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On The Porch With Front Porch Music
A country music podcast! Every two weeks, we talk to your favourite country artists, and introduce you to new artists you haven't heard about yet.
The Front Porch has long been a staple in country music ... and that's what we are. The digital front porch!
We're here to talk about the Canadian country music industry.
Join hosts Logan Miller and Jenna Weishar as they have conversations with prominent figures in country music.
Pull up a seat and join us on the porch!
On The Porch With Front Porch Music
Overcoming Shyness, Default, And His Fourth Album with Dallas Smith
Somehow we blinked and we’re at the season finale for Season 2 of On The Porch with Front Porch Music.
We’re so excited to have multi-CCMA award winning country artist Dallas Smith.
Dallas dove into music after overcoming his fear of singing in front of people. Within a year, he went from jamming in the garage with his band (Default) to having a record deal and hitting the road as a frontman.
Dallas grew up with two very musical parents, recalling his house filled with Reba, k.d. Lang, Martina McBryde, The Judds, Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson, and Vince Gill. While he was into the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, he credits his mom’s favourite music even in influencing Default’s music.
Dallas shared a lot about his journey and relationship with the music business, getting involved through management and Local Hay Records, and investing time in mentoring emerging artists.
Dallas shared the “country record?” text that set off his solo career, and the organic experience of finding his way into Canadian country music.
We also dive into his self-titled fourth studio album, Dallas Smith.
Follow Dallas Smith on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us for another season of On The Porch with Front Porch Music. If you liked it, please rate, review and subscribe … It's the easiest way to support our show.
Grab a drink, pull up a chair, and join us On The Front Porch - we can’t wait to be back for Season 3.
On The Porch with Front Porch Music is a Front Porch Production and hosted by Logan Miller and Jenna Weishar. On The Porch with Front Porch Music is produced by Jason Saunders.
It's like I'm on the porch actually.
Speaker 3:Aw.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're more on the porch than we are.
Speaker 3:That makes one of us Welcome back to another episode, another season finale On the porch with From Porj Music. I can't believe we're at our second season finale.
Speaker 2:I know we've done like what, 40, some episodes, 44 episodes of this thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yikes.
Speaker 3:That's so wow.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of you.
Speaker 3:Thanks for wow, thanks for hanging out with us, thanks for listening, thanks to our guests for hanging out with us and sharing a little bit more about themselves with the country music community. We love, we love this.
Speaker 2:It's been a while two years. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. Thanks for joining us on the ride and joining us on the porch every two weeks. We're really excited to keep this going in the new year for season three.
Speaker 3:Stay tuned for season three. But before we get to season three, we are so excited to close out season two with none other than Dallas Smith.
Speaker 2:He's a multi CCMA award winner. He's a fantastic staple of Canadian country music and Canadian rock music and he has a brand new album out now called Dallas Smith, and it was a great chat. So for the last time, jenna, last time this season, okay.
Speaker 3:We are hanging out on the porch for the season finale with Dallas Smith. Dallas, how are you doing? How are you doing? Welcome?
Speaker 1:Doing fantastic, Doing fantastic Record just came out a little while ago and it's just that's. My favorite part is watching fans and pick what songs they like and which ones they initially love the most. And, yeah, it's. There's a discovery process of having a record out. It's really, really fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a couple of years, so I'm sure that's something you've been waiting for. Just to get back to that yeah, the last record was 2020.
Speaker 1:I think timeless came out in that. So, yeah, it's been a minute and we haven't really had to do a. We didn't really get to do a proper record release because we released it during COVID. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a welcome, a welcome change.
Speaker 2:I mean speaking of like not to get into that world, but it was such a night like it was so nice to have new music from a bunch of artists during COVID or during that time, Because, as we all know, it was such a crappy time that just having some kind of music was so nice, especially new music.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, I hear you for sure.
Speaker 2:So, dallas, you're joining us from a literal park bench. You're on more of a porch than we are, so that's fun, thanks.
