We were lucky to catch up with Cody Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cody, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning music is a never ending journey with endless paths you can take. And you are constantly absorbing new knowledge from other musicians. Or, you should be, at least.

It’s funny. I took violin lessons from first to sixth grade. I was reading music and everything. Then I quit to start taking guitar and drum lessons, and there was a little bit of theory involved, but my teachers emphasis was more on how to rock.

Fast forward to college where I studied music production, which required me to take quite a few music theory classes – as well as some performance electives like piano and jazz guitar. Despite reading music for so long in my youth, learning music theory was very difficult. Same with the piano and jazz guitar classes. I would have to study or practice for hours outside of class to even have a chance of passing. To someone who just skated by in high school, this was a big change.

I also think back on my bands I was in during high school. Even by the time I was a senior and had been playing guitar for six years – I pretty much sucked, at least compared to my abilities now (which are still limited).

I’m not sure what I could have done to speed up my learning. I mean, I could have definitely put more time in. But people just learn at their own pace. I’m sure some kids who have only been playing for a few years can play some great guitar solos that I can’t even play.

My emphasis has always been more on songwriting than technical skill, and I think that’s where my ‘talent’ lies most.
And to that end, I think what’s most important when you get into something as broad as music is to know what your strengths are and what gives you the most satisfaction. There’s lots of guitarists out there that are leagues better than me who simply enjoy playing insane solos, or intricate jazz pieces. That’s what brings them joy and that is great. My passion lies more within executing a vision – taking something that exists only in my head and making it a reality. And some people strike a pretty even balance between both, too. As long as you keep going down the path you want to go down, you’ll fall into the place you’re meant to be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Our main goal as a band is to offer an experience that is cathartic and unique, but also accessible. We hope listeners can either get lost in the music, have it on in the background, or listen intently and find value in it no matter what the situation is.

We have songs about things as simple as relationships and love, to more abstract themes around the human condition and humanity in general, and some songs don’t really have much intended meaning but are meant to paint a vivid picture in your mind through imagery in the lyrics.

In short, we are constantly working to offer music that is immersive and engaging, but always through the lens of something that is catchy. Even though we don’t feel perfectly represented by the ‘pop-punk’ label, it kind of makes sense. It’s pop in that it’s accessible and catchy, but punk in that we try to be very authentic and raw with how we convey it.

Our next album, which we’re working on now, will be largely self-produced in an effort to stay true to this ethos. We love going to the studio but we’re trying to get something that feels a little bit *less* perfect, but still pleasing to the ears.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Sure, we all lived in the same house together when we started the band. As long-time friends, it was a real blessing that our lives lined up in such a way to allow for that. For a while, we didn’t even all live in Colorado at the same time. While we couldn’t have asked for a much smoother experience living together, we still all lived in the same house for 5 years.

Naturally, it’s not all roses and daisies in a situation like that. Sometimes we would have conflicts. That can be really difficult and uncomfortable. It’s the type of situation where no one is wrong or right, but just dealing with a difference of opinion in how we want to do something. I imagine it could be easy for experiences like this to permanently sour a relationship. But with us, we’ve never really had a conflict seriously last for more than a day. I mean, we’re all just great friends anyways, and this band means a lot to us and has brought us so many great experiences. It’s worth it.

In the last year, we’ve all moved into our own apartments. Obviously we can’t just all live in the same house forever. I was not really worried how it would impact the band, but we knew it would present challenges. To my surprise, some of our best songs have been written in the last year, and I’m really excited to see them come to fruition in this next album we’re working on. It’s possible we’ve put together more songs in the last year than we did any one year while living together.

Through all the challenges we’ve faced, I’m happy to say we’ve really only gotten stronger through it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think it takes a little bit of effort from the artist and a little bit from the fan. Something about buying digital goods is just not the same as buying something physical. So people are less likely to just pay you $10 for your album and you can’t blame them for that.

From an artists side, it might encourage us to put more thought into merchandise, or making our live shows more engaging and unique from show to show so people don’t get bored. It seems like we play a brand-new song every few shows, and we’re always changing up our set. As far as merch goes, I’ve been pretty pleasantly surprised that we’ve been able to sell a decent amount so far. It’s nice when fans support you via merch and going to shows. Maybe one day we will get big enough to print our stuff to vinyl and people will buy those. #goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/hellocentral
• Instagram: @hellocentral
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDwzJfee5D9xth7eWq_QUgg
• Other: Bandcamp: https://hellocentralofficial.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Morgan Elizabeth