Interview: Smith & Thell on their evolving songwriting, upcoming Scandinavian shows, and sharing beers with fans
Acclaimed Swedish duo Smith & Thell have released their new EP, A Chosen Family, on August 23rd via Nettwerk. This latest project finds the award-winning band blending grand, stadium-sized pop with the warmth of intimate folk music. Inspired by the stories of the people in their lives, Smith & Thell let others’ experiences take center stage, crafting a collection of songs that speak to a shared human experience rather than their personal narratives.
The Daily Music Report: You’ve made a deliberate shift from writing about personal experiences to writing about others. Can you describe the thought process behind the change? Has this new approach brought a fresh perspective or new inspiration to your songwriting?
Smith & Thell: It was refreshing to step outside of our own lives in the writing process for this project. There are so many people in our lives, between family and friends, whose stories have crossed paths with ours and when we set out to write the EP, we felt particularly inspired to put ourselves in some of their shoes. Telling other peoples’ stories is not a totally new thing for us, our music has always drawn both from our experiences and those of the people that surround us. But in dedicating a body of work to those people — our chosen family — we went one step further than we had before.
With this new shift in perspective, has the subject matter caused your writing process to change or your approach to writing new music?
No two songs come about in the same way, so we don’t think too much about a specific process. If we focus on storytelling, everything else usually falls into place. We did write a majority of this project at a camp with some of our favorite songwriters, so regardless of subject matter, that was a change of pace. Up until now, it had always been the two of us and a guitar.
What has been the most rewarding part of shifting your songwriting perspective?
The most rewarding part (and epiphany) is that creativity and visions are contagious and that you have to cook while it’s fresh.
I read that the band lived in Sherman Oaks and conducted a writing camp that resulted in your new EP, A Chosen Family. However, I’ve also read that you like to take your time to finish lyrics and fine-tune the melody, sometimes leaving it for a few months. These concepts seem contradictory. Can you talk about your experience in Sherman Oaks and how the writing camp was structured?
The camp was so much fun. We invited some of our favorite songwriters to join us and more or less wrote around the clock for a week. We found ourselves not leaving the house for days at a time, just so enthralled by the music we were making. At times, there were two rooms writing two songs at once. At others, everyone was in the same room. The whole experience was definitely overwhelming, but so rewarding. When we listened back to the songs we wrote in Sherman Oaks, we felt there was a raw-ness to the music that we didn’t want to touch. So the majority of the lyrics and production you hear on the final versions of this collection of songs remains from the day they were each made.
In the past you’ve cited Simon & Garfunkel, Alanis Morissette, Bon Iver, and Coldplay as major influences. Are there specific artists, songs, or albums that inspired this current project? Can you take us through some of the sounds that shaped the EP?
We listen to so much new and different styles of music. The new country scene has been impactful for me (Maria) and I know that Victor listens to everything from experimental pop to hip hop.
Your tour schedule shows you just finished a group of European shows (U.K., France, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway) in early August. Congratulations! With more shows coming up in September, how has your experience in Europe been so far?
The European tour was everything we wanted it to be. We really felt the love in each city and there is no feeling that compares to seeing your music resonate with people in real life. We feed off of that energy, so we are looking forward to the upcoming shows in Scandinavia.
Can you share any behind-the-scenes stories from the writing camp or the tour that stood out to you?
The beer hangouts with our fans in Europe were so much fun. We set aside an hour before the show in almost every city we played and sent out a pin to our location. Sometimes at a bar and sometimes by the tour bus. We brought some beers and just hung out and had the unique opportunity to meet our fans in a relaxed setting. We typically only meet fans after shows and it’s usually in the merch line where real conversations are impossible. We really enjoyed the opportunity to spend quality time with the people that have made all of this possible for us. Watching fans meet at the beer hang and then walk into the show with new friends was also really special.
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