When AJ Smith took the stage at the Patchogue Theatre on Long Island, NY for his SoFar Sounds performance in October 2018, it was a clear shift from a night of developing artists to watching someone who had it all figured out. The presentation, the audience connection, all of it. I kept up with AJ from that night on, and have been very pleased to see how much he has accomplished and how far he has come over the years. But Smith isn’t new to this. From his early years growing up in the Midwest, learning as many instruments as he could get his hands on, to now living in New York City as a seasoned performer, he is a true grassroots success story.
There is a playfulness and exuberant youthful energy to Smith’s music. He lightens the mood with the campy yet endearing COVID-themed “Double Vaxxed,” evokes feelings of nostalgia with “Brooklyn Nights,” and creates surges of pure adrenaline with straight-up pop bangers like “Confetti.” He has been compared to the likes of the Nate Ruess-led fun., and Brendon Urie’s Panic! At The Disco, both of whom are grandiose, poppy, and practically designed for mainstream radio, but, at their core, are true singer/songwriters. Smith follows their lead, but received the blessing from a legend who could be considered the pioneer of the modern singer/songwriter.
While meeting his fiancé’s Long Island-based family for the first time, Smith sat down at the piano and played her favorite song, “Vienna” by Billy Joel. On his way back to the city that night, he wrote down an idea for a song named after the Long Island icon in his phone. Not long after, the song was born, with the tagline, “I can sing your favorite song. You know, the one by Billy Joel.”
“I put it out not really thinking anything of it,” he said. “Billy Joel has a bit of a reputation for being, you know… a Long Island tough guy. Through a few different vehicles, we got it to his team, just saying, ‘Hey, we’re putting this song out, and you mean a lot to us, so we would just like to have your blessing that we used your name in the song.’ We would have never expected in a million years that he would write back, saying that he loved it.”
Joel’s team shared it on his social media pages, and Joel later referenced Smith in a USA Today article. The song is one of Smith’s most listened-to on Spotify, and Joel presented Smith with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Billy said, ‘Once we’re done with this COVID thing, I’ll have to have you open for me’,” said Smith. “COVID went from two weeks to two years, so I’m still waiting on that phone call, but, hopefully, it will still happen.”
Joel has resumed his once-a-month residency at Madison Square Garden, so, perhaps, Smith will get a chance to open for Joel at the iconic venue down the line.
Smith’s new single, “Nobody,” sounds like something Jason Mraz or Ben Rector would salivate over. The bright and bold pop song explores the shadiness and “how many followers do you have?” attitude brought on by social media; “This party has gone to shit. Everybody’s beautiful, a little bit delusional. Yeah, I’m getting sick of it. Asking for my Instagram, but they don’t care ‘bout who I am.” Looking past all the pettiness and unrealistic expectations, he claims that all he cares about is the love and affection of the one person who matters most; “I’ll never be nobody, cause I’m somebody to you.” The music video, inspired by the hit Netflix series “Bridgerton,” sees Smith and company dressed to the nines in full period piece costumes for a party, hilariously participating in over-the-top stage combat. “Everyone in that show was clout chasing,” said Smith. “They’re trying to climb the social ladder in a time period, the regency era, where income and equality were pretty bad. Just like today. Through that lens, I was thinking, here we are as musicians and entertainers, and even outside of that, everyone is on Tik Tok trying to become an influencer. We’re all trying to climb this new social ladder, and it can be really demoralizing at times feeling like if you’re not connecting with people digitally, you are no longer relevant. For me, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that I’m somebody to somebody special. If I’m that to one person, that’s all that matters.”
He recently had a performance of the track featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Clarkson, who understands the struggle of the independent artist, having come up through the industry as the first winner of “American Idol” back when the reality singing competition to mainstream success pipeline was nonexistent, loved what he did and left the door open for an in-person appearance down the road.
“I was able to get this opportunity without having to leave home,” said Smith. “To a certain extent, through all of the digitization of COVID, everyone is super prepared to create assets and are open to not necessarily needing to have someone in the studio in order to give them this opportunity.” Despite that, he heard through the grapevine that Clarkson’s band was extremely complimentary, so an in-person meeting may happen sooner than we think.
Consider Smith, along with many of his peers in the singer/songwriter pop sphere, such as Ben Folds, Jason Mraz, and AJR, under the umbrella of “underdog pop artists”: artists who hustle, who inspire, and who make it in spite of the opposition, but never fully reach the top. Smith, who has shown his desire to work hard and make it happen from day one, welcomed that concept with open arms. “That’s kind of the big thing about even the music that I’m writing right now,” he said. “I say that I write music for the dreamers of the world. With my next project, there’s a lot of these one word, iconic, types of titles that are telling stories of wanting to be something more, but also staying grounded. So, yeah, I like that, actually. I’m thinking I want to make that my bio. Like, ‘Your favorite pop/rock underdog.’”
“Now, my big dreams are that I still want to be at the pinnacle,” said Smith, who has no problem being an underdog, but wants to be the top dog. “I feel like I write music to fill stadiums, so that is a huge goal of mine. At the same time, for the sake of my own mental health, I also just try and be grateful for everything that I do have, and everything that I have been able to accomplish. I want to accomplish more, but I want to make sure that I don’t root my entire mental wellbeing on whether or not I reach the level of, say, Shawn Mendes.”
But, no matter what obstacles he faces, at the end of the day, he is in this for the long haul.
“I’ve had so many moments of self-doubt,” he said. “This is such a hard industry, and I’ll think, ‘Is it worth just doing something else?’ But then I’ll get a message from someone saying they heard a song that had such a profound impact on them and their life, so I know I have to keep going.”
You can listen to “Nobody” here, and check out the music video for the track below.
If you like what you’ve heard, be sure to follow Smith on social media via the links below.
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / TikTok / Spotify
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