Speaker 3:Before we get too deep in, why don't we introduce you to? We haven't had you on the porch. We have featured you on our site a few times, but we know you're from Langley, bc. You're currently hanging out from Franklin, tennessee, however, because you're quite back and forth, but why don't you tell us how you got into music a little bit, just the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, this will be a long segment, I think. So I grew up in a household where music was around around lots. There was lots of singing involved. My dad played guitar and sang. That was more of like a. It was more introverted, I think, with it. I saw it a bit, but not a lot. I'd hear him playing in his room and stuff like that occasionally and catch that. But my mom was in a woman's professional choir so she was in Sweet Adelines and so from I was a kid it was just singing was everywhere. All my aunts were in the choir as well and my parents would have parties and my aunts and my mom would be sitting there harmonizing to Beatles records and it was just always around and my mom would be sitting there doing warm-up scales and asking me if I for pitch was good and I was like seven or eight, nine years old and, yeah, it was good household in that way.
Speaker 1:But I never really I stopped singing in front of people when I was really young. I was just shy and I just introverted like that. I carried that on all the way through high school. But when Seattle scene happened and I saw everybody gravitating towards my own music outside of Beatles and Zeppelin and stuff that I was exposed to as a kid. My outlet after school would be at have like an hour and a half an hour when I'd sit there and I'd just watched, I'd play video games and I'd listen to my favorite records and just sing along. Right, that was my outlet and my way of venting and escapism revealing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I never sang in front of anybody but I used to go and watch bands play like high school bands and I befriended a lot of them. And outside of high school I would go to a lot of shows and I befriended all the local artists and stuff. Yeah, it's like the guitar player for Ended up being, you know, was a guitar player for default with me. He was in one of those bands and I talked to him about, you know, I can sing and love to play guitar and stuff and he said you should come and play with us.
Speaker 1:You know, you'll have to do it, come and do it.
Speaker 2:And as a shy person did that thought, just like give you complete anxiety.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, the whole. Yeah, of course you know the whole idea. I mean I was the kid in high school that I would fail science class or whatever class it would be If I had to go do a presentation. You know, I just wouldn't go, it would just I couldn't do it. Like, yeah, it was a nightmare, right, and but eventually I got to the point where it's like, okay, this is such a big part of my life, it's always been such a big part of my life. I got to get over this. If I got anything in my life, I just want to get over this.
Speaker 1:And yeah, so I had a bunch of drinks with the guys on a Friday night in a garage and we had a little PA system, a little monitor system and we just sang some Stone Table Pilots songs and nice, that was. That was sort of my jump into feed into it. And a year later we had a record deal. So it was like we started writing songs. Those songs got into the hands of Joey Moy 20 just came out of recording school and we recorded some demos. And one of those songs got onto a radio station contest in Vancouver. We won it and we had record labels sort of knocking on our door and come in and watch us play locally in Vancouver and then a year and a half after that, we had a platinum record in both US and Canada.
Speaker 2:So it was like that's got to be like. That's got to still be surreal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love telling the story because it's just. There's no direct path into music and the business. They've always got a different story and how it happens for them and how they're discovered and their pathway to it. But yeah, that was mine. That was mine. I would be the kid that would fail classes. I didn't want to get up in front of people. And then, two and a half years later, I'm playing arenas with Nickelback.
Speaker 3:Fronting a band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fronting a band, yeah, what have you ever?
Speaker 3:thought about what would have happened if you just like, didn't try, like didn't overcome that.
Speaker 1:I hate to think about it. I hate to think about it. Brought so much joy to my life and so many great experiences to my life that I'd hate to think of, what I would have missed out on if this wasn't my path.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one thing changes like everything that's. So that's rad, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:Do you find when you're standing and like performing because like there's obviously a difference between being on a stage in front of thousands of people than being in your science class in front of 30 people Do you find that the more people there are, it's just kind of not easier, but they all kind of become one or something.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, very much so, like that really goes towards acoustic performances. We go to a radio station thing and there's five people there. I find that terrifying. It's such an intimate experience and the odds are against you. The chances of the five of those people don't like you it's pretty high. But if you're playing towards, if you're playing a couple thousand people, there's some people out there that are liking it. So you just focus on that, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then people who don't like it. You probably can't see Exactly.
Speaker 1:But they're off getting beer or something. They're doing something. It's a walk in the break. So, yeah, the less intimate it is like that, the easier it can be, which is kind of the opposite of what you would think, right? But Interesting.
Speaker 3:It is what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just play Boots and Hearts and it's like 20, 25,000 people. And if I was to go and do the acoustic thing up at the barn up on top of the hill there in front of 50 people, would that be more nerve-wracking for me than anything?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think I agree with that 100% Weird.
Speaker 3:That's wild.
