Four years ago, Steve Smith was sitting pretty with three Grammy nominations and, in the end, the 2003 award for “Best Electronic Song” thanks to a tune he’d composed about a break-up with an old girlfriend, a partnership with London DJ Paul Harris, and a Mitsubishi advertisement. Originally written as an acoustic lament but spiced up by Harris and producer Ben Harris (no relation) with house beats, “Days Go By” fast became the calling card for a project dubbed Dirty Vegas. Suddenly, Smith was on top of the pops. But as he recalled a week ago Wednesday, as we sat with drinks at a booth at the Middle East in Central Square, he wasn’t quite happy, and throughout Dirty Vegas’s two-disc career, he continued writing introspective, confessional songs on his acoustic guitar.
Good thing that, because, a year ago, Smith left Dirty Vegas and his native New Eltham (in South London) behind not for a penthouse apartment in NYC or a hip bungalow in LA but for a nice family house in Scituate, on Boston’s South Shore. His creative juices flowing, he hooked up with another British expat resettled in Boston, former Cornershop sitar player Anthony Saffery, and began work on what would become his solo debut, This Town (G.A.S.).
“I just loved a lot of the music that came out of this area,” he said as he waited for Saffrey to show up, just a few hours before they were to celebrate the release of the new disc with a show upstairs at the Middle East. “But the move was just kind of impulsive. The hippie in me has to be somewhere where I feel creative. When I lived in London and since I’ve been a professional musician, I’ve always kind of disappeared, gone to different places, searching for inspiration — the San Juan Islands up in Washington State, or Cape Cod. Never sunny places for me. I get nothing from Florida or Los Angeles. I’m just not that kind of person. Maybe it was listening to Quadrophenia too many times as a kid: I just need to go down and sit on the shore when all the shutters are down on the shops. So I just got a hunch that this is where I needed to be. You haven’t got this cutthroat-ego thing that you’ve got in New York, and you haven’t got this inflated-ego thing that you’ve got in Los Angeles. The heritage of Boston music has been great for many years, and I needed a dose of decent indie rock, which is what I found here.”
At first listen, This Town is a big departure from Dirty Vegas, which is perhaps why his new version of “Days Go By” is the last track on the disc. But it’s not exactly lo-fi indie pop, either. Strumming acoustic guitars, tinkling piano notes, and a steady backbeat pick up steam behind a spoken-word bit by actor John Savage as the album opens with “This Town,” an atmospheric track that details Smith’s thinking behind his move from London. “A different name, a different place/I’ll disappear without a trace,” he sings against ever surging electric guitars.
“It’s a song that could apply to anyone,” he explained. “For my circumstances, I was in London and I was suffocating. The record company wasn’t even picking up the phone. And I’d rather go play for my friends in a fucking bar to make money than try to get 10 grand by playing the game right.”
This Town’s down moments are balanced by upbeat tracks like “Hit Me Up,” a rousing anthem with a driving beat (courtesy of Smith, who also works as a session percussionist) and big guitar hook. “Restless” sounds (forgive me, Steve) like the kind of retro glam-rocker Scott Weiland would kill for, replete with harmonized guitar solos, falsetto vocals, and a well-placed, gutsy “yeah.” It’s also a reminder that, though it was the rave scene that captured Smith’s attention when he came of age in ’87-’88, he’d already been schooled on his brother’s collection of Motown albums and his sister’s Springsteen and Stevie Nicks discs.
No surprise, then, than he fit right in on a bill with a couple of familiar locals at the Middle East. First Therese Bellino, formerly of Lazy Susan, delivered a loose, rootsy set, and then Buffalo Tom’s Chris Colbourn played a handful of solo tunes before Smith and Saffrey took the stage sans drummer. That made it tough to match the melodic depth of This Town — especially the sitar/harmonica jam of “Morning Jane” — but the country lilt of “Smile” fit right in. Indeed, if it weren’t for his British accent, Smith would have no trouble passing for a Boston artist on his upcoming tour, especially because he and Saffrey will have Dresden Doll Brian Viglione along to play drums.