“ I ’ ve always had a pretty good range . I believed I had the ability to translate the songs live and not have any pitch issues ,” says Smith . “ I considered myself a pretty good technical singer but … I got into the habit of focusing too much on the technical side on Default ’ s second record . I just went to school with it . It got too technical . It was my biggest challenge coming into my first solo record , breaking down those walls . There ’ s a lot of people who can sing technically well , who have a nice sounding voice , but are they selling the song ? Are you selling me the emotions this song is portraying to the audience ? I felt that was the biggest step I needed to take .”
Though a few years have passed since Default split up , it seems unlikely a reunion will occur anytime soon . Smith has few kind words for today ’ s rock scene .
“ With this stuff , there ’ s definitely more emoting ,” he says . “ A lot of different emotions come through while I ’ m delivering these songs . There are some lines that are heartbreaking but have those lyrical moments where you have to have a bit of angst in your voice , and frustration .”
Contrary to the album ’ s laidback vibe , the making of Side Effects was , in Smith ’ s own words , somewhat grueling . Though the album ’ s genesis goes back over a year , he eventually found himself up against deadlines , forcing somewhat of a rush to get the songs down on tape .
“ Lots of emails , lots of tossing around song ideas and song pitches ,” he says of the album ’ s pre-production . “ There ’ s one song on this record called ‘ 50 / 50 ’ that was recorded about a year-anda-half ago . So we were kinda picking at this record here and there . And then once we got the songs , we got in there to cut them . I sang the bulk of this record in a combined six days . It was a pretty intense recording process ; it wasn ’ t as relaxed as some of the recordings we did in the past .”
While the result is catchy and cohesive , it comes off a lot more effortless than it actually was . While Smith has had songwriting credits on previous albums , on this one , he left that to the pros . Still , picking which tunes made the final cut was paradoxically both an intensely personal process and a collaborative one as Smith and producer Joey Moi filtered through hundreds of submissions .
“ As you start putting together a record , I like to have some different themes in there . Even if two songs are great songs but have the same theme , it gets a little repetitive lyrically . It ’ s tough to let songs like that go , but it does happen .”
Of course , for a road dog like Smith , who has spent most of the past two decades touring behind Default and his solo catalogue , knowing what ’ s going to get cowboy boots tapping and lighters raised when you play onstage has to be kept in mind .
“ You ’ ve got to keep in mind tempo and what ’ s going to translate , not just as radio singles , but translate live ,” he explains . “ Some songs killed at radio for me but just don ’ t translate live . It ’ s the instrumentation or the tempo live . It can be a frustrating thing . I look back at Jump Right In , my first solo record , I love a lot of the songs on that record , I ’ m very proud of that record , but I think that just tempo-wise and sonically and instrumentally , it was pretty linear .”
That question of instrumentation is key to understanding Smith ’ s decision to switch genres mid-career . While Default ’ s … uh , default setting was crunchy guitars pushed to 11 over your standard bass and drum rhythm section , Smith is now looking for something more subtle , more interesting , and more flexible . Arranging the songs was Moi ’ s time to really shine on Side Effects .
“ Joey and I make a great team ,” says Smith . “ He knows what we want to do live and I don ’ t want just a wall of guitars . I want to have pedal steel , piano , and keep it as musical as I possibly can instead of just dumbing it down .”
While Smith speaks knowledgeably about the nuts and bolts of country music and the industry around it , it ’ s surprising to learn that this career turn is not one that was long-harboured in his mind . While he had country lovers in his family , he acknowledges being more likely to toss on some Alice In Chains in his teenage years than Garth Brooks . But though his love for it blossomed later , he has found himself the latest in a growing line of rock stars who made the decision to try a country reinvention in the last few years .
Classic rockers like Jon Bon Jovi and Steven Tyler have traded in their leather pants to try on some leather dungarees and even Aaron Lewis , the erstwhile angry dude who fronted Staind , has traded in seven-string guitars for pedal steels . ( It probably doesn ’ t hurt that “ Mudshovel ,” the grinding metal song that launched Staind to prominence , would also make for an awesome country tune title .)
While an appreciation of country was always present in his life , he also loved the rock music that influenced the band that gave him his start . His whole reason for the switch is that in some very real ways , rock and roll is dead ( or at least in a very , very bad coma ).
“ The last five years of my experience with Default were frustrating ,” he says candidly . “ I had plateaued as a singer , what I wanted to do , what I thought I was capable of doing . Some of my favourite singers stopped being on rock radio . I thought the voices got quirky and there weren ’ t many of the original tones and just good traditional rock singers . It was kind of out of rock radio of the time .”
Smith says he was finding himself warming up before gigs by singing the songs of guys like Keith Urban , Rascal Flatts , and Jason Aldean .
“ It wasn ’ t a quick process ; it was just over the course of a few years , I fell in love with country radio . I obviously wanted to continue to have a career , but I didn ’ t think it would work this well . It wasn ’ t this intention . I just wanted to play music and record music I was actually interested in again .”
Six years into his grand reinvention , it ’ s a risk that is paying off , but there is much work to be done . Though Side Effects is unquestionably a strong release of carefully curated tracks , Smith faces an uncertain journey . A Canadian trying to crack the southern scene , a former rocker in the sonic territory of good ol ’ boys , a gritty storyteller in a style that has had more than its share of artifice in recent years .
The one thing he can be sure of is that a return to rock is unlikely .
“ If I was a young kid , if I was in my teens or early 20s , and I wanted to listen to something with some aggression with good singers and good stories , you ’ re going to hear more of that in country than you are on rock radio . I don ’ t know when that happened , but I see myself at 20 at these country festivals and I know why they like it . I can see myself there .”
In other words , the old expression that if it ’ s too loud , you ’ re too old still applies . But for Dallas Smith , crank up the fiddle and the pedal steel . This rock and roll star has packed the dog up into the Chevy and is driving it on down the road , in search of something new .
Adam Kovac is a freelance journalist in Montreal and a weekend guitar warrior in his band Adam ’ s Always Late .
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