#380 - Dallas Smith on Growing Up A Shy Kid And Singing in Secret + The Origin Story of His Rock Band ‘Default’ and Their Massive No. 1 Song + Having 12 No. 1’s in Country Music and 3 CCMA Entertainer of the Year Wins + What It’s Like to Be ‘Canadian’ Famous!

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Speaker 1: Nickelback. The released how You Remind Me just after we released A Waste of My Time, so they put lack of a better word site. They cock blocked us over the entire world. At rock radio, they were number one and we were number two, and we were on tour with them. They took us out on tour episode three eighty Dallas Smith Dallas has more number one I think than any Canadian country artist in history. He is the most twelve crazy. I'm a big fan of the guy in his current work, but also I loved his band Default or Default as I called them, But after hung out with him, he kept saying Default and I was like, well, if he says it's the name of the band, that's what it is. But you would know Default from Wasting My Time and that's a jam. So and the question was because that was two thousand one and they blew up pretty quickly. Some of these artists don't like to talk about when they had a different not even trajectory, but kind of a different genre life. And I wondered that with it, like do you still play that song? And I just thought his answer was cool and I liked how he approaches it, so I don't know. It's really cool. I was pumped that he came down. I think he came down basically just to do this, which is extremely complimentary. And enjoyed spending time with him again. His name is Dallas Smith. Follow him at Dallas Smith Music. You can even go see what he looks like. I prefer to do that on podcast sometimes because I'm gonna listen to somebody for an hour, I want to know what they look like so I can visualize them talking in my head. Do you ever do that? He has a new single called Singing in a Beer. Here you go. I hope you enjoyed this. Dallas Smith, by the way, c c M a Entertainer of the Year nineteen twenty and two thousand twenty one. Massive, massive, massive Canadian artist, and he should be big here in the States, and I'm rooting for him. And here you go, Dallas. How's it going, buddy? I am great. I am fantastic. I've been a fan, casual and even more than casual for a long time, just depending on what project. And I guess my first introduction to you was I worked in I mean I've worked in every kind of radio over the years, but pop hip hop alternative obviously country. I'm from a very rural part of um Arkansas, but I guess I was introduced with Default. We used to play that song all the time. I'm wisdom my time. I thought when you would come in, you would have a much like your normal you know, you're just you have a lot of tattoos, but you're like a normal, approachable, warm guy. Yeah, I'm I'm a Vancouver based uh father who plays music and I'm just and I yeah, your voice is very you know what I like about your voice in both and whatever iteration, especially now I've become a fan of you now more than ever was then because mostly it was on one song. Now it's a body of work obviously, But you know, I guess I just you have a I have a really wimpy voice. You have a really strong People were always like I was wishing the Default stuff. It was more of aggressive vocal and when they would meet me in person, and I'm heavier than what I was when I was, you know, twenty two, I was like a buck sixty and people will be shocked that I wasn't six too, and and to two pounds or something. Do you live primarily in Canada, now I do. It's always been my home base I I live. Um I walked my daughter to the school that I went to grade eight, Wow, at a fine arts school. Did you always stay in that same I always did? I always did. Um. Yeah, I got married my early well, I was with UM my son's mom from my late teens and then we went through that whole touring process and the default thing in the big hit and UM had a boy who's now going to be turning eighteen this year. And UM, I've had some different you know, opportunities down here. Uh, different deals, and UM I've been very fortunate that way. But uh, I would spend like a week down here, and the idea of me not being involved in my son's life, Uh yeah, I wouldn't be able to sleep at nights. It's it's it's kept me. It's kept me on the West Coast and really really close to home. And I think that's really done me a service in UM like how I grew as a person, and UM, it gave me a different perspective on what my like my It changed how my records would have sounded if I was down here, not influenced by what is here. Yes, yeah. Um, I've kind of just kind of done my own thing with the guide of of um some great songwriters down here and um a really good supporting system with Joey and Seth and and the camp at Big Laud. Yeah, Vancouver's basically Seattle. It is it is. Yeah. Yeah, So you think, um, gloomy and rain and and and that and that is that is us for for a good chunk of this time of year here. I've said to a few people over the last few years because I I felt like you were predominantly in Canada, but I was like, man, this guy like he deserves a shot here. It's just as you know, it's that infrastructure and then kind of committing to supporting you here and maybe they think it's a bit more difficult because you're not. I don't know, have you have. Have you guys had a conversation about what, hey, what about this single in the States, because I know we've played I program my National Countdown show and we did one too, yeah right with you and Mackenzie and I played that here and I was like, man, this song is good, Like what is that conversation like it's it's It's funny because I listened to the podcast you did with Joey, and the one thing Joey said was that, yeah, he's committed to work in Canada. And I remember I picked up on that what he said. And and I've always had like I had Tipping Point, that was a bigger song. It was on the Highway, I think. I remember, Yeah, I hit the top of that one and wasting Gas died. Well, I've I've had little I've had songs in here that that that um you know, could have should have would have maybe if I bought off I was down here, but um, yeah, it was just never really a thing like I was signed a big, big machine for a with that tipping Point, and I was I had a release with them and stuff. But I remember one of the guys, they had guys there. It was like so when you moving down and it was it was that moment of like, ah, yeah, okay, how old is your youngest child? Is it eighteen or no? No, I have she just turned two, was my little one. Yeah, so I got two and then my my middle my daughter is, um, she's gonna be nine here at the end of the month. And you are because Garth went back home, right and he lived in Oklahoma. He he was like, I'm gonna go raise my kids. Yeah, and that was obviously the extreme importance to him. So that's what he did, you know, he said, Nashville, I got a piece out, I'm gonna go and raise my kids. And so I was gonna say, if your eight teen was the youngest you could come on down. Yeah, but I've got other Yeah, I'm just I'm just respect. Yeah. It's just it's one of those like the your moral your moral guide and kind of what you want your to look back on, and family is a really really important thing. And I never wanted, um, you know, my my lack of being there to be a consequence for my son, like yeah, and my kids of you and I have. I do not follow many people on TikTok. I just expect you better follow me. But have you m do you post new music on TikTok? Man coming from like I got into music just because I love performing music and music. I didn't get in there to promote myself and I it's one thing that I really have a hard time with and I have to get better with. I'm record label breathing down my throat, but doing that kind of stuff, right, So I have to I have to get better at it. But I'm not on TikTok whole lot. I was going to say, because there are artists now who in this space and I'm want to get off this, But I guess my frustration as you're so good as a songwriter and an artist. I hate to see something as trivial as proximity hold you back. And I know it does a bit just because of how the people here work and it's so dumb. But like, is Zach Bryant, for example, blew up on TikTok really good? He does not live here. You know, he still lives in Oklahoma and tours all over the place, and you know TikTok being utilized in that way a lot. It's like you're just so freaking good, Like what's what do we gotta do to get people to give you that look? But honestly, a lot of that stuff falls on the artist. Um, So that just kind of goes back to that needs to be I need to be better at that because that's a lot more eyeballs on me. Um if I get comfortable doing that. But that goes back to it's not really why I got into it. You know what it is, what it is when you grew up? What was your What was home like for you? Uh? Home was um it's a great place to grow up. I mean, the lower mainland of British Columbia's a gorgeous place. UM school was good. My parents were My parents are really really, really good people at all. Yeah, my mom was in Sweet Adeline, a woman's professional choir. So I grew up listening to her doing warm up scales and you know, practicing the harmonies and different you know, all that kind of stuff. And she used to go to me UM for like her pitch and stuff, and I'd be able to tell her at a young young age. Do you think just you guessing, I'm not gonna hold your or fact check you, or do you think that your ability to sing into because you said you heard your mom doing it very young? Do you think that was like intrinsically part of you because it was her or do you think you were just around it so much that it developed. I I don't know. I got the sense from my parents that music was was more than a background thing. It's it's it's part of my soul and like part of my being is is is music, um and songs and I got that from them. I think, Um, who did they listen to growing up that you remember going, oh everything I had, I had everything. Um, there was a lot of a lot of female Um it was Judson, Rieba, Katie Lange. Your parents like country music too? