Phil Smith (Aus)
Hi there. I am a singer songwriter hailing from Brisbane, Australia. Influenced by artists like Neil Young, Ryan Adams, Richmond Fontaine and Gillian Welch, I produced an EP last year titled Desire, and have a full length album, Goldmine, due in July. I play mainly acoustic guitar live, as well as mouth organ, and have a band, whose members vary from time to time. I lived in the U.K. for 6 years, and am planning on travelling, and hopefully touring, once Goldmine is finished. Goldmine is an 11 track album, featuring mainly piano, acoustic guit, pedal steel, drums, bass and organ.
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
I was born in Sydney. I picked up the guitar at 15, but for the first ten or fifteen years i was mainly into lead guitar, metal, hard rock etc. When i was living in the U.K. i started getting into singer songwriters like Nick Drake and Beth Orton. I took singing lessons for a while, whilst playing my own stuff around the towns i lived in. The more i got into it the more i started getting into alt country, Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown to start with, then Dylan, Neil Young etc. I was definitely a late bloomer.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Yes, i play live. Mainly at venues around Brisbane. I love it, for me it's the best part of being a musician. Pretty much every gig is a special moment!
Your musical influences
Americana. Dylan, Neil Young, Ryan Adams, Nick Drake, Gillian Welch, Cash, Hank Williams. I like fairly dark, confessional stuff. Good stories with characters like Dylan, or Richmond Fontaine create.
What equipment do you use?
Gibson acoustics. A 2001 Hummingbird and a '67 J-50.
Anything else?
I like good books. Raymond Carver is my favourite author right now. Sylvia Plath's poetry. I definitely wanna play in the states. I wanna do a road trip through Nth America, play some gigs. Check out the scenery.
