Diandra Interviews Your Smith: Speaking Up For Your Music

I LOOOOOOOOVE YOUR SMITH! After our interview, I loved her more. At times, people presume strength is not having weakness. Yet, it is acknowledging that your weakness does not outweigh your talents and offerings to this world. Your strength carries you through your weaknesses to show you that both sides make you human. For Caroline Smith, creating her alter ego, Your Smith, liberated her to see and speak up for what she wants in her career. Hence, your interview dives into the confidence needed to accept that you are not always confident. 

Diandra: How do you feel Your Smith has strengthened and pushed you, Caroline Smith, to define and speak up for your desires as a person/artist? 

Your Smith: Great question because this is the whole reason I invented Your Smith! I am a self proclaimed “people=pleaser” and not only can it be extremely exhausting, but it’s actually pretty inhibiting for my creativity. So I wanted a fresh start, and I wanted to invent a character for me to slip into to do my unfavorable bidding for me. The irony is that I had to slip in Your Smith less and less, and I, actually, just started taking of the characteristics as Caroline, which is a win. Your Smith has taught me a lot about myself. But don’t get me wrong! I still need her every now and then to chase down a promoter for my money. 

Diandra: Writing tens, if not hundreds of songs, in your lifetime. How do you feel your songwriting marks your progress as a person and creative? What is the biggest personal growth you have noticed? 

Your Smith: I have written thousands of songs and made albums I’ve never released. But with every song I write, it hones my vision that much further. I used to be very scared to write. The fear of it being bad would get me all locked up. (I’m a people pleaser remember) Getting through that creative block is one of the biggest triumphs for me as a person and an artist. Writing is something I have to constantly be doing. It’s like a muscle. If I don’t write for a while, I get really out of shape and it gets harder. 

Diandra: As an artist, it is difficult not to compare and contrast yourself to other artists, especially when media and the industry does it. How do you feel your newest music represents your individuality?

Your Smith: If I said I never compare myself to artists, it’d be a lie no matter how much I want it to be true. But I don’t think that has to be a bad thing. Or something we should be ashamed of. And, for me, it helps me to be vocal with the people I’m comparing myself too. So then it kind of becomes like “comparing notes” and “hey, I really admire how you did that, could you break that down for me?” I’m friends with a lot of female artists, and we are always more than willing to help each other out and teach each other how we do/did something. The industry loves to pit women against each other (i.e. who do you like more, Rihanna or Beyoncé? UM HOW BOUT I LOVE THEM BOTH AND ONE DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OTHER) .I absolutely do not subscribe to that at all. Nobody knows how a woman should be treated more than another woman. What a shame not to nurture those relationships. 

Me: FIERCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Diandra: You have spoken about the “pressures to be Top 40.” With so many different artists and styles breaking in to “mainstream” or independent streaming,  do you see a time, in music, when “Top 40,” will feel irrelevant? 

Your Smith: I mean it is irrelevant to the people not interested in Top 40 right? Like I bet (I hope) Justin Vernon is not making music to get on Kool 105 FM right? He’s not feeling like a failure when he doesn’t. I’m assuming. The pressure comes internally. Publishers invest in you. Labels create teams to strategize your rise in radio, and you gotta really really want it to make it happen. It’s a tiny lane with a million people’s horses in the race. But I always said, if I got to be top 40, it’d be one of those fluke type situations. I’d say in interviews “I really didn’t see that coming!” Because I want to write music for me. I write music because I need to get feelings out, or there’s a piece of my soul that needs to scream something out. And if that’s the thing that miraculously ends up catching, awesome! But I’ve been on the other side where you write for the pop machine, hoping someone will like it, buy it, take it, sell it. It’s fucking miserable. Not for me. 

Diandra: What do you think defines a “Wild Wild Woman,” and how do you think that definition threatens patriarchies? 

Your Smith: *Women Who Run With the Wolves” by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés* Buy Here

For More Information On Your Smith Click Here.