you this insane level of connection to your writing. 5 years to perfect the voicing of a note, or the velocity of your playing, things like that. I really feel these complex relationships with what I’m playing after so long, like my brain and my fingers are communing with my soul. But I’m quite sentimental, and I love playing bass haha. There is definitely something that borders on spirituality for me the longer I sit on a piece of music.
Beyond my own experience, I think we all started to feel this incredible ache towards the release of the album because we were so ready for it to be out in the world - we’ve been waiting to move on. It’s a very emotionally heavy album, so sitting on some of these songs for 5 years really takes its toll on you. You get worn down pretty fast. Writing is sort of the joy inside playing music, I think. It can feel stifling to ultimately be stuck on the same tunes for so long. You have to have this balance of new and old to keep you going.
What are you most proud of on this album?
Andrew: this is the first thing I have ever made where I feel like I accomplished exactly what I set out to do. I am proud of my friends for sticking through some nebulous times and creating something positive out of pain.
Talk to us about the cover art! What is going on in the photo?
Andrew: tay caught you staring at us huddled for warmth under a dead tree. I have had this cover in my head for so long. Aidan did an incredible job taking the perfect photo, we scouted spots for ages. We waited for a big snow storm and I think it turned out great. Thats Tay’s handwriting spiraling all over the cover.
What did you personally take away from the process of making this record, and what do you hope other people get from it?
Andrew: the process really solidified for me how much I love everything about making a record. This was really our first time doing it professionally on a schedule and I had a great time. I hope that when people hear the record they feel solace and any emotion strongly, really.
Some of your lyrics that really stood out to me were
When I was seventeen
Went into the woods to discover the dog wrapped in wire
A fire burned it's disguise away
I was going to ask what that was a metaphor for, BUT I JUST READ THAT THAT”S A TRUE STORY??
Tay: Yes! That is a true story, I wanted to write a love song for the album but this is what came out. There were woods behind my house back in Kentucky and there was a little trail with a dirt “ramp” that bikers would jump off of, and we would play there as a kid. When I was a teenager a part of the woods caught fire and it revealed that everyone had been using a dead dog as the ramp all along. It was just a skeleton with bits of fur and was hogtied with wire and rope, so I assume it had been there for years. Before we moved to Chicago I took Andrew back to Louisville and we toured all my old houses and I tried to get back there, it was taped off with flyers on the trees saying it was under federal investigation. I don’t know if they are related incidents but I thought it was a little romantic that Andrew was now part of the story. And that’s the gist of it!
I think my personal favorite song off the album is “Let Me Hate”. Can you talk to us a bit about that track?
Tay: That is a song I wrote after I got a therapist. I was having a pretty dark year and felt lonely. Like no one around me could understand the weight of carrying my sister's ghost. I specifically wanted to dream of her, everyone in my family would text me that Abby visited them in dreams and that they had conversations. Whether it’s real or not I was so jealous, because I felt far removed and almost as if she didn’t want to see me. So I talked to my therapist about it and I think days later dreamed about Abby and I woke up feeling so much worse because it was like losing her all over again. But overall it’s about being able to process those feelings and how much therapy helped me learn to cope. Feeling insane or irrational is actually very natural when grieving.
In your interview with Still Listening Magazine you said “We try really hard not to accidentally write something that already exists.” How often does that happen?? Because FOR YEARS I was convinced that I wrote the melody for “We’re Going To Be Friends” by the White Stripes.
Tay: It doesn’t happen often but once in a while it does. You’ll be working with something new and the next day you realize it’s a Third Eye Blind song. Then it’s back to the drawing board. Thankfully I think we all have a good ear for recognizing if something sounds a little familiar. The quest to not be derivative, lol. Which is so funny in a way because being “derivative” or ripping someone off is a pretty new concept with the internet. Your favorite rock songs were copy and pasting songs from the 50s and 60s. But without internet all you could do was wonder if they were that similar, unless you wanted to go to a record store and compare them yourself or wait for a lawsuit.
I know that the album is partly inspired by the passing of your sister. Is there a balance making the music/art you need to process what you’re going through while at the same time not feeling like you’re sharing too much?
Tay: There is definitely a balance that should probably be kept for your mental health. I unfortunately did not abide by that balance. I was super honest and straightforward with how I was feeling because I wasn’t considering at all that I would be selling these feelings later on. I was just pure venting.
I read that you’re an oasis fan. When I was in middle school I tried showing all of my friends Oasis and I got made fun of. Can you roast them for me?
Tay: Hello, friends from middle school. It’s me, Tay. I think you were acting like real losers and dorks, you should’ve been kneeling at the feet of our interviewer for introducing you to cool kid music. Are you dumb? Grow up. Get real.
Are you going to do any touring for “How the Light Felt”?
Bell: We have already! We did a little headlining run around the time of the album release. Mostly east coast and Midwest dates. It was really nice for all of us - for the first time ever, we all got to see our families and stay in our hometowns or near them, which felt like such a special punctuation mark on an already profoundly important tour. We also just played our Chicago album release show, which was probably one of my favorite shows I’ve ever played. So many people came, and were singing along, and we all just had a great time. It seems obvious, but getting to share your music with people and have them be so receptive to it is a musician’s dream come true. I know we’re all so grateful.
Is there a song that you’re looking forward to playing live?
Tay: We started playing Unbroken Thought recently live and it’s so much fun! It has a lot of ebb and flow which is exciting to build up and release over and over. It gets people pumped up.
What can we expect to see/hear from Smut in the near future?
Tay: We are now working on the next album! Next year we hope to at least get it recorded and of course we want to tour How the Light Felt as much as possible! I think getting to Europe next year is the pipe dream.
Is there anything that you want our readers to know?
Andrew: i got the title “how the light felt” from a DOOM verse.
To wrap things up, do you have any questions for me?
Tay:Yes! What’s your favorite interview you’ve ever done? And what are you listening to lately?
I have so many favorites! But I think talking to Sidney Gish is probably one of my favorites. It felt like catching up with a friend.We had so much fun joking around that I almost forgot to ask questions about music.
I've been listening to Sabor a Mi by Eydie Gorme and Los Panchos on repeat. Really just a ton of Boleros from like the 50's and 60's.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! I really appreciate it!
;(
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