Speaker 2:Especially when they're all drunk. You can say anything and they're all like whew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, the odds are in your favor, for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's funny. So it's funny because 2012, 2011 comes around and there's this familiar voice suddenly on country radio and I was a teenager I think I was in. I was still in high school when your first country record came out, we get it.
Speaker 2:You're young.
Speaker 3:Jenna, stop Sorry.
Speaker 1:We're old, you're young. Yeah, good for you.
Speaker 3:I remember being in the car with my dad huge default fan and I'm like who's this? We've heard this before. And my dad's like I don't know, because our radio didn't say the name of the song and who was singing it back then, so you had to wait. And so it's like Dallas Smith and I'm like I can't see where you want to go.
Speaker 3:So we go home look it up, because our cell phones also didn't have that kind of stuff back then. And my dad's like I recognize him because he's the lead singer of default and I was like what a transition. How do you get from singing rock music to like where did the country come into play? And you'd be like when I go solo, I'm going to sing country music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it goes all the way back to my mom. She played Reba, katie Lange, kathy Matea, martina McBride, the Judds. There was like a Garth greatest hits. There was an Ellen Jackson greatest hits. Brooks and Don actually was probably the most played male voices of the country. Vince Gill it was a lot of female country and my mom would play the CMT. I mean, that was just hanging around the house and stuff. It was always around.
Speaker 1:So was it something that I loved as a kid? I was into Beatles and Zeppelin and all that kind of stuff, right, but the influence was there and I honestly really think it really influenced the default stuff, because I never really was a guy that really loved quirky voices in the rock world. I like traditional, great-sounding, good tones that you would normally find at home in any genre, right. So yeah, so that influence was pretty huge on me growing up. I just didn't realize it at the time and as country music evolved, like through the 2000s, early 2000s, I found myself listening less to what was going on in rock radio and Keith Urban entered the world and Derek Spentley and Rascal Flats, and I was like, damn, there's great stuff, really great guitar driven stuff that has great voices and so I'd be, I'd be. Well, I'll go to this.
Speaker 1:Just basically one story. It just kind of started off. The country thing is is I was listening to country music and warming up in the back of the bus, I was Keith Urban Records and as I was going across opening up for Three Days Grace with the old band playing arenas with Three Days Grace, and I'd be warming up Keith Urban Records in the back of the bus, and, yeah, one day in Montreal, it just hit me. It's like the music business will kick your ass, like no matter what you do, no matter how you do it, it's a yeah, you can say that it's a tough road, but if you're not passionate about what you're doing and you're not loving what you're doing, and what you're doing isn't speaking to you and inspiring you to try to inspire other people, you're in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:So it was a very weird realization that as a kid I dreamt about opening up playing arenas and doing this stuff and all that stuff going on and what comes with it. I was unhappy, I was very unhappy. So at that point I had already messaged I could already talk with Joey Moy, producer. We'd done a lot of the Nickelback records and a lot of stuff with the default guys. I messaged them country record question mark because we had discussed possibly going down and doing that and our mutual love for it. And three weeks later we were down writing with legends like Craig Wiseman and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:And then that's how it started. He said I just organically, really, in the rock world, I just started getting pulled toward that direction. And it was never a planned thing, it was never a trying to connect to a dog how can I make a career somewhere? It was just like I just followed my heart and I knew that just when I make a record. And if it worked, it worked. If it didn't, it was on my terms. And here we go, tried something to work I cried something yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So once Joey and I we recorded that record and we had those songs and off I jumped right in. I was inspired again and I felt like it was where I belonged. After being down in Nashville and, yeah, I still remember that first day when somebody somewhere went for ads to radio JRFM came in right away. The weight of the world was just off my shoulders. It's like, oh, my goodness, I get to possibly hear, I'm going to believe in this record. If people hear it, I think they're really going to like it and I'm going to be able to do what I love, be inspired by it, want to inspire other people while having a career and providing for my family and for my son. So that was a strange path into country music, but it was a very organic, very natural something that was done on my terms and if you follow your heart, this pays off, hopefully.
Speaker 2:I think your debut really helped bridge some kind of gap in the industry for people to introduce at a time, to introduce new people to the country genre, because people came, obviously recognize your voice and came. We saw this. I used to be in radio in the country radio world and we saw a lot of new fans coming to the genre around that time when you broke out. But even now people from the countryside were discovering your default music as well. Like at any show that you do, there's people screaming back at you. Any default song you play and any of your songs like yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4:That is really cool, like how.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like when you're standing on that stage and like seeing people scream back at you. What's that feeling like?