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah absolutely. I actually Langley, BC is its motto is where city meets country. So it's it's kind of the outskirts of Vancouver and and a lot of equestrian um, farmland and all surround like I can, I can literally hop in my backyard for a hit a cow with a rock. So it's that type of place right and um it's it's changed over the years, but it's uh it's yeah. So it was like that. It was a real mix, like Kitty Lange actually lived down the street um in uh in the area that we live in, and it was around um CMT Canada was played all the time. And then my dad like they shared the Beatles, they shared a lot of that stuff. Um, but it was like Stevie Ravan and um Zeppelin and lots of stuff like that. It sounds like whatever whatever it was, it was soul filled though if it's country or obviously Stevie Ravan and Zeppelin both extreme soul influenced artists. Yeah, and a lot of the stuff really blended together, Like looking back on it, I mean, like the Doobie Brothers stuff, and like you know, it was it was what was country and what was not country at the time would be different now. Yeah, so it's it's I was I was filled with a real, real broad um musical palette. Yeah, I mean the Dubie Brothers would be a country act now absolutely, I think so too. Yeah, I mean just it reminds me of like kind of I don't know if it's a right one, but uh not Zack Brian but um, to me, it's all with obviously they're they're males, but a little big town because just because of how their voices all blend together. The Doobie Brothers did that a lot. Michael McDonald by himself obviously just a beast, one of those voices that you just know, you know that voice when you hear it. Yeah, So your parents listened to a lot of country. A lot of it just sounds like anything that was sold by So when your mom was a singer, though, what is she saying what did the choir do? Oh? It was Sute Islands Schuire. Solet's see, it's like it's like old time like, uh, yeah, it's not cool stuff at all. But is it so not cool that it's actually cool? Uh it's you know, it's not that far cool. No, it's it's that right and and um so, but my mom she had like my aunt was in that with her and it was a very part of her social network. And um, music was really in our house where their guitars in your house. My dad played guitar and saying and stuff. It wasn't around as much as my mom was. My mom was more upfront, but my dad played guitar more and stuff when he was younger. Was he the one who wanted to be professionally an artist and for some reason didn't work out. I don't think it went that far. I think I think it was a hobby thing that he did. Um, but it was something that I saw him do as a kid. Pretty preserve guy me. Yeah, yeah, my my wife is the not reserved one. My wife is out there for sure. Yeah. It was, um so, this this is a really cool thing that like why I'm thankful and able to come on here is like I have a different story and I'm able to tell this one to a new audience. But my my start was, um, very different. And this goes to like the Joey connection and things and um. I I would sing and stuff when I was a kid with my mom and just in general. And then when I was about six or seven, that time I age where you kind of get awkward. You start, you know, thinking about how other people view you and stuff. I got extremely shy and I went completely internal. Um and it like to a crippling point throughout high school. Anxiety just not knowing what mental and this stuff was as a kid just wasn't right. But looking back on we weren't. It was not a thing. You're just weird. You're on rural parts of wherever. There are other things you have to worry about, and you're not really taught yep, yep, So you just you're just kind of like in white knuckle mode and you're just kind of getting through. Um. It was. It was a good childhood, but there was there was definitely some things that Yeah, so I was I. I didn't sing at all. I just shut up and became extremely shy. About it. Did you do it sing in your own room though, when no one was around? Car? Yeah? Yeah, so you would enjoy it, but you wouldn't want to do it in front of It was a personal thing. It was something I didn't share with anybody at all. Um. And I was one of those kids that went home from school, um, and I had a couple of hours before my parents would get home, and that was my moment to myself. I didn't have to worry about any you know, toxicity at school or whatever was going on with that kind of stuff. Um. Were you picked on at school at times? At times? I was picked on and then you know, when you get just being honest, when you have self esteem and like anxiety and things like that, you asked your variance, you lash out as well. So that's that's things that I look back on my childhood that I wish I had approach differently. Did you get in trouble? Um? Not a ton. I think I think like I had a really good vice principle at my school, and I think he recognized that I was a good kid, and you know, I just had it was the odd one out at times and there was something different. Um. But yeah, so that was. That was my experience of mostly high school and then I had made some friends. Um uh, did you sing at all in high school? And anything publicly? No? Man, nothing, No, No, that's well, I get will I get to like. My first time singing was uh with the drummer of my sister's old band, my younger sister, Danny Craig, who was um ended up with being in the drummer and Default, and that's where we rehearsed. I I wanted to show up one day. I had a couple of drinks on a Friday night and I personally just wanted to get over the fear of singing. Like I was just okay, I gotta take a step forward and break out of this box that I'm in. I really enjoy this. I have to do it. And I had no intentions of it becoming a career becoming It's something that I was gonna do. It was just something that I wanted to do as a person and show that I could do. And I sang Plush by Stone Teuble Pilots just YouTube, just My the drummer and Jeremy Horra who's ended up being the guitar player for Default. We just jammed that song and like within the year we had a US record deal. Do you remember that evening or morning when we decided to sing with those guys, because it sounds like that that was a moment for you because there's a big monster. You gotta go fight the monster, and the monster as your shyness, Um, you go and sing, like can you vividly remember that evening where you're like, I'm just gonna do it and telling those guys you wanted to sing. It was freeing. I remember that. I remember that. Um it was the first time I had really taken that that big scary step forward with something. Um that really freaked me out, and that really freaked me out. Putting yourself out like that? Um yeah, why though, why the like why that night? Why that? Honestly, like this is is getting into like um but like negative self talk, like just my my my self confidence was nothing. But it sounds like you have aware you had awareness awareness now, but it sounds like you may have had some sort of awareness then if you're thinking to yourself, I've got to go. I have to do this because I'm in such a place because I don't know why you would even go and yeah, go you would put yourself up against something that was uncomfortable unless you knew you needed to be uncomfortable. I had no other outlet. I had no other outlet, and that was more of a survival thing. I think, what were you doing for a job at that point? I worked at a Canadian tire, which is like the hardware store big, not a fire store. Not well at these still tires. That's how they started, I think. But it was like, yeah, yeah, it's like what would that be down here in my home heart home depot or something like that. So you're doing that? And what was and how old were you? Put me to an age range, So I first sang with those guys when I was twenty. Okay, so you're eighteen nineteen years old? What did you think you were going to do for the rest of your life? I had no idea, no idea. I was lost. After high school. Um, I actually had to repeat grade twelve. I just didn't want to go. Did I was gonna say, did you not? Did not go? Yeah? I mean I was. It was that it was that crippling to me as a kid, like the anxiety and stuff is like if I did well in social studies, but then all of a sudden, my whole year depended on that one thing where I had to get up in front of doing presentation. I would fail, like English class and poetry and and all of that stuff. I would never ever getting myself in a position where people would be looking at me. Ever, it was the worst feeling for me. Ever, So you sing with these guys and you said soon you had a record deal offer, Yeah, but how and they're on your sister's band too, right at the time, both of those guys and my well, my sister played