STEVE SMYTH to release debut album ‘RELEASE’ via Shock Records’ brand new imprint label PERMANENT RECORDS

Steve Smyth is the first artist to be directly signed to Shock Records’ brand new imprint label PERMANENT RECORDS which has been set up with the sole purpose to foster and develop local independent talent.

Steve Smyth: an itinerant troubadour; an hirsute and dapper young Aussie; a skilled carpenter; the owner of a unique voice whose timbre can take him from be-gravelled blues-man to angelic upstart in the space of a stanza. The maker of a truly wonderful debut album, Release, to be released on Shock Records January 27, 2012

Hailing from the rugged heartland of the New South Wales south coast, Steven Smyth’s roots in music can be traced back, past adolescent forays into punk, folk and rock, to a childhood of Sunday gospel sessions.

Given that his early wanderlust was so strong that, as a child on family picnics, his family felt it necessary to tether him to a tree, it’s perhaps no great surprise that Steve Smyth would go on to become something of a wild rover. Growing up and beginning a musical journey that brings him now to his own brilliant debut, Nirvana were his early guide. His dad brought him to the wonders of Neil Young, while a grown-up neighbour, spying the teenage Smyth’s enthusiasm, was to teach him all he knew about bluegrass, blues and country music. Together, the pair would sit in the garden, drink vats-full of coca cola and “learn to sing from the heart, and LOUD.”

A process of musical discovery thus began, bringing artists from Sam Cooke to Tom Waits, Leadbelly to Dave Van Ronk, more Neil Young and (naturlich) Bob Dylan, into Smythʼs world. Finishing an apprenticeship in carpentry at 21, the nascent songsmith went on to build and demolish, scrap and polish songs the way he had previously done houses, buildings, schools and furniture. With a motley gang, he formed a band called The Midnight Express, and together they gave it hell. But his mind was on travel and distant lights.

Steve Smyth hit the road, moved to London, and toured with Angus and Julia Stone, Avi Buffalo and Ben Harper. A convivial chap of boundless energy, his musical diversions thus far have also included his joining Operation Juliet, a roving group featuring Sean Lennon and Mark Ronson,
amongst others. But it’s with his own solo work that he will become known by the wider world.

Steve Smyth has only just arrived in the country to tour his homeland with his friends Howling Bells, whose honey-voiced leader Juanita Stein guests on the record, duetting on a gorgeous song called “Stay Young” and providing backing vocals elsewhere.

Steve Smyth – touring Australia Summer 2011/12 with Howling Bells, Gemma Ray, Peats Ridge Festival and a number of additional dates.