Speaker 1:Well, I'll be with the old stuff, like when we we play waste in my time, like probably like acoustically most of the time at our shows it it really is a full circle moment almost every time because there's there's young kids that are 21, 17, you, they weren't born yet. They weren't born yet when my, when my music career started, my first song got to radio. Like it's so cool to see them know that song, either through your parents, like you were saying, right, jenna, like it's, it was it's so cool to have like a generation of Fans like literally watch the dots connect from the parents down to the kids and and the familiarity with that song it's, it's a it's a very unique experience. I'm so glad I get to get to have that. I.
Speaker 3:Remember my first time seeing you and I'm like, does he play Default music? Does he play some of those songs? And I think as soon as I heard the beginning of wasting my time, I was like texting my parents like I'm hearing this song, this is sick, this is sick. And then now, like I, even at the festivals, I love it's, it's so. It's so wild how, like this, like core, canadian rock music has translated so easily Into like core.
Speaker 2:Canadian music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what that's so, so cool so yeah, it's just as my taste of all you know, country radio of all to you, right, just involving a lot more different influences and and yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was the timing and you know, like you could have good songs, you could get good whatever, but the the stars have to align for everything to work and Luckily they they aligned and we're in my favor at that time.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, that's really really cool. I uh want to talk about a little bit when it comes to your investment in Emerging artists who have emerged at this rate, and I think that's really cool because yeah, yeah, um, but I remember Seeing a tour. I think it was their friends, don't drink alone. To her.
Speaker 3:Yep and I may have, and I may have seen Mackenzie Porter before that. Every time I've seen her, she always credits you and always says I wouldn't have a record deal without Dallas Smith. And there's also this path of emerging artists right behind her, and Sean Austin, who has also emerged, and Andrew Hyatt, who has emerged, and they all have these Like wonderful things to say about you as a mentor, not just like you know, somebody they look up to. So Obviously, your investment in emerging musicians is very impactful and I think, like, where has that been something that you wanted to dedicate your time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it goes back to how I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah it goes back to how I, how I was discovered it was. You know, joey Moy took that demo and brought it to Chad Krueger and he had a real big passion into like Helping younger artists then too, and that band taking a soda on tour back in the day, like they were mentors to us. They were, they were mentors to me personally and still are. So when you have the opportunity to pass some of that stuff down and return the favor and Be a part of somebody else's discovery and development and I mean it just brings me back to that exciting time for me it's such a great thing to be involved in. And yeah, I've learned.
Speaker 1:I completely ignored the music business side of of the music business in my default days To a fault, right. You just didn't ever eye on the ball right. We got, we got victimized a couple times by certain things you know through that, and so I really really like when we released, when I released, my first country record I, that was really focused on that as well and it really paid off making sure the label was doing what they said they were going to be doing and holding people accountable on the business side, because you get a lot of what they think you want to hear in this business and what they just straight up just don't tell you the truth, right.
Speaker 1:So it was really keeping my eye on that and also through that, it just felt inspired. As soon as these artists started poking up, like the voices that I loved, I was like I want to help this guy, I want to be part of this person's career. So, yeah, so my partner and I Scott Cook I'm a business partner we formed this label and signed Sean, sent a couple other artists, but part of my deal with going over to Big Loud with this record deal my last one was that my label came with it and my artists come with it. So now my label, local Hay, is now under the Big Loud in Berlin and the same producers, same teams, which is such a benefit, such a benefit for me, but it's a huge intro for them into the music business in a safe environment with a safe view.
Speaker 1:And yeah, so it's been exciting. We signed another artist, Brock Phillips. He's a local kid. You'll be hearing lots of him. The writers down in Nashville just love him. So it's really exciting. It's hard not to crack to get the creative down here to like you and accept you right. So I'm really really excited for him. He's got like a booming King's Leon voice, Like it is. It is a master at emoting, Like he's just so good. He's a great writer. So I'm really excited that on the horizon for him in the new year as he's putting together his project and we'll be introducing him. And then there's another Canadian artist we haven't we're right down to the fine print, so I don't want to say the name and jinx it but another female artist that we're going to be working with here, hopefully soon, and running her through the Big Laos building and the writers and watching her career develop. And yeah, I'm super excited to be a part of that. Hopefully, fingers crossed and yeah, it's really, yeah, it's a really rewarding process to be a part of.