with the drummer, like and that's how I met Danny. Yeah, yeah, And so what is that? What are those steps from you singing for the first time, because you have to go and sing somewhere now, and that has got to be even scarier than singing in front of no one. Yep, I had we had a demo. Um, we had written a handful of songs that ended up being on our first record on like an old aid at machine and um, yeah, this has been and wasting my time wasn't on that one, but a few had. And it was a local radio station, uh contest that was like a discovery thing for local talent and Jeremy Are, a guitar player at the time, took it to say at tape and dropped it off to a guy that he went to recording school with, which was Joey Joey Moy that's crazy. Yeah, So that's the connection there because the old band um had opened up for Nickelback and other local bands and the when nickel Back was playing in front of fifteen people, so that was kind of a little little community there. And so I think Joey told that story was like he they had that little tape and they took it over to Chad and then there's like this kid's voice and and then yeah, so Chad came over, uh, introduced and just got familiar with him as a songwriter, and he came in and and him and Joey sat in with us and started developing these songs and uh Greenhouse Studios. So it's probably like four months after I joined the band. Were you play from the time that you're saying with those two guys, because again, pivotal moment, and I just want to go back there for a second. Did they go dang, you're good? Did they say that and give you confidence? Uh the good talk Jeremy. We we talked about that after the fact. He was like, he was in right away and we really connected that way. Um, Danny is Danny the Drummers, more strategic, more stoic. He was like, wait a minute, We'll wait and we'll think about this a little longer. But um, you know, once we started writing and really started connecting, we were such a great friends. It just made sense and it worked. If they wouldn't have been extremely positive about that performance, that vocal that evening, do you think you would have continued? Not a chance. I mean, I keep going back to that moment because for so many reasons. It was again I used the word pivotal as to you being here right now and those guys going, okay, we believe in you because they put their lives as as teammates with you. Then yeah, yeah, man, that's a good way to look at that. I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, it's um, it was a very very little moment. Yeah, so you're writing these songs, and when do you go play at a bar or a club or something. It was after we after we had done the demo like compete, like I did an independent recording with Chad and Joey, you recorded all this stuff before you ever played it live. I've never been on stage before, I had never been in a in a recording booth. I had never My first time in a recording booth recording something was with Joey and at the Helm and I was the first recording that he had done that way, um at a recording studio. And as you know, my story is very odd, as you know. Yeah, yeah, so it's um. And that speaks to like why I didn't come down here and commit a percent to like leaving my son is because that really wasn't That's not My core value was to like I have to do this no matter what, but nothing is going to get in my way. It's like like, you know, uh, I started off differently, right, And what do you do with that record? When you make it, we'll call it a record. The EP that the songs a song called deny Um which that was a big song to That was a big song. Yeah, I can hear a little bit of it was their second single, So that was on the first group of songs. That was our first like single. That that's one. That's that's the first song that Chad and Joey and us had like put together in the studio and put out to the radio station Fox See Fox for their yearly Battle of the Band's sort of deal is sonically that in default style, your voice, especially your vocal with them, it's totally different from the person that you were at the time. I mean that's an aggressive, you know, big like hard electric guitars, and you go from well, this is my first time to sing too, deny. Yeah, I mean that that wasn't There was a lot of like built up that negativity, but like aggression, angst, whatever that was, it came out and that's how that sounded. Yeah, been wasting my time. I mean that explosive course was came out of like anger and frustration. Like truly, did you feel like it could be either recording these songs that it could be your first times on stage that those well we can say releases, or you that performance that you're giving. Did you feel like you were finally freeing something? Did you actually feel full? You know, there's definitely something you feel people feeling on stage. Was that your first time to feel that? It was? It was it was something that I could bring to the table that that actually, you know, what. It honestly gave me a way to connect um emotionally and speak emotionally when I couldn't do that outside of song, um, outside of a metalody or how I was you know, just that aggression and that was my outlet. I guess it's really what it was. Tell me about the first time you performed front of even one or seven people that are paying or coming for free, And yeah, that was in front of a lot of friends and family. Um that it was. It was pretty well attended. And uh, if there was a way that I could hide behind a single mic stand like I did it. I hid behind that thing and I was I had a cigarette in my hand and I must have been staring at the drummer like Danny for half the set. And um, yeah, that was another pivotal moment. But that that I that wasn't really spontaneous, that that was chosen by me. It was like I had to get ready for that one. So that was a completely different animal and I was pretty freaked out. But yeah, every every step, every step was freeing in that way because it was it was an absolute first for me. Did you have and do you have stage fright? Um, I'm I'm more comfortable performing songs as a singer than I am with the banter and stuff and and um like talking and doing doing that. UM Like, I can easily get out and do you know, big shows thousands of people, and I don't get nervous for it. It's a different thing. But if I'm to sit here and do an acoustic performance in front of five people, it's very intimate, and it's it's very uncomfortable. I struggle with that. That I can do a stand up show in front of two or three thousand people. I can do a radio show to millions and be in person around a microphone magnetic. I can be warm, affable, but one on one, intimately one on two, I really struggle. It's almost like the microphone is is Superman's glass, you know, Clark Kent. Yeah, I take it off and I have my cape then you know when I'm performing. And so was a bit of that. And now we go to therapy and they would say well you, and I would say, well, even though it's real, it doesn't feel real. I know it's real because everything I'm saying is for real, but it's like I'm talking to a microphone. I'm on stage in front of people, you know, I'm not going to see them at home, and so it didn't feel real even though I knew it was, And so I was able to get to that level of intimacy. Anything resonate with you when I say that, Yeah, I mean I think it's like a dissociation thing, Like you get up in front of that many people and and I always joked it's it's if you're playing in front of five people, they could all think you suck. But if you're playing front a lot of people, the numbers work for you. There's probably enough to focus on. You can find something more people think got sucked. But yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the numbers are in your favorite but um yeah, yeah, there's definitely a dissociation thing when when um, you hit that cruise control flow mode where the music just happens and it comes through you. That's that's that happens easier in that circumstance as opposed to in front of a couple of people, because it's I think you get in your head a lot more as opposed to just letting it happen. What did your parents think about seeing that you that was performing when they knew that you that would really do nothing except go to his room and only thing there and before they got home. Yeah, well they didn't even know I saying that was the thing, right, not even in my room, but they Yeah, they they every step I think even now if you talk to him, it's like every step um. Yeah, yeah, it's completely foreign to what I was as as a kid, which is what they blown away. Yeah. Yeah. And then super supportive, like amazingly supportive. Um. They helped us financially kind of get that that first demo record up and running um with Chad and Joey Um which was huge. So you're performing, you make the demo. Then what happens and how how does it happen where a United States record label says, let's go, we want to spend money to promote this and promote you. Yeah, well back in the day and there wasn't there's no TikTok to find songs and things like that. They had actually and our guys out in New York. He saw in I don't know if it was a newspaper or something what was going on, but they saw that an independent song was climbing at charts in the local newspaper in Sea Fox would it would show there and um, I assume he saw it through that it was nowhere else it would have been. And yeah, Jonathan Simpkin, who is our lawyer, UM entertainment