We were lucky to catch up with The Smoogies recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, The thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

All of our albums have been meaningful to us in their way, but our upcoming release feels the most special since we coined the term “People Music.” We wanted the music to be for the people; for all people. As a live recording, our upcoming album felt the most special to play People Music in front of people interacting with us in real time. We are excited to release the first single in the next few months.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We all met and crossed paths at different points growing up in the Miami/South Florida music scene. Each one of us is an independent full-time working artist and touring musician. We had all played music with each other in separate bands and settings. Still, it wasn’t until Harvel and Dion had a steady bimonthly residency that The Smoogies story began to unfold. The Hangout was a session featuring different musicians each week that they would back up in their set. Harvel introduced Vaughn and Dion, who immediately clicked from the first time they played. We had a trio hit lined up, but the concept of adding a second drummer came into the discussion. After that hit, we knew we had stumbled on something special with this lineup. The sessions kept happening as we would get together and improvise over vamps which led to the writing of the songs featured on our first album Planet Smoogies. We decided to solidify the project by coming up with the band name. Dave had the idea of featuring us on his Youtube series, The Chivertone Sessions, which led us to collaborate with the great Nicholas Payton on our first record, and the rest is The Smoogies history. What sets us apart from others is just the mere fact that we are writing music from a very open and honest place. We want to make music that will feel good and inspire others around us, which sometimes gets lost in this industry, primarily through social media. We are unique in our backgrounds, which is why the music comes out sounding that way. There are always challenges in this industry, but music is always the thing that keeps us going even through the hardships.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Our goal and our mission is to share what we call People Music with the world. We are so excited to release our live video album recording, which will visually represent what we created on our album People Music. We want to show people what our shows are like in real time and further express our music.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is having genuine fans of what we do. Even if it’s one person we can positively affect through our music, it feels like we have done our work. We also love when we see kids and younger generations dig our music. That is the most rewarding thing to witness. For example, a couple of months ago, we had the opportunity to perform at the great Doobie Powell’s shed, and while we were there sound checking, two young drummers were jamming along and knew all of our arrangements down to the fills, and all! We could not believe it, and they were killing it on top of that. That was probably one of the most rewarding things to have witnessed since our band formed.

Contact Info:

• Website: thesmoogies.bandcamp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesmoogiesband/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjKD1X8pFHaEaJUQ3GF-Xiw/videos

Image Credits
Rue 3 Photography @rue3photography https://www.instagram.com/rue3photography/?hl=en