Hi, everyone! I have recently been exchanging interview questions with g smee, the mastermind behind the bedroom project wwoman. I recently got into smee's music, and I really liked what I heard. You'll be learning about how he got all of his retro equipment, the impact of music videos, and why he chooses to rewrite songs. Happy reading!
bazzreviews: Which albums or artists inspired you to start a music career in the first place?
g. smee: I still don’t feel like I have a music career. I always have the need to create so it kind of happened that way rather than me looking at an inspiration. I was playing guitar some at the time and happened to find a load of studio equipment on Craigslist that a woman was selling. Her husband was a recording engineer and had died a couple months prior and she just wanted it moved out of her house. I didn’t even know what most of it was but I ended up getting a ton of vintage studio gear for a few hundred dollars. I still use pretty much all the same stuff now with some additions.
br: What’s the significance behind the stage name of wwoman?
G.S.: A venue wouldn’t book me because they said I sounded like a woman trying to sing the Beatles and at the time I didn’t really have a solid name so I opted for wwoman.
br: How have you been staying active musically during the pandemic?
G.S.: I’ve been writing all year at this point. I had a string of debacles over the summer including spilling a pot of soup onto my (not backed up) laptop so I’m a little set back but I should have something to show spring/summer 2021.
br: I know you played a lot of live shows a few years ago, but would you say you’ve started to shift away from that and towards working on new music?
G.S.: I actually just don’t have a band right now. I want to tour 2021, though. If anyone reading this wants to be in my band and tour, hit me up.
br: I’ve also seen you make some really cool music videos in the past, too- what role, in your eyes, should music videos serve as?
G.S.: Music videos are really their own thing for me. I don’t want to make a video to draw people into my music—if I make a video I want it to be good enough to stand on its own as a piece of art. Everything you make should be good enough to stand on its own in my opinion. For the record I’m also into the reckless 90’s practice of midsized bands blowing a half million dollar budget on a 3 minute video with no hope of a return on investment.
br: Can you describe your process for making a song?
G.S.: Every time I make a track I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s sounds funny but is also true. I’ve heard significant people say that before and I finally believe them. If I wrote down every single step of the process and tried to use those directions again it wouldn’t work. I will say that when I fall into something that I like I’ll spend a long time making it right. A lot of times I’ll work on a track for 6 months or more and then scrap it.
br: What’s more important to you-lyricism, or production value and instrumentation?
G.S.: It always changes as I move through a project. Right now I’m most interested in production. The thing that is most important to me is usually what I’m working on at that moment. I could spend three months on one bar drums and then do the same thing on lyrics the week after and they would both be equally important.
br: What have been some of your favorite songs to have made over the years? Are there any reasons why?
G.S.: There’s a track on one of my older albums called Don in Space. It’s way far removed from what I do now but I think that’s the best song I’ve ever written. At the time I knew very little about production/song structure etc. I think I get worse as I learn more. That’s actually the reason I write on keys now, because I know less about chord structures and scales on keyboard so I have more accidents that turn out to change the trajectory of a track for the better. I used to write only with guitar but my muscle memory grew too strong and I wasn’t getting anything new out of it. I’m experimenting writing on other instruments that I know less about now.
br: If you could delete or rewrite any song from your discography, which would you choose?
G.S.: I rewrote Eating Ass this year and I think it turned out ok. I might redo like the track BOI or something. I usually rewrite because I like a track not because I don’t like it. If I don’t like a track I’ll just abandon it.
br: Knowing everything you do now about music, what is one thing you’d go back and tell yourself?
G.S.: I probably wouldn’t have anything to tell myself just because nothing is really worth saying that wouldn’t have more worth just living through and I know I wouldn’t listen to some random time traveler anyway.
br: I know you just dropped a single recently, but do you have any projects in the works that you can talk about?
G.S.: Yeah I’m working on an album now. I call it an album but who knows what it will be—a collection—I may never write a proper album again. I don’t really find artistic value in a traditional album from myself at least. I can get full comprehensive thoughts out in single tracks. I like the idea of mini-albums and have been exploring that. Different from an EP. Mini albums would be complete thoughts—EPs fall into the fluff category for me.
br: What do you want people reading this to know about you and your music?
G.S.: I do almost everything on my own. Not just writing and recording but a lot of my design stuff—shirts, artwork—promo stuff, booking, sales, shipping. So if I ignore you when you reach out hit me back. I was probably deep in something and you got buried. I like to hear what you have to say.
br: What other music goals do you have for the future?
J.S.: I’m going to make pop music different.
I want to thank g. smee for giving his time to do an interview. I wish him the best of luck in whatever is coming up in 2021. For anyone who hasn't heard his music yet, I would strongly recommend you doing so. In the meantime, thanks to all of you guys for checking this out, and I hope you guys are doing well and staying safe!
To check out g's various links, click the following: https://linktr.ee/gsmee
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