lawyer at the time and still is uh I started getting called. We got a call from Colombia. We showcased for, we showcased for Roadrunner, We showcased for a couple of others, but but t VT, we already connected with. Lenny Johnson was already and our guy, and we spoke to us and yeah, we ended up signing that signing a deal with them. But it was via just that that that demo, a song, that one that radio station in Vancouver. Was it to you, Wow, this is so great? Or was it to you? Oh my god? Now that's what the pressure of of a record deal? Now what do we do? Yeah? Yeah, it was, Um yeah, I mean it was. It was very very scary. It was very very scary. The other guys, I think we're more prepared for it because they had played shows and that was kind of their their their thing and what they were already doing. But yeah, yeah, it was. It was very very scary for me. What has happened then? What's what's the whirlwind that then happens once you're on a big label or is it not a whirlwind at first? Not a world win? At first? It was we got our advance, quit our jobs, drank and party it away. Um. And then we went to Seattle, uh Rick Parrosher, who was like a I didn't know what at the time. I wasn't really into who was who produced what records that I liked, um, but I knew he was a Seattle producer and his name came about as a guy he wanted to work on a couple of new songs with us to finish off the our first record. And uh so we had written a few songs, one of them was wasting my time. Um. But yeah, we we got sent down to Rip Prosser uh to produce a couple more songs, and he did Pearl gem ten and he did all the Seattle stuff like would Alison chains blind Melon, Um, he did. He did a lot of that stuff. We did work with cornell Um. So he was like a dream producer. It was like it was it was. It was really strange. So it was like a quiet kid like like really really appreciated that music that was my music that I could really connect it to first outside of my parents stuff was the Seattle scene and and so being able to like go down and work with a guy where you're in London Bridge studios where ten was cut, where all those vocals were recorded, was just a dream come true and very very inspiring. So it almost felt like I was on a trajectory that was almost fate because it was. It was. It's weird to say like that, but but it was everything lined up. It's like, how is this happening? I quietly dreamed of singing these songs and doing this stuff. How am I now working with the producer of this these records and you know all the stuff that's going on with Nickel back at the time. And yeah, it was, it was really it was strange, man. It was really weird to look back on. You talk about the music that you first like connected to, you know, and for me, where a country music was because I was in a rural place in Arkansas. That was the first music that talked about where I was from. But the first music that actually like felt because again I was a kid who got beat up all the time. I was at the Dirty Kid. It was that nineties. I won't call it grunge only, but it was just that alternative grunge, even kind of pop rock that came a little later that that that spoke to me as well. And I can't imagine being right there we're at all started right as you were starting as well. Yeah, I think there are probably a lot of comparisons, and I would be like, man, am I am I as good as these guys? I don't know. If I'm in the same room that they were, I think I would be worried that everybody was judging me based on all the great Yeah, I mean all all the all the self negative things you can put on yourself, right for sure. Yeah, it's it's just it was a scary, scary environment for sure, but it was Rick was great with us, um, and he really believed in that song, especially like did you have confidence though at this point? Was it was it developing still? No? No, no, no, no, it was it was all masked. You know, a lot of it was masked. And I'm just riding the wave like white knuckling it, as my my counselor would describe it. Um, When you're singing at this point, your voice is your career. It could be a six month, three year tenure career. But when do you start to care about your voice? Because if you get sick, if you party too hard, if you a B, C, D, E, F G, so many things. Because I'm you don't have a history of building that muscle at this point. You don't have five seven years of singing consistently to build the muscle. Well I did, I did just alone alone, Yeah, I did. That's all I did, man, That's all I did. I I would I would like whether it was Pearl jam ten or Alison Chain's Dirt or super Unknown or Bad motor Finger. That was that's those were my vocal lessons. That's that's how I learned to sing. And um that I mean, I think if you look listen back to what I my first record like waste of my time and the stuff and delivering my tone and and there's a lot of comparisons to who I described as saying along too, especially like the Vetter thing right, it was constricted a little more aggressive, um, less bright um in tone. Um. So when I started carying about my voice, I took a bit of that constructive criticism that really bugged me at the time, um and taking it seriously. I didn't want to let anybody down with the shows and stuff, and I started going to vocal lessons and then that's when my voice really changed or good. Yeah you did you learn to sing? I won't say better, that's such a open ended but did you learn to sing in a specific way that allowed you to sing? Yeah? Efficient? Pure? I was gonna say, more pure, more efficient. Yeah, you're your true tone, right, it's just learning, learning um placements, and my range exploded. Um, like I was hitting notes that I wasn't really I didn't really hit when I was growing up and singing and stuff because you were emulating your favorites and not actually focused on finding what you were the best. Yes, yeah, yeah, I didn't really understand what my voice naturally sounded like. Um yeah. So I went through that process with like on my first like big touring, touring and wasting my time and as that that first record, that song, Now, I was working in pop radio at the time, so when it came to us, I'm assuming it was put out on rock alternative first, so it did so well there they decided for it to cross over. Was that a conversation that you were listening to when they were deciding on doing it, or they just go, we gotta go with this. It's killing. I had no idea what was going on right, like, like to the point where the first week of release of Wasting My Time, Lenny Are and our guy God call me up. I was in the little place that I was renting. He's like, you got added to k rock out of the gate, and I'm like, is that good? I don't know what's k rock? And um, yeah, So all that stuff was just we were just along, I guess a white knockling along for the ride, and um, it being scary and us being green, it was easy to get caught up into the you know, the we we we drank a lot. We drank and partied a lot. And looking back on it and yeah, I never really and I'll I'll catch up in a second. But I never really understood why so many artists would fall to alcohol and drugs until I started to tour all the time myself, just because there's so much time, there's twenty two and a half hours to fill, and there's so much fun to be had. Well I'm not good at having fun, but you know, even going out for four nights in a row, you finished the show, go to the bus. Well, you gotta fill a couple of hours, So what are you gonna do? Sleep as the bus drives, you wake up. There's all day, there's all all day, just fill with sun. Then I finally started to go, Okay, you'd have to become obsessed or addicted to something. Yeah, you really are, Like when you're when you're in that environment, you're really faced with a lot of stuff that you haven't dealt with, Like it really puts you in a challenging spot. And um so yeah, then the numbing and the self medicating is is yeah, especially when you're like you're talking about three four days. Back in the day, we'll be doing Yeah, I mean it's six weeks, four months, and then we come home for a week and then off for an out of three months, and just the grind of hitting like the rock radio every morning and doing the two three stations in the market, acoustic versions for all of them, and um so, yeah, it was it was. Yeah, it was a lot of a lot of a lot of a buller back in the day. When did you start to feel that that song had kind of ada into main stream, meaning you had to start seeing fifteen year old girls in your crowd instead of thirty two year old men. Quick. We saw quick. It was really really, really quick. And the advantage that we had was um, the whole Vancouver scene that was happening. UM with Nickelback. Uh, they had put out a one, one or two records, one record locally and it did okay in Canada. They got their dealt road Runner and they released how You Remind Me just after we released A Waste of My Time. So they, for lack of a better word, site, they cock blocked us over the entire world at rock radio. They were number one and we were number two, and we were and we were on and we were on tour with them. They took us out on tour. Did you guys get along still? Oh? Yeah? Did you remain? Yes, we're we relationship is morphed over the years and stuff. But all of those guys, UM, I see chat often. UM. I was surprised. We talked to Chad, I like Nickelback, and yeah, I think they've gotten a really I think they got so popular that once you've become so popular, then