INTERVIEW: Richard Smith
By Adam Clery on October 23, 2012 in Music
The summer months are now starting to feel like a hazy and distant memory, but so too are the numerous bands in the region who called time on themselves during those more temperate times. Sunderland’s Chased By Wolves were amongst the most sorely missed, but frontman Richard Smith hasn’t been wasting anytime.
What, from your perspective at least, is different about this project from your previous work?
For me, it’s a chance to work on a sound and an idea that I’ve had in my head for a long time but never known how to really produce until now. Like most things, when you spend a lot of time doing something you get better at it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying out different types of songwriting over the past few years, I wore it out in my head so much that after a while I didn’t really care about it anymore. After that it kinda clicked. I also realised that the music you like to listen to isn’t always necessarily the music you want to create. With this I think I have finally found a sound that is my own. This time round a lot of my inspirations for it all come from things other than music, at the same time though I now get to experiment and play around with a sound that I really love.
What can you tell me about the EP? Was it all written together, or is it just a collection of things that have come along?
The E.P is two songs. Written and recorded over about 5 months. It took a lot longer than I usually work because I changed my whole process of songwriting. I used to write 2 or 3 songs a day but then end up hating them a few weeks later. I didn’t want to end up hating these so I took extra time to write them. I recorded rough versions on my phone and listened to them over and over on my way into work on the bus, changing them around in my head. Bus journeys can be very strange and inspirational at times.
The recording process on the other hand was a collaborative effort between myself and Neil Bassett (Hyde & Beast), who also played drums on the tracks. I’ve recorded with him over the course of being in 3 different bands and I think that helped. The sound for the these tracks are totally different to anything I’ve done before and that opened more doors in terms of being able to experiment. Neil got what i was going for straight away and had some cool ideas for the songs. If you go into the studio with Neil and let him go crazy you can get some pretty interesting stuff out of it.
The first E.P is called, ‘Autumn Is Here & I Guess I’m Still In Love With You’ and is released online on Halloween. My friend Paul Burgess helped me out with the art work and the photo is taken from a book of old Halloween photos called ‘Haunted Air’ by Ossain Brown.
The sound cloud link for Wishing Well has had over 5,000 plays in the 23 days it’s been available. Is that better or worse than you were expecting? What do you put that down to?
Much better. I didn’t know what to expect at all. I’ve honestly got no idea but it’s nice to know thats people do listen.
Long term, what are the plans for Indian Summer? Gigs? More releases? Or just seeing what happens
I plan on releasing the first E.P and then to I’m hopefully going to start working on a second one straight away. I don’t have any big plans other than to carry on writing and to see where it takes me. As for gigs, probably next year at some point I imagine.
Autumn Is Here & I Guess I’m Still In Love With You is released on October 31st.
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INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/IkbSZBk4
INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/IkbSZBk4
RT @kyeotv INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/bHDP7IbS <<<Recent #TippingPoint
INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/IkbSZBk4
INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/IkbSZBk4
INTERVIEW: Richard Smith – The former Chased By Wolves frontman on his new venture | http://t.co/IkbSZBk4