Speaker 3:No kidding. What's your relationship with the business side. Now, then that you've kind of you went from like I'm not, I'm not doing this to, I have to do this to. I want to help make sure others yeah. I just don't.
Speaker 1:I just don't take shit. I don't take, lies I don't take. I can smell BS right. I get things done myself right and old people accountable around me and hold myself accountable, so yeah yeah, the business. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say that's great, because this business, if you're not, if you're not looking out or have someone else looking out for you, it'll eat you alive.
Speaker 1:It takes no prisoners. It does, does not yeah.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's so inspiring. It'll eat you alive. It's all fun, it's all positive right.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously there's some tough conversations that have to be had, but you know, I'm, I'm, I'm happy that they come from a place of genuine concern and just genuine like wanting to help right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Definitely that makes sense. Um, this feels like a great time because you're saying you don't take shit. You also don't take shit on the internet, and we send screenshots of your Twitter back and forth.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we're like we're like did you see this? He said what we're thinking. My favorite.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What is your relationship with social media like? Because you're quite active, especially on Twitter or X or whatever the hell it's called.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just, I just I don't, I don't like the oh, I don't want to say this because of my side effect me normal, like I'm, effect me negatively, or my career. It's like man, if you don't, if you don't stand up for what you believe in and be vocal about it, you're speaking to no one. Like, like you know, I have, um, I see a lot of, I see a lot of artists who have a, have a great moral compass, but you don't see it, you know, just kind of a long for it and afraid to say anything about something. Right, I think, I think we're lacking, lacking that, Um, but it's, but it's, but it's also, you know, I say that, I say that as an artist who's been around for a long, long time and, um, I've accepted that I, I'm, I'm good with doing this on my terms.
Speaker 1:So I also see the other side of that is when you've been working in your entire career or your entire childhood, to be putting out a record. You don't want to say anything dumb to get in the way of that. So there is the other side of that. But I but I like encourage artists who have been around for a while and who have a footing and have a fan base.
Speaker 1:So if you're thinking it they're probably thinking it too, because you, you attract people like that are like minded for the most part, and and and get a sense, especially when you share your family and stuff like. You're attracting people that have the same sort of moral compass and the same life path. You know what, what, what's attracting them to your music. So, um, I'm not afraid to speak up for people that I need feel need to be spoken to. And um, country music genre has been known to be a little more close minded. Um, in the past it's definitely getting better and I I hopefully I'm a small part of that wave that's um bringing more positive voices to the, to the, you know, to light, especially as a Canadian right, we have a certain mindset, we have a certain connection with helping each other and, um, you know, growing as a society and helping lift each other up right Um. So it's important to me to to bring a bit of that to my world and to wherever my music takes me.
Speaker 3:What's the importance of sharing like your family life and the other pieces of you on the internet, cause some people are like personal life, nobody's going to know about this, but you're, you're so open. Your daughters are on the internet, your son is on the internet, your wife, everybody's like part of this, like part of your thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's, um, it's definitely a conversation that's always happening between my wife and I. Um, what's the stage of our kids or lives? We obviously want to keep them, um, protected and away from all of the all of the stuff that can come with that. But, um, but it's a very much a big part of my, a part of me and part of my music and it's involved in the lyrics and it's involved in everything that I do. Um, you know, uh, yeah, so I, I, I don't have a problem with that, um, but it's something that we always keep in check.
Speaker 1:Like, I've never really posted anything about my son, who's now 18. Um, just out of respect of him and his his, uh, like his mom, we aren't, we aren't together. We've been split since he was one years old and we had an understanding that, whatever I do, we'll just, we'll just keep, you know, keep him away from that, right, and um, uh, so, yeah, and my daughters, when I can have a little bit more, you know, agreement with my wife and we, we have the boundaries and what we're wanting to share and what we're wanting to share and, um, that's a conversation that's that's had on a, you know, on a weekly basis as far as what we're doing Um yeah, so it's, it's so much a part of me that, um, I share a little bit of it, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 3:What's it like coming home after a trip, Like you're not home right now. You're in Nashville going home and the girls just running to the door You're like this is why I do what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, um, it's gotten easier over the years. Uh, this trip is a lot longer than what I'm normally comfortable with, but with the record release and different opportunities, um, it just had to happen this way.
Speaker 4:So, but as the kids get older.