it's like Coldplay, you can insert what whatever band is really takes hold, and then eventually everybody takes old. So then everybody wants to be like, well, I don't want to be the one, so they got to counter it. And Nickelback has suffered from that so much. But I always been a big fan, but it never talked to Chad personally, and we had him on the show and I was a bit shocked at how nice and how funny he was, how self deprecating. I thought, holy crap, this is not what I expected from the guy from Nickelback, and that that's that's chat um. He's not what you would expect. And that's kind of like I've always you know, I've always looked up to him. He's that there's there's just that grew including Joey and Chief and there's a whole but there's a whole group of guys from that area that I looked up to. Is they were my big brothers, and they were my gui. When you're born, you're getting light? Were you born? Do you come out as a baby and left your right hand and go I promised to be nice to everybody and be funny. As we got a lot, there's a lot of we would go up and because I want a bunch of stations in Canada as well. And Mike and I went into Canada and we went to Toronto and we're walking down and I've got my phone and I'm looking at somebody approaches me. I'm like, oh my god, what's about to happen here? And they go, I can help. You don't need a map, And I thought it's about to get robbed, but instead it was the exact opposite. Yeah, yeah, it can be like Toronto is already friendly place. Um there are there are some, there are some. I'm sure the numbers game. Still, I have not met a mean when French you flaw it, I cannot speak a word. Really, no, it's not a thing man like honestly. In I mean, I took French grade nine. I think it. So it was a a acquired corsi had to take. Um But no, you can take uh, you can take any other language in high school up in up in Vancouver, it'll better suit you than French. Nobody speaks Nobody speaks French in inc So eastern side the Prairies. My my guitar player is from Peace River, um Alberta, and that's a very French speaking town. Um So there's those like French communities spread out through the of the prairies. Yeah, dang, I just expected all of you guys to come in here with no no, no whatever, you can eat croissants. Yeah. When did default start to to you or just in general start to not be as much of a priority musically, it was, well, that's that, Yeah, that's that's Um. When did it not become a priority? You know, I think we lost that really early. Um. We watched and looking back on it, it's something that I wish I approach it differently, but we were just too caught up in and the other stuff. But we watched Chad right his second record on the road, um in his boss. He had converted little studio stuff in there to do demos and right, and we didn't do that. We didn't do that when and that's when we should have really taken it seriously, but we did. We didn't um that you did not use the the momentum, No properly, No, we did not know. So we went into like that second record thing, Right, we have your whole life to write the first record and bla blah blah. Right the second record. We came in with our pants down and honestly it was probably more me than anybody else. Um And I I don't know if my experience with the first record and how it just it just happened like and it happened well, um And I think I maybe got caught up in in like the this is gonna happen again, the stars are gonna align. I'm not worried about it. Get in there and make magic happen and stuff. But in reality, as you as you get older and learn watch other people do it, it's put the put the hours in at the time, and you gotta work for it no matter what. In fact, that's the time to work the hardest. We are you surprised that it didn't work, Um, I don't know. I think once once we were in the studio and recording the second record, I think I think the vibe was different. I think it was more negative, more negative. I think there was, yeah, towards each other, a little bit of that. Yeah. I think just being on the tour, on tours so long and us and we were friends before, but we weren't roommates um for months on end, So there was there was a lot of stuff that just wasn't dealt with. And um, resentment here and jealousy there, and you know it just workload and just yeah, just it gets it can get ugly, you know. So I think the benefit of where I come from and when I came from it's very similar to you and that I grew up again in a rural part of America, but I had digital, had napster, I had I was able to be influenced by everything, and I grew up. You grew up in a very rural place. I grew up in a rural place. So country music was a part of our lives, your parents, my grandmother, and my parents. But at the same time, in the nineties, I was very much into alternative music, all of it. I was into hip hop, and I was able to have all of this influence because of the ability just to get it. I mean, that was it. We were the first generation to be able to just get the music we wanted when we wanted it. And so because of that, similar to you, I've worked everywhere and been absolutely authentic to who I am. When I was doing alternative radio, I was doing sports, when I was doing hip hop or pop, that was always who I am. Because I believe you don't and you aren't just one lane of a person. We as people aren't just one lane. You're not just Dallas from Default. You're also Dallas who grew up in the area influenced by the music that you were influenced by everything. So and I want to get to just how dominant and how great you are inside a country music But what was that in between before you decided now I'm gonna go to this other passion of mine because Default had to end. And then did it really end like where you tried? And it was like, this is just not gonna work. Like what was that to go from a to kind of a two? Yeah, So we had the second record, didn't do as well. Um, we had the third record, I didn't do as well, and then we had a it was a third record but a heways. We recorded a record that, um, you really really believed in. It was mid late two thousands, some great songs on there, written with Marty Frederickson and Zach Malloy who I know we're here um and our record label like two weeks before we had a release date went followed for bankruptcy and so we were in limbo with that for a good year and a half. And during that time we had discovered as he was cashing his checks, cashing our checks to him on his deathbed, we were being robbed blind by a business manager that was recommended by our management team at the time. And so not only we were we were like destitute. We we we as a band had gone down the other side of it. Uh label was bankrupt. We had this great record we're sitting on. We had uh the Canadian government coming at us hard, like like the I R S here yeah, man, yeah c r A. We had um we have g S T tax, which is like you get it and then you admitted to the government right, And so as an American accountant, he just wasn't. He was taking the the GST and not remitting it. And so we had like a man, it was like four thousand dollars staring at us. And with that time, you can't hide it with the corporate thing. You can't just hide it and get rid of it that way. It's personal. They go after your house, they go, okay, you can't just have a part in this, but default the entity go we're gonna go bankrupt here. No, No, it was personally we owe that taxes personally all of it. Yeah. Yeah, man, it was divided three ways, divided divided four ways. Yeah, so each you guys out six figures. Yeah, we were staring at over a hundred thousand dollars each and we were broke, and we had kids, and um, the business had shoot us up and spat us out. Right. We had some residual stuff obviously that kept us to float a little bit with waste of my time and some shows that would come in every once in a while. But it was like where is our future in in this? And where is my future in this? So what do you personally decide to do while this is happening? And do you have it your why do you talk to your wife? You like, were in trouble around then? I I split up with my wife. Uh we had split up, yeah, mid two thousand's by then, Um, and I was pretty lost. I was very lost. So I didn't really have anybody to talk to you really about it, um, but I would go, I mean this kind of gets into like the Joey thing and how and like like how our first trip down here kind of happened and that relationship still existed. I'm sure you didn't see him a whole lot though while you're out, did you No? No, But he was always around and we had like done some stuff with him and Chad like recorded like a song here and there. Um, So we always kept in touch and like like Chad is a super generous guy to come into town, inviteus somebody everybody hoped to steakhouse for dinner, party and go out and have fun and stuff. So I'd see him, you know, occasionally go to a hockey game or whatever. Um. But yeah, like like at that time, we were doing the occasional show and Joey and I had talked about our mutual not not we're gonna wanted to go to Nashville and do it. We were talking about like country artists that we liked and um, our mutual like for that and and uh, there's one another pivotal moment for me, Like at that time we had joked about going down I guess going down to Nashville and making a record. And I was on tour with Three Days Grace across. We were like an arena tour across Canada. Three Days Grace like still living a dream in some