After years of performing as a solo act, Christopher Smith has made a change. He hasn’t found new bandmates or drastically altered his sound, but he has officially formed Dralms, which will release its new album Crushed Pleats early in the 2015.
The project evolved out of Smith’s solo work, and features the same musicians he’s been playing with for years: Shaunn Watt, Peter Carruthers and Will Kendrick.
According to Smith, Dralms isn’t really a dramatic artistic divergence; it’s more like “giving up the reigns” and embracing a more collaborative creative process.
Smith said Watt, Carruthers and Kendrick have for years been a big influence on his solo work, steering it closer and closer to the sound on Crushed Pleats.
“So it kind of just naturally evolved to the sound that it is now, and at a certain point we decided just to commit to that process and that aesthetic and that sound,” he said.
Smith speaks quietly. He often pauses for stretches between words, and it sometimes takes him a while to sum up a complete thought.
In many ways he gives the exact impression one might conjure up as the creative drive behind a record like Crushed Pleats. But once he gets on a roll, his insight into the creative process is fascinating.
It starts with the name of the band. Dralms isn’t an obscure figure from mythology or an obtuse, high concept idea—Dralms is all about the mood and environment the word creates.
Like the music the band produces, Dralms is a name dripping with a specific feeling and atmosphere, and that’s a deliberate choice on Smith’s part.
He said that when he was trying to decide on a name for the project he took a deep dive into absurdity, before finally coming up for air and choosing something a little simpler.
“Dralms was an aesthetic choice, it was surface, right? And that’s what I liked,” he explained.
“It’s not about saying something or making a point. I just felt that in some way that that word looked and sounded and felt kind of like the music did, if that’s possible. And I think that’s enough.”
As an artist, Smith isn’t into driving home meaning: his music is a landscape of sound that mixes dark moods with intelligent lyrics.
He’s not afraid to tackle heavy subjects, but he likes to tuck them away in love song metaphors. He explained that it’s easier to discuss them that way.
“I sing about all kinds of stuff on this upcoming album. But I’m writing about other things at the same time: [I’m] writing about love, but really writing songs about other things.
“I also really like playing with juxtaposition and contrast in songs, and having sort of dark sounds mixed with light, loving romantic lyrics.”
That process creates a unique sound, one that Jasperites will be able to experience when Dralms plays the Jasper Legion.
Trevor Nichols
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