Speaker 1:It's it's easier. So, like my daughter came out to Edmonton while we're doing a project out there, uh, so she got to enjoy some of the project with me and and, um, yeah, experienced a little bit of that with with dad. Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's definitely gotten easier than it was, you know, when my son was real little, when there was no zoom and there was no nothing right it was. It was very difficult and I was gone for weeks on end and come back and you know, I look back on that with with uh, uh, with mixed feelings for sure, cause I know that I had to be out there and doing something to provide and move my, my family's future forward. And but, yeah, there was a lot of sacrifices back in the day and and I missed out a lot and a lot of the those years of my son's life, um, just cause of circumstances and stuff, that him and I we live super close and always been super close and it's the reason I never went down to Nashville and moved is um because I was always.
Speaker 1:I was always able to, uh, try my son to school in the morning, and when I came back from tour, I wasn't coming back to Nashville and then having to fly up to visit my son I would never have been able to sleep at night and therefore it never would have worked for my career. So I realized that right away, and so I was, yeah, born in New Westminster BC. I grew up in Langley and I still live there and I will. I will never, ever, ever move.
Speaker 3:That's, that's. Uh, that's really important too, because you know there are like musicians are having to make sacrifice and compromise all the time, so it's nice that you, you drew your line and this is what I'm not willing to do, and that's really important.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, I started my, I started my family in Langley, I started my family in Canada and it's um, that's where I saw and wanted my family to grow up and to be raised in, and and that no other career thing is going to pull me away from that. You know, I understand that that music is only a part of my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's so healthy, holy shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say like, like, that sounds like a really great mental health, yeah, yeah, but also I.
Speaker 1:But also I say I say that as somebody who's been around in the business for a long time, from that point, right. So it was, uh, I was, I was able to have that sort of uh understanding about myself and understanding right. But when you're young, you, you get pulled down and do something in the opportunity, you know yeah. Yeah. I was in my circumstance right and I just uh, it wasn't going to work for me.
Speaker 3:For sure. One more note on your kids. Are they musically inclined? All right, is anybody playing up instruments? Is your youngest child, does she have the dexterity already, or what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, are you trained? Are you building up your own backing?
Speaker 1:band here? No, I am not. No, I am not. I am, uh, I've been always somebody that if they're interested in it, then I will definitely help them chase it down. Um, but I always, I always talk about the story. I got this really nice guitar from Australia from one of the tours that we did back in the day Um, yeah, early 2000s and brought it home. It was one of my favorite acoustic guitars and the only time my son ever picked it up was when he was like four, or he took a ballpoint pen to it, right down, the right down, the whole face of it. But it's, uh, it's one of my favorite guitars, cause every time I look at that guitar, I always think of him and, and that moment, and um, yeah, so the answer, the answer to that one is no, I I've heard him like sing and and hum and stuff like that, do different things and stuff.
Speaker 1:Right, there's definitely something there, but he's, he's, you know cars and girls and and all that stuff, right. Sports and Veta, veta, veta, veta definitely has a bit more of an expressive musical sort of thing going on. Um, but you know I'm not, I'm not forcing anything on on anybody right now.
Speaker 3:That's important too, I think because we're all sitting here like no-transcript. So are you forcing them to go to music lessons? No, no, no.
Speaker 1:Because kids be kids, man, and let them follow their passion. If I can inspire them to follow that road, then so be it. But I'm definitely not going to insure anybody to go on the music business, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Not anybody that I care about, any yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what?
Speaker 2:that's fair.
Speaker 3:Yes, OK, before we talk about your new album, I wanted to give time to the lifted organization, your advocate for mental health. So why don't you start that in 2021, I want to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were talking about it, the pre-pandemic, and we really had the time to focus and build something during the pandemic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't imagine why. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So it was yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been open about my mental health struggles and thoughts throughout my years and I'm very open about it.
Speaker 1:It's the day-to-day thing.
Speaker 1:It's something that is dealt with on a daily basis and sometimes I'm really good at it and sometimes I'm not, you know, at keeping a check on what's going on in my head and making sure that I'm taking care of myself as well as doing everything I need to do in life and want to do in life.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and especially during the pandemic and watching kids go through that, through their eyes and seeing the lack of help that's out there, it's getting better. But it's something that I really want to direct attention to and continue to direct attention to is the access to mental health programs for youth and it is a life-changing opportunity for kids to have something to educate themselves on and the help that's available out there and try to increase that and point them in the right direction and fund all those different programs that bring that to kids. And we go a bit beyond the mental health stuff. Like we raised money and we were able to send. We bought this guy in a hospital. He was making these special pedals and special shoes for kids with disabilities could ride bikes and do different things like that and he could only make a certain amount of them for a year.
