Colin Smith

Who Am I?

I’ll tell you now, who I think I am, and some of the events that I got me to here. Other people will have their opinions and their versions, but this one will have less “Colin is the best singer since the invention of the voice” type lines. Except, that one.

I was born in Dublin, Ireland, in the decade of AM radio to Leo and Monica Smith, two beautiful singers. I was a pretty late arrival, my brother and sister were in their teens. The result of which being that there was a pretty developed musical environment ready for me. My parents had met through singing competitions in Dublin called Feis Ceoil, and their passions were Opera, Musicals and the like. As a child, I got the passion, emotion and drama and the discipline it took to deliver also. My brother and sister’s music was Thin Lizzy, ELO, Yes, Stevie Wonder to mention a few. No matter the genre, though, I experienced all of it intensely and loved the same things, threaded through all good music . Music made me imagine. Colours. Stories. Characters. I love imagery in music. It’s everything.

So I sang as soon as I could, and have been singing ever since. I loved Michael Jackson. I learned every bar of Thriller and Off The Wall. Tried the dancing. Through the Jackson 5, I discovered all the other Motown artists. By 12, I was fully into Iron Maiden. I broke my toe in my bedroom rocking out to The Trooper. I was on my own at the time. Yeah. High school, meant new kids with a lot more music. We shared. REM, Depeche Mode, The Pixies, you know, stuff for teenage brooding boys to make sense of it all.

Thus far I have made two studio records with MRNORTH, Lifesize with Jerry and Fear & Desire with Steve Lyon (Depeche mode, The Cure et al). We have a live record too, that we made with the help of a 50 piece orchestra and U2’s monitor guy, Dave Skaff. That was a huge undertaking for an independent band, both musically and in the event itself, and the result could not be more satisfying.

During one of the tours, in the parking lot of a motel in a dry county in Florida, I wrote a song. It was a song of yearning. I felt adrift after a recent break-up, and I was looking for a different musical voice. The song was Love and it was a turning point for me. I knew I wanted to create something in a different way with some different results.

In a short period after, I had a few extreme experiences, and that was enough to spawn the rest of the songs for my solo album The Wilderness. I had never written like that before. I wasn’t trying, and it was just coming. This is what I love about these songs, it’s the purest expression of myself, my heart, my soul and my mind I have ever had. It’s hard for me to say lines like that and not cringe, or make a joke immediately after, but it’s true.

So now, with the help of my amazing friends I have made that album that I wanted, and it’s just as I imagined. The Wilderness. *sigh, smiles reflectively*.

So that’s it. I’m a singer. I love singing. I lose myself in it. That’s who I am.