You know the saying, like father like son? In the case of Andrew and Zachari Smith – it really is true.
“I found out he is writing all of these songs and I really became a fan of his songwriting,” said Andrew, the elder of the two Smiths.
Andrew has been a musician all of his life and is one of the very few Canadians to have won the prestigious Kerrville NewFolk songwriting competition.
He said when Zachari went to university on the East Coast he began to see some YouTube videos that friends of Zachari’s would post of his son performing.
“He would be playing in a pub or something and I would think ‘holy crap, that is a really good song. Who wrote that song?’ I found out he is writing all of these,” said Andrew.
Andrew said when he was touring across the country nearly four years ago, Zachari ended up joining him for some dates.
“We had such a good time and we thought, maybe we could do this more often,” said Andrew.
Zachari’s band at the time, The Geese, ended up breaking up, so he joined his father for a permanent gig.
Andrew soon went from father to fan to musical partner.
Since then the duo have released two albums, 2011’s Travelling and the most recent release, 2014’s Stumbling Horse, an album that took what Andrew described as a much less traditional approach in the arranging and songwriting.
The album has an indie vibe, according to Andrew, something that is quite different from their debut release.
“I think Zack had a pretty strong influence on that. He brought a lot of cool ideas,” said Andrew, admitting that at times they crossed swords on how to arrange a song, but overall they both thought it was a good idea to go off the beaten path.
“He likes to say that I came around to his way of thinking, but I don’t know if it is that simple,” said Andrew with a laugh. “It is kind of like any other partnership; if there is some kind of respect going both ways, it works well.”
The pair own a recording studio in Kelowna called Lake Studios, where Andrew said they record a lot of traditional folk, roots and country artists from B.C. and Alberta.
Having the resources of a recording studio right at their fingertips, Andrew said allowed them to play around a lot and take time on the songs.
One of those songs that has become particularly important is ‘Race to the Bottom’, a song about the Enbridge Pipeline.
The pipeline’s end point is expected to be Kitimat, a place Andrew said he and Zachari have a personal connection to, going salmon fishing there nearly every summer for a decade.
“When they started talking about that, instead of fishing boats going out to these remote rivers where there are nothing but grizzly bears, eagles and salmon, now they talk about filling the channel with super tankers with oil from Alberta,” said Andrew. “There is just not that many places like that left, we feel pretty strongly about it on a personal kind of level.”
The Andrew and Zachari Smith play Legacy Guitar and Coffee House Friday, Oct. 24.