Speaker 1:And then the need. He never could feel the need. And so we heard about his story and we bought him a 3D printer and now he pumps out as many as he can, and there's that many more kids that are it's just simple things like that. What does that do for a kid?
Speaker 4:We know what it's like to have a wife and that freedom and your control of where you're going and stuff.
Speaker 1:To have that as a kid. Yeah, that should be available to every kid. So I'm glad to be a little part of that and help that great guy do what he's doing and make it more efficient. That's really great. Yeah, it's easy. It's easy and you've got the platform to do it. It's easy, it's a lot of fun, it's enjoyable, it brings a lot to your soul. It's just great. It's a great thing to do.
Speaker 2:Well, it's very admirable and I don't know how to transition from that to the album, but I totally love it.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully it's a good album and it takes me a lot of places and I can hope to spread some of that more, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so your self-titled album, Dallas Smith, came out just this past week. First of all, I want to ask what is the process of naming a record and why did it take so many records to get to Dallas Smith?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's a maturing process. I think it's just this journey that I've taken over the last 23 years. It's really been a big learning process as a human being, seeing what I've seen. I've seen some crazy stuff. I toured a military hospital in the middle of Afghanistan and seen what kids don't have in other areas and yeah, I mean just all the crazy stuff that I've seen and been a part of and experienced from touring and people from different countries, different walks of life, different opportunities and lack of opportunities, and it's kind of brought me to this place where I recognize the opportunity that I have.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm in a very good place. I feel like I'm proud of what I bring to the table. Yeah, I think it's just like the most I've been comfortable in my own skin. And then to have my first US-focused release and pushing into some other global markets, and I think that was a really good time for every introduction to who I am and what I want to achieve.
Speaker 1:It's not just about the record and about the music and the songs, it's the whole thing that I feel like as a whole, I'm in a really good place, that I'm proud of and it felt like a really, yeah, like I said, it felt like a really good time to just go. You know what? There's not one particular song that really speaks to me. This is like a whole project and it's not just about a song, it's about me as a person and as an artist and it was a great opportunity for a reintroduction.
Speaker 1:And here I am at this moment in my life and it's kind of like both with the. It goes with the, and even the album cover represents that journey. I mean that centerpiece of the, where I'm standing on the road, that's Music Row, right in front of Big Loud, which is my home, and in the background is the Fraser River, right across from yeah, this is a birthplace to BC, it's where the Fort is and Fort Langley it's where I grew up, and across the river there it's the you know, the Indigenous Reserve, all the kids that I went to high school with and the school with, and it's yeah, it's a really special place to me and where I come from and what represents a lot of me. And then where it's taken me to, yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:So, as an industry, we've largely gotten away from putting out full albums or at least a lot of artists have, but you're still doing that and your last few projects have been full albums. Yeah, when you're building an album and looking for the perfect songs to put on it, what about a song? When you're listening to songs that gets you to choose that song to be part of your next project?
Speaker 1:It has to check a lot of boxes. I mean it has to speak to me, it has to, like, melodically, make me feel a certain emotion, but at the end of the day, the project is something that's got to represent me and all the influences and all the topics and all the things that I want to represent in my art. And I think, ultimately, like, my favorite records were the ones that, the ones that, no matter what mood I was in, I would always go to the same record, just a different song. I mean, that artist spoke to me and, like, gave me something for everything you know, and so I'm very meticulous in making sure that we have all the boxes checked for me and what I would look for in a record and all the different emotions that I experience. And I try to make a record for a person, somebody like that, somebody that's looking for that and appreciates that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's like when we released Fixer Upper, very, very progressive new country-sounding song, but I also wanted to release at the same time, the complete opposite influence that I have from Country Music and CRZY, which is like, very based in traditional country and storytelling.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I want a record that hits both sides of that expands the palette that I can use and, ultimately, the type of songs in the palette that I can draw from for the live show when, hopefully you know, you hear a song that reminds you of a certain memory, with a different emotion and experience, and then all of a sudden the next one. As far as you did drink a beer and give your buddy a high five and drive fast, right. I mean that's really important to me to have that palette and that well-rounded record, which speaks to why it took three years since the last record and while we trickled out a few songs, it's like that song's ready, that song's set in the box. We don't have the full project, but now in the digital world, we can release that instead of waiting the full years and going right. So I think that's really the benefit. There's a benefit to that and if you can get enough material, you feel strong enough about a record, that's great. I mean that's killer. Ultimately, that's the goal.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 3:Amazing. So me being selfish and wanting to know for my benefit, because I am the listener who I list the first three times I listen to an album, it's like top to bottom, and then I start to pick out my favorites as a person who is that, who likes to go back to an album, and I'm feeling a certain way.