sense, right, like being having that opportunity and doing that. They have a hey, yeah, that's right, that's right, yeah, Um, And I was miserable. That was the most miserable I had been. I was out on the road, lonely, um, still drinking uh and I we had just played in Quebec, it was Montreal, great show. And I messaged Joey just miserable in the back of the bus, uh country record question mark. And two weeks later we were down here writing with Wiseman and and UH and all that and and Rodney Clawson and all them. So that was, Um, that was a pivotal moment him and I. But that that that's where I wasn't in that stage with default. It was just we were we were a flow. We had this huge debt and no way of like it was dead end ish right it was. I knew that was kind of the end of that. And then my my message to Joey was like, if I'm going to keep doing this and keep doing music as a living, it has to be something that I want to be that I'm passionate about. And I'm not passionate about this anymore. I'm in a different stage of my life. And I had seen classic rock bands like the Mid Level Ones come and go throughout the airports, and and there's nothing like I'm not I'm not negative about anything like that. It's just that's not how I wanted to It's not music to me. I wanted to keep creating new music and have it be a constant conversation, not go out and do the odd classic rock gig. You know, did you feel like you could write music based off how lost you were, the pain that you were going through. Obviously you were then through a divorce. Could you in the back of that bus when you're by yourself, were you able to put any of that in a song? It came out more with how the delivery of them melody was. So it came up more like that, how it how it felt as opposed to what it was saying. Um, so lyric was always a last a last thing. Do you write melody first? Um, I've always been that way, Like I I've come down here a few times, like a really like originally when join our first coming to do some rights and some of the co writes that I had done made it on the first record, But like the whole writing style about it was a completely foreign to me as as a kid in the garage, writing the other way. It was freaky for me because you're with people. Was that the style like doing co writes, we would just would just jam. Yeah, that's how it would be right and and and we will piece it together that way, as opposed to you know, yeah, coming down here, it's not not it's obviously it's it's not a not a surprise that it's quite different. Down here was nine to five and you get in the room and you're right, it's very intentional. Um, So that that freaked me out, and it was so foreign, and it's just not how I work, right, It's just that just wasn't And you know, a Brian parduckt of me not being down here is that I haven't really worked that muscle a whole lot, and I'd like to in the future. Um, you know, have more cuts on my own records and and and like, um, get more in a creative mold from the from the ground up with a song. When you leave Nashville after your first trip down, how many days were you here? I think two or three weeks. We spent a lot of time time. Okay, So when you leave, what was the feeling I was inspiring? I was, I was I was really proud of um, Like yeah, just being in that that opportunity and having that that uh that go well and making the connections because we we had a great time with Seth England and when Seth was just was pitching the songs for Craig and meeting everybody, all the writers, Chris Tompkins and and Rodney. Like I said it was, it was a new inspiring group of people. And watching Joey just do his thing too. I mean he's just like I said, him being a big brother. I've always um, he's just been inspired by his ability to just get in there and just do it. You know, there's there's a Joey has. Everybody has their own self doubt and their own stuff, but he just gets gets his foot in there and does it. He just does. When you're now Dallas Smith the country artist or Dallas Smith the I don't know, not default Dallas Smith, it's a change. I mean, you're your own it's just you now. Was that it all did some of that stuff kind of rebubble resurface from the very beginning again when you didn't feel as if or was it like thank god, now it's just Dallas. Oh for the stuff now when you first started, because again it's almost new, and I have friends who have gone from being in groups to solo and at first and this it may not be your story at all at first, like this is gonna be Great'm gonna solo, But then you get up there and you're like, wow, I kind of don't have anybody to rely on that myself and now it's my name too. Yeah, yeah, that is an adjustment for sure, and it's it's a constant adjustment just coming my background of my personality, right, me being um yeah, I've always I've always been comfortable with a group of that was my thing, right because we were all front and center in the band and that was just the thing. Where now yeah, it's it's just me doing the interviews. Um so it's just me on stage sort of. I include my band a hell of a lot, Like I got a really entertaining, awesome band that helps lift that weight off of me a little bit. Um But but yeah, that's a constant thing. Like I've always looked up to like guys like Keith Urban, I mean he's been my as far as like a guy who can play and sing and entertain like who doesn't matter who's around him. You know, I've always that's that's what I strived to be. But any anxiety before you go out for the first time, as just do you. Sonically it's a bit different, the instrumentation you singing the songs is a bit different. You're the same person, yeah, But any anxiety there is you're about to launch into the Dallas met part of your career. Right around that time, there was anxiety before the record was out, Um, because I had always heard like the country, you know, it doesn't matter, A country doesn't like outsiders coming in. And I mean me too, I heard the same thing before. I yeah, yeah, of course right and and I think at that time I was really I was. The record had come out at radio and out the gate. It got a lot of support at Canadian radioing somebody somewhere. It's one of my one of my favorite ones. Uh courting by Dustin Lynch. It's just a um it's a banger of a song, did really really well out the Gate and um yeah I got I got a little side truck there. What we're talking about, No, I was just talking about what the first song comes out. It sounds like that you had major support early yes, and that actually was that it helped, right, So, yeah, that that's where we're going. But so by the time I was playing shows, I had some like afternoon slots. It had really talented band behind me that I was friends with, um and I really really believed in the songs. I really believed in the record. I had been through the process of making records and knowing how they feel, um and and how they feel to you when you leave the studio, and how connected you are those songs um I. I had a big belief in them. If you're playing a set, now, do you play any of the default stuff? Yeah, we play waste of My time. Yeah, just acoustically, me and the guitar and maybe my guitar player. Was there ever a stage where you didn't want to do that because you were separating yourself from it. It's never that guy. That's awesome. It's hard to not be, but it's I mean, Darius is a great example of that, right, he always played the Hoodies songs. Yeah, he was like, I am who I am, and it's honestly, that is what it is, right, that's my journey, my my story will speak differently to Yeah, it's just it's just that's my journey. I'm not I'm not I will speak like I'm I'm I'm shy, I'm very internal, but I I have no I can wear my heart my sleeve like really easily. Yeah. That that's that song. All always enjoys playing it. I will always to you a bit, just go weird that. Basically, there's just a line that separates the two countries. And you will sell out US an arena. You will have tens of thousands of people go watch you at a show in Canada and you drive down to Iowa and they're like, I don't know who this dude is. Why you named Dallas You're Canadian? Also, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's um, it's it's it's changed. Like when I first released Jump right In in two thousand twelve, I mean, streaming records a little thing. I mean, it's just streaming was pretty so it was harder to get any sort of access down here. But it's become like, honestly, by the numbers, I have more listeners than I down here than I do in Canada. Ticket sales, ticket sales, yeah, yeah, I mean I've seen pictures of your shows and there I mean it's crazy. I have amazing fans up in Canada and amazing support up there. Uh so, I'm I'm I feel like, honestly man like going from the default stuff and going through that ride of like financially and optically and just like emotionally with that, with that ride, being able to resurrect that song and play it in front of that many people in a and have a second career, you know. Yeah, it's I feel so fortunate. It's so few people that get to they get to have a rebirth. Um learn from your mistakes in that way. In the music business, it doesn't happen. I'm so very fortunate. I asked about the ticket sales, and because there are pockets of where we are where I'll just be honest. If I go out, I can't go anywhere the people taking pictures of me. But there are certain parts of the country I can go to where nobody has a freaking clue and they're