We sat down with Conner Smith during C2C week for an interview about his new album – Smoky Mountains – playing the UK and more.
What a year it’s been for you already. Can you talk me through what it’s been like, since the release of Smoky Mountains and just how it’s felt?
Yeah, it’s been crazy, I think, you know, finally getting to put out a debut. It’s one of those things where it feels like it takes your whole life to prepare for that, and get that out. So much heart went into it. I’m just thankful – it’s been cool to have it out in the world and have the fans reaction. It’s funny, I listened to the record, so many times before it came out and since it came out, I haven’t listened to it once. Someone made the analogy, but it’s kind of like an actor doesn’t like to watch his own film – you pour so much your heart into it. Now, it’s out in the world, the fans have it and are able to listen.
It’s been yours for so long and then suddenly, it becomes everyone else’s and they have their own stories to tell about it. That must be another weird thing to grapple with.
My goal was that it would really feel like a record album, and really every song would have its own side of the story. I feel like the record did that. It’s something I’ve heard the most is that it really does feel like a record, not just a playlist of songs.
Talking about that, there’s so much depth and maturity in the songwriting, and it does feel coherent as a thread running through the whole thing. How much of the record was formed close to the release and how much was a product of years in the industry.
Yes, it’s funny. A lot of the songs came at the end and I think I’ve studied country music and albums and debut albums for so long, preparing and imagining what mine would sound like, and I realised it was so much harder than I imagined. I feel like now that I’ve made a record, I feel like I’ll have so much more perspective hitting the next one. Towards the end, it really all clicked for me what the story was and what I was trying to say, so so many songs came in at the very end, like ‘God Moments’ and ‘Smoky Mountains,’ all these songs kind of fell out. As the record came together, it felt like this is the story I’m telling and I need these flavours almost to be filled out. It gave me a kind of an aim in the writing.
That’s almost the beauty of you having released some songs to kind of get your name out there, you’re then introducing yourself in a completely different way. With ‘God Moment’s that’s such a special song and it’s such a perfect ending to the record. Can you talk a bit about how you crafted that one in particular?
Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t imagine the record without it. As the record was done, I think I wrote that last. I wrote that song and ‘Baby I’ on the same day, so that came at the very end. As I listened to the record, I thought that there needed to be, at the end of this record, a song that speaks to what the last three years of my life have been like and just the growing up process. There needed to be an end, or period or exclamation mark on the end. When I look back at the last two years, what have I learned the most and that was where ‘God Moments; came from. All those stories are true and honest and real, and so, as the closing to this debut album, it felt so necessary for me and really cool to look back on.
It definitely felt like a period at the end and the next chapter. Another song that everyone seems to be talking about is ‘Meanwhile In Carolina’ which is that classic country-storytelling song. Can you talk a little bit about that song and how it came together?
Yeah, you know, growing up for me, it was always about songwriting. I studied songwriting and grew up on that early 2000s storytelling, Kenny Chesney’s ‘There Goes My Life’ and the good stuff or ‘Just To See You Smile’ and ‘Three Wooden Crosses’ – the songs that really captured an emotion in three and a half minutes, they had such this profound meaning to it. I’ve always been fascinated by that. I never understood how you even write that, you know. I had the idea for ‘Meanwhile In Carolina’ and that title, that big picture, the emotion of growing up and wondering who that person is, where they are and what they look like. At a certain point, these two parallel stories intersect, and so that was the idea I had. I was like, Okay, I don’t know how to write that, so I called my buddy. I knew it wasn’t just a song you throw out in a writing room and see if you land it, but it was gonna be one that you really had to fight for it. So I called my buddy, we got together, we were in the studio till midnight that night, just me and him going down every road we could possibly find, figuring out how that song would make sense and that’s because every line of that song has to carry the story, every word of that song has to carry weight. I’m so proud of it as a songwriter and it’s cool. It’s as specific as possible. I think so many people relate to it in a really broad way.
I think that specificity is often what people relate to the most, the more specific you get with your emotions and songs, the more people can seem to gravitate towards those songs.
It’s a wild thing. I literally said that, like two interviews ago, the more specific you get as a songwriter, the more people relate to it. I think people just gravitate toward truth in emotions. No matter what that is, you know, whether it’s Meanwhile in London, everyone has some emotion they’re drawn to and that they can kind of put their story into the song.
I know that you wrote that song with Blake Prendergast – do you find that you naturally gravitate toward certain people in Nashville for certain kinds of songs?
Oh, absolutely, yeah, even if you look at the record, you’ll see where certain songs and styles were written with certain people, like ‘Creek Will Rise’ with Jason McGill. I brought those ideas to those guys, because I knew he could capture that. I called Blake specifically for ‘God Moments,’ because I knew he could do that depth, I knew he would find it – he’s a young, hungry writer, but also insanely talented. I needed a guy who didn’t have kids or a wife to get home to. You definitely find certain people that can bring out something, you know, I’ve found and I feel like I know my strengths in writing rooms. I know certain people that can bring out the things I’m trying to get after, which is a really fun puzzle to match. I’ll think of ideas, and then look at my schedule of who I’m going to write with, then I’ll match each idea with the writer. That’s the thing about being in Nashville itself – the city is full of amazing songwriters, it’s about finding the right people within that community.
I know your producer, obviously has been a big part of that. Can you talk a little bit about what his influence on your music has been?
He’s built the whole thing with me, you know, we started working there when I was 16. He’s one of the top three producers in Nashville, just a massive dude in the industry, we’ve been working the last seven years and so we’ve really shifted and created and found the sound together in a lot of cool ways. ‘I Hate Alabama’ was so much of his championing of like, ‘Hey, this is special, we need to chase this’. I agreed, but if he had not championed it, it would have never come to life. There was a moment, we probably had six of the 12 songs and there was something about it, and it felt outdoorsy, a lot of these songs whether it was ‘Creek Will Rise’ or ‘Heatin’ Up,’ there was like a grip to it. With Smoky Mountains, we started to throw out words and aesthetics, so we were able to build that and craft that together. He had such a massive hand in the creation of the record beyond just producing this.
What sets this album apart from your previous EPs for me, is that maturity of your songwriting and it’s interesting you say that you’re talking about working with him, because I felt like he’s such a big name for so many artists, but he seems to bring something completely unique and different to music.
Yeah, it definitely pulled out a different side of him as a producer, before he had his big break on Sam Hunt and helped craft that – that was kind of both of their big break together. Then with ‘Creek Will Rise’ and ‘Smoky Mountains’ it felt like a massive shift towards traditional country melodies and chords and production, but also in this very modern way. It’s kind of this fusion of bluegrass with modern country radio. That was kind of what we were shooting for.
Talking about those bluegrass elements, those felt underlined when you brought Hailey Whitters in. Can you talk a little bit about having her be a part of?
Yeah, so we wrote ‘Roulette on the Heart’ with Chase Mingo and Jesse Alexander, I had that idea and it was kind of a game of love. It was a really cool idea and in writing it felt set apart, it felt different, it kind of felt like this new chapter as a writer. We recorded ‘Creek Will Rise’ and ‘Roulette on the Heart’ in the same session, so those were together as those songs came about. It felt like that was where we were going and then I really began to tap into the storytelling side of who I am and who I want to be as an artist. We also felt like there would be a really cool tension if a female vocals were on it. Hailey was the first one we thought of and we asked and she said yes, and we were acquainted at the time and played radio shows together and had been around each other, but we’ve since become really good friends and we spent a lot of time in the studio getting it right.
It’s quite rare to have you guys be able to actually share the studio at the same time, when so many things are remote.
It’s a great record.