Speaker 3:I'm listening to this today and I'm going to go to this particular song because I'm in a good mood, versus like I'm having a slow day. What's? What's that song on this album that you think is something that feels like Enough old-school Dallas Smith, but still like really fresh?
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:I think the lead-off track. Yeah, use me.
Speaker 2:I love that song. Yeah yeah, I think that's my favorite song off the album. I mean, I've only listened to it a couple times now, but I really like that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm hearing that. I'm hearing that quite a bit, which is which is good, because that I fought for that song hard to stay on the record. It almost got bumped a couple times, but there's a few of us that were just like, nah, there's something special about this one. I think it's really gonna turn out great, and there's a little bit of a darkness to it. Yeah, it almost felt like a little bit of like a Country with a little tinge of Fleetwood Mack in there, which which which really attracted me to this song and, yes, it was like it was a song that almost got booted off the record and it ended up being the lead-off track, which is like so cool You're like we had to fight for this.
Speaker 3:Let's go in first.
Speaker 1:Hey, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong and.
Speaker 1:I'll be the first to admit it, right, I mean you're almost worst critic, right and and but. But just yeah, it's a great feeling to know that there's something spoke to that song and then nobody argued with it, putting in the front of the record Like it was like oh yeah, I know I get interested. A great lead-off track, yeah yeah. And then a song called um, how do you miss me is another one that I just. I think there's something special about that one. It's a very, very unique message. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That was the first one that stuck out for me too, and I want to say that one for me was reminiscent a little bit of the EP that came out before. Sorry, I'm obviously an OG fan here, being like back in the day Dallas Smith, but I Forget what the EP was called, but it was. There was a song, okay, there was a song called. Wrong about that and you've never, I've never heard it live.
Speaker 1:That one should have been a single that one should have been a single.
Speaker 3:I literally was obsessed with that song. If you asked my best friend, who I also dragged into front working out with as a front porch a few years ago, if I said, meg, what's my favorite Dallas Smith song should be like wrong about that and that For some reason, how do you miss me? Was like I miss. Wrong about that. And I would go like yesterday when I first listened to the album, I went back and I listened wrong about that?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Don't know why. I don't know why.
Speaker 1:Something special about that song, too, and we played it live. There was something special about that one. Yeah, it should have been a single, but yeah, you know is what it is, but in, and maybe I'll start putting that one back in the set list, because that was definitely one that I know well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jenna, this one's for you. If you kindly make an announcement, I'll be ahead of it.
Speaker 2:This is our whole reason of having you on the podcast. Yeah well, dallas, that we're coming up to the end here. Thank you so much for joining us on our season finale of on the porch. Really appreciate you taking the time, well that was, that flew by.
Speaker 1:That was 40, 40 something minutes. And I was, I know the quickest feeling 40 minutes I've had in a long time. So that was a great conversation. Thanks, guys appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Congratulations on the new album. Yeah, congrats.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it feels good. This is a great, great time to watch people discover the songs I love. It Like just hearing this story which song you guys both love. I mean that's that's like great information and and feels good to sort of be validated on which songs I kind of you know was attracted to as well. So it's great.
Speaker 4:Amazing.
Speaker 2:We'll see you on the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds good. Just let me know when you're gonna be there and I'll throw it in the set. Don't worry, I'll be. I'll be more. I'll be more than happy to, because I missed that song too.
Speaker 3:So let me know. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:You just made Jenna's day.
Speaker 3:All right, thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks, guys. Great talk with you. Thanks for listening to another episode of on the porch. With front porch music, we're so lucky to be able to chat with artists and make episodes like this one. If you like the podcast, remember to rate and review us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. It's the easiest way to support the show. Remember to check out front porch music dot CA to keep up with new music releases, exclusive artist interviews and more. We'll catch you again on the porch in a couple of weeks. On the porch is hosted by Logan Miller and Jenna wiser and produced and edited by Jason Saunders. That's me. Our theme song is written, produced and performed by only