like, I'm just another dude. And some of my friends be like, is that weird that you can go to Vegas people will be crazy like, look at oh my god, let's get a picture. But if you drive, you know, four hours and I'm in l A. Nobody gives the absolute craps it is. Oh. I never thought I would love it, but I do. I used to be like, man, this sucks, I can go like no, but now it's like the greatest is to just go somewhere and go. I don't have to worry about anybody recording me swimming with no shirt on because I'm embarrassed in my body. You can just be yourself and be able to worry about those distractions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's um. I think I'm speaking about how fortunate, like Canadian famous. I can I go to the grocery store and my shop like just down the street from my house and stuff like I I can go anywhere and I'll get a message on Twitter he was that you at Costco. Like it's pretty It's pretty rare that I get. I get some. At the same time, I don't have any really besides like some tattoos and stuff. If I have a sweater on, like, I don't really have any distinct features. If I take my glasses off, I'm this most generic white guy you've ever seen in your life, right, so it just puts slaves on you in these glasses you're me. Yeah, exactly. You go, if you go looking for it, you can find it right if you want to, Yeah, if you if you want to want that. But it's yeah, yeah. You ever go to like the grocery store here or a gas station and you hear your music over the top or out back, is to hear it over the top, Yeah, I hear it all over the place. I hear a song called count on Me was a song we had on our third record. It was a song that got played a bit and uh, den I'll here and yeah, it's it's it's pretty funny when it comes to the c c M A s. I mean, you're Garth Brooks. You're the greatest. H You're the greatest. I'm telling just I'm just looking at numbers here. You don't don't answer it because you have to say, oh, that's true. Forty four c c M A nomination, seventeen Wins Entertainer of the Year in nineteen twenty one, twelve number one, twenty four Top tens. You've sold six hundred thousand concert tickets. Geez man. Yeah, it's like I'm talking to somebody that's massive in a K pop band and I just have no idea that kind of royalty I'm next to. I don't have that wallet. Like, I'll tell you that you were you able to pay back the government? Yes, we were, we were. Yeah. I bet that felt Yeah, I won't say good, but I bet I felt like there's a big old backpack that you're able to finally go and get it off. Yeah. And honestly, man, it was yes, Um, having everybody all off on a clean slate, all of us, all four of us, it was a good feeling. What do you love about touring now that you don't think you appreciated back then? The process of it, the process, what does that mean? The message thread of when we are going to meet at the airport, and just the friendships. Yeah, I'm surrounded and I've surrounded myself by the most amazing people. That's super important to me. Um. I was surrounded by some great people back in the day, but now I'm starting to buy some really really good Like all crew, everybody's great, and it's a big family, and that that the show is the show is the show, and the show was going to be better, Um because of that camaraderie and that friendship and that process. And I love, I love like the guys, my crew guys and and my band guys are my brothers. And uh yeah, that's that's something I really really appreciate and love and take from this the most, um where I didn't in the past, where it was I allowed my insecurities to be jealous about this and just all of that bs that you you don't realize about yourself before counseling and therapy getting the way of that stuff you should appreciate. And there was a lot of things, a lot of opportunities that I didn't take advantage of. It didn't appreciate because of that stuff. Are you a guy that believes a lot of that happened just so you could get to this point maybe a little bit? Yep? Yeah, I mean this is this is a long game thing. It really, it really is. And this is about it's not about me having a castle. I don't care. I really don't you have a castle. I don't have a do you have the castle in Canada? We just find out now it's like he's gotta moat, yes, like throwing a cow with a rock from it? Yeah. Um yeah, It's always been just the journey and um development and just yeah, just challenging myself honestly, and just trying to learn about myself and learn the way things why why the way things were and why was that way? And just trying to grow and be happy and and and my records have changed from angsty too. You know a lot of fun. Um, do you pick right perform songs now at all influenced by being a dad? Oh yeah, oh yeah yeah, sky Stass Blue was a song. I mean a lot of them do a lot of them do even stuff like uh, the later Default stuff. Carson, my son was was younger and a and a real big guiding light for me as far as what was important in life, and certain songs started sprinkling and um, the later Default records. So it's always it's yeah, it's always been a thing. Were you named after a guy that played for the Boston Brewing? You really were? I were? I did not. I thought that was just gonna be a stupid question. You're gonna know. I actually actually have one of his hockey cards in my my dresser in my bedroom. Does everybody assume you love hockey because you're Canadian? Yeah, but it's true though, it's one of those two areotypes. It's pretty true. I've got some like I've got some friends, artist friends, even though just they could give a shit about hockey or anything. They don't just it's just sports in general. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sports. I get that. And I know nothing about hockey. And I have a friend that plays for the Preds. Here is it douche? It is Romanosi And I don't know anything about hockey. And when I met him, they were like he plays for the president. I was like, that's cool. What position? He told me? And I was like, I don't know what that means. Yeah, he's a stud, like tell me and one And now I know he's a stud, but I don't know. I think he's a defenseman. He's a defenseman, right, And I'm like, do you get to score? Like I don't know anything about them? A big sports guy? Do I do a sports right here in the States? But did you play hockey at all as a kid? Street hockey? It's expensive sport to play. Um, so yeah, I grew up in you know, not a lot of extra money going around. So if instead of ice hockey, we played street hockey. And I was in like softball baseball leagues. And actually usually people bring this up to make fun of me. And it it usually works. But I was actually bowling as a kid to that was that was one of this was a one silver medal at the BC Games the Olympics. It's bowling bigger, maybe it's not even bigger, but it's cold up there, so there's only so much you can do out I honestly, our are our climate is um Let's Seattle. First of all, it's it's just a lot of rain. But in North Dakota you're gonna be You're getting a far more Canadian experience than I got. And even the accent right it's it's uh yeah, it's it's pretty strong and cold. It's not like that where I am. You can go, no, man, I I've literally I've I've golfed like New Year's Day, Christmas eve Day, and then I can go the same day go up and go skiing and go whale watching. Well, that is unfair, it is I just assume you're living in a niglu. It is not a big days. No, We're like that's like a hundred mile radius right there in Canada, along that border and along the islands there where it doesn't turn into an ice box everywhere everywhere else in Canada is complete for as an icebox. People assume I'm married to my cousin because I' from Arkansas. You know, there are all these stereotypes that we have and I'm not confirming or denying that I am married to my cousin, but at least not first cousin. Yeah, a juno? Is that a grammy? It is? Yeah, it's a grammy? And why is it called a juno? Do you know? You know why grammy is called a grammy? As I asked that question, gramaphone, right, that's the grammy thing, right, you know, Oh my god, you're right, that's exactly what that is. Yeah, I learned. I learned that late, so don't don't feel ashamed. That makes all the sense in the world. That's the trophy, is a grandmophone. Yeah, but what is the What is the juno? Yeah? Yeah, that's good. What is the jo? I really hope I don't get roasted for this, But I don't know if there's any really direct correlation like that too. I wish I knew. Just put on your face, Yeah, I know. I can't believe you didn't set it up on a tee for you. It's a secret. I actually can't tell you what when you went to Juno? Pretty cool? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. What's the shape of the Juno? It is a statuesque figure. The one that I have has a little metal thing wrapped around a statuus figure. Yeah, it's it's not it's not, no, it's not. I guess it was named after the first chairman, Pierre Juno. It's pretty selfish, yeah as well know, yeah, all right, it's all about you. But I think it's a star or a fossil. Play a clip of singing in a beer here you go. So why this song, of all the songs of the single, why this one? Man, It's hard to put a finger on what just kind of releases that chemical in your brain tells you like it. Yeah, it's a bit of that. And I I've um, I've gone a couple of ballads songs in a row. One two with Mackenzie was a completely different feel um from from this one. This is just more just straight just play at the bar, have fun, good festival song. Yeah, just a lot of fun. Do you ever do karaoke? I? Uh, not really, not really, but I one time after um it was in Victoria. So just across in the island Victoria, BC kind of a home show. We went to we played for Nick nickelback at the arena and then went to the bar afterwards and it was karaoke going on, and some guy got up, not knowing I was there, and started singing waste of my time. So I got to do that thing. Did you do the thing? I did the thing? Yeah, but I got made fun of afterwards because I ended up looking back at the screen looking at the lyrics. Well, I was saying, that's funny, true chump. Yeah, it was pretty after the fact. Yeah, well yeah, I walked up and took the mic from him, like a yeah, he did the whole thing. Did you put that on the internet? Dude? That was like YouTube didn't exist. That was two thousand two. Well, next time you're here, I don't know, when you come back, I'll do some karaoke. Yeah, absolutely, we should go do it and just go like we're karaokeing and you performed that song, and then we'll watch you crush it. He gets up and he sucks and everybodybody cares. That's fun singing like that, default guy, And I like that. That was so what is it? What? What do you find what's fulfilling to you at this point in your career. You've done a lot of things at the highest level. So what is it now that kind of fills your cup fills my up personally and professionally professionally is is um? You know, I have no I have no things that I must aspire to to be fulfilled. I really don't. I I I obviously want to keep growing UM and keep building my audience. Uh so yeah, I mean that way. It's just I do. I want to speak and touch people through my music and inspire and all those things, invoke emotion into people through through the records that I put out. UM have it be a bit of the soundtrack to their life like I had those records growing up. And and that's ultimately it goes back to seeing somebody sing those songs back to you. That's that's a connection that I never would have made otherwise. And I get to do it on a grand scale. UM. And for somebody that has a hard time getting to connect to people on that level, that's such a great thing. That's knowing that that happens personally personally, it's it's family, dude, it really is. UM. I want to keep growing as a person, become a better husband, better father. UM, and I want to I want to, um share just the experience that I've had in my life and help people and UM, you know, the big Loud guys have given me an opportunity to have a side label with my partner, Scott Cook. So we've got it's called Local Hay Records, so we're able to UM, you know, bring under young artist shown Austin is a guy that we've we've signed and you put it on a song with Chris Lane last year. UM, so like you know, that kind of stuff is has been a lot of fun. UM. That's kind of professional, kind of personal because I get to make those connections with those artists and like kind of share the personal experiences, you know, and how how the music business can be. UM. Is your son sing? He he yes, he doesn't, though he's he's some sports and great lacrosse player. UM. The guitars have been around my house his entire childhood and the only time he's really ever I've he's picked it up was when he was like three, and he I still have the guitar. I still play it live. He took a ballpoint pan on this nice guitar got from Australia. Just I never got it fixed. I never got it anything. So yeah, but it's always been around it never really but he started to get into poetry. I I do know um the girl that was he was seeing, um his girlfriend, and uh yeah, I think he's probably a little bit like me. I don't pick up the guitar at home and play. It's just I listened to music and stuff, but I don't I sing Goofley like I sing along them with my kids and stuff. Um, but it's not like it's not like here's piano lesson. It's never was. I just I want him to be to to just not force anything on him, and whatever he likes, he likes, and he just never really picked it up. But I think it might be something that he, deep down, I think does want to do a little bit. I gotta talk to him about it. All right, three questions and we're gonna call it because we've been here for an hour. It's been fantastic for me. I'd keep you for two, but here we go. Uh, in your house, what is your favorite picture? Oh, there is a picture of um. It was early on in this part of my career. I just started dating my wife Kristen, super supportive. UM, and we were doing the photo shoot for my first record and sort of like a rural part of BC, in the middle of BC, and it's sort of desert ish and there's a picture of us, um on the road, really long road, sort of looking down it and we're just kissing, leaning in over the center line and just giving in, giving each other a kissing. That's one of my cherished photos. I got that beside my bed, and um, there's something about the photo that just had. It just captures our energy that we had at that time, and um, yeah, it's it's just a pretty good memory. Yeah, for a lot of reasons. Ever been in a room social professional but it's not being recorded. There are no cameras, no TV, no radio, and somebody that you admire just picks up a guitar and starts playing and singing a song and you're like, holy crap, I cannot believe this is happening right now, this is so cool. I got to watch um uh Chad right um far away, so far away. Yeah, he was hard a piece set together and it was in its infancy, and I saw him writing words down and he was. It was just him and I. He just I don't know what. I can't remember the circumstances why that was. But yeah, he just picked it up and and what do you think of this? And started picking apart at it and stuff and yeah, that was the That was pretty cool. So you co wrote that's what I hear. I got no points. Well, what's what's gonna be? Um, it's the final question. Heres, we round this up for you as we get into it. How is this year? What is this year? What's the what's the idea for this year? I don't say goal? Yeah, but what's the idea for three? That maybe a little different than any other idea for any other year. Uh well, I mean the Canadian experience with the pandemic was pretty it was long. Um. I think you're starting to see touring coming back. Finally he's starting to come back now. Um, so just playing playing lots of shows and getting back to that bringing the music live. Um, that was going for a long time. Uh so that really going to join that, playing the festivals up there, um and then new music out in like spring, you know, in time for the festivals, including the song you played there one too will be on that record. Hide from a Broken Heart was a song UM released as well. Beyond that and just yeah, just grinding it out. Man. I hope with the opportunity with Big Loud and being on on the label proper now and UM, with Lloyd and Big Loud and Greg Thompson being management and stuff, it's stars are aligning a little bit. So I'm hoping that we can bring some more music to more ears. And yeah, me too. Yeah, it's that's yeah. I hope to hope to be down here a lot more and see a lot more of everybody, and you as well. Yeah, so you liked the singing in the beer song, I do pretty good one, Well, Mike, let's add it to the countdown played in the National Countdown. We'll add that because I like it to Wait wait, wait, I gotta get clearance from the Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Well, if they say no, let me know. Until then, we're gonna go awaka until you tell us we can. Okay, got you? Yeah, yeah, And just when you come back to town, let me know, come up and you know, next time, next time you decided to come down, bring guitar, come play the stage in the morning show, we'll make a whole deal. I'm a fan, dude. I can break out some of those old default songs um and run through a couple just like whatever you want to do, make songs through my career. I think it will be great, and I think it would be really cool for my audience to hear you perform. I mean, because again I'm a fan. I know I've heard with mon ears, but I think it'd be really cool for you to do it. So next time you're down here, you let's make a point, say come do the morning show. We'll do a whole deal. Yeah, I honestly, I appreciate this opportunity and I appreciate that invite. That's that's Huguely. I'll forget I invited you as soon as you leave, and I'll forget it you are, I'll make sure I got your numbers. Song Hell yeah, all right, you guys follow at Dallas Smith Music Dallas. I've really enjoyed this man, It's been for me. This has been a real treat because again, I've just enjoyed you in so many different capacities. And I love what you're doing now. And I said it before I even you were even here. So I didn't say it for any reason other than it just can't. I'm I want to talking to Joe, and other people have been like, man, he's so good, Like what's the deal? And so if I can be a minor part of that deal happening here, that's a way for me. That's that's that's huge. And like I said, um, it's really is an honor to be able to come on a show like this and be able to tell my story. I mean, I've got a long, unique story that involves you know, some people that you know and other people know in different bands and stuff, and to be able to get up here and tell my story is really it's a it's a great, great opportunity. So thank you. All Right, there is Dallas Smith. Everybody