Quick Q and A with Iain Campbell "Fred" Smith
 by Cliff Garber  ·  4 October 2008

In some circles, Iain Campbell Smith is known as Fred Smith. He’s from Australia and he can call himself anything he wants as long as he sings his terrific songs! I became enraptured with Iain when I found out about his peace-making trip to Papua New Guinea where he helped to bring about peace between two warring tribes. Imagine . . . getting enemies to unite with music. Check out this video of “When She Cries.” Amazing. It transports you to a different place and, yet, sadly it’s a universal story. For more information about Iain, go to www.iaincampbellsmith.com

We have permission to reproduce this excellent interview which was conducted by Sue Barrett who is an Australian music writer, whose interviews include Janis Ian, Anna McGarrigle, Karla Bonoff, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls), Ferron, Fred Small, Toshi Reagon, Joe Dolce, June Millington, Jess Klein, Holly Near, Nedra Johnson and Catie Curtis. Sue first came across Fred Smith when he was singing at Australia’s National Folk Festival (in a venue that transforms into the National Tally Room during Federal Elections). On the eve of his 2008 North American tour, Sue interviewed Fred for FolkBlog.

Tell us about your music (including the Frencham Smith duo) and the types of people who attend your concerts.

I write songs with stories and melodies. I present them either solo, in a duo with Liz Frencham, or with a more testosterone based band called the Fred Smith Band.

My last two solo albums have focused specifically on places I have lived when I wrote them: Bougainville and the United States. The two Frencham Smith albums I have done with Liz are about more personal/emotional/relational terrain.

The people who come to my concerts are generally grown ups who like a bit of protein in their music — thought, feeling, experience, narrative, humour, perspective.

In what ways, if any, has your music been influenced by North American music?

Profoundly I would say, as most contemporary singer/songwriters would. The palette I paint with, the idioms — country, blues, rock, pop — are all North American. Fingerpicking blues player Mississippi John Hurt is a big influence for me as a guitar player and my playing feeds my writing. The darker textures of Leonard Cohen, the whimsy/comedy of Paul Simon, Neil Young’s chord structures — all of these informed my vocabulary. I also listened a lot to Paul Kelly and the Beatles but maybe they too were making their own out of something that originated in North America. My most recent album, Texas, is all songs I wrote in and about the USA. I guess with this album I have used American forms to parody their country of origin, and to celebrate it where such is due.

When and where does your 2008 North American tour begin?

It begins in late September in Leavenworth, Washington State — in the Cascades. It’s a small town that has saved itself from economic obscurity by turning itself into a Bavarian theme park and hosting Octoberfests every month. Blokes get around in leather shorts carrying tubas and all the buildings have quaint triangular wooden eves, even the McDonald’s!

What can people expect from your performances on the tour?

I spent 2005–2007 touring the US but only in the last year there did I begin to see past my own preconceptions of the place clearly enough to start writing decent songs about it. The legacy of American cultural domination is that we all carry such a deep seated set of impressions of what America is that it takes some real immersion to see the place with one’s own eyes, as I did in Bougainville about which I knew nothing before I hit the tarmac. But towards the end of my stay there I did start to see it and feel it with my own equipment and I hemorrhaged and wound up with an album full of songs. And in those last few gigs in the US, I found the more I sang about Americans the more interested they became. Even if the image I portrayed was unflattering they loved it, which in part reflects that many Americans are feeling dismay about the way their country is going, or may suggest they didn’t get my jokes.

Are there phrases/concepts in your songs that you might need to translate?

Some. For example the Dennis Lillee [cricket] reference in my ‘Blue Guitar’ goes from “I hit a six off Dennis Lillee and I clean bowled Gavaskar” to “I scored 36 points against Kareem Adbul Jabbar”. Also I have to tell ‘em where Papua New Guinea is.

Will you be performing songs from your new solo CD, Texas?

I plan to play lots of tunes from Texas. As I said, Americans really respond to songs about their own place, and at last I feel I have something to offer them rather than the songs from a place faraway. I prefer to relate to people on their own terms. That’s what communication is about but it also demands comprehension — “See that you may paint, paint that you may see” in the words of Degas. In PNG and the Solomons, I sang in Pidgin and only played reggae.

Are you expecting to catch up with any musician friends on the tour?

I made lots of friends amongst musicians around the US and Canada. I have a three piece band in Washington DC and am looking forward to a couple of outings with them. I’ll also be doing a few shows with a touring buddy and songwriter by the name of Joe Jencks in Kansas and Colorado.

What have you been doing since you were living in North America?

I got back to Australia in November last year [2007]. I had Texas finished by Christmas and since then I have been touring very solidly with Liz Frencham or solo to promote that CD. Texas has been very warmly reviewed and radio has shown interest which has been gratifying. It has also been a great opportunity to reconnect with Australian audiences and to process my three years in America in a public kind of way.

Are there things that you’re particularly looking forward to on the tour?

I’m looking forward to reconnecting with friends and to playing my American songs to Americans, particularly in such a politically charged time!

What are your plans for the next year?

I’m working on an album called Urban Sea Shanties in collaboration with the Spooky Men’s Chorale — thinking man’s drinking songs. But I also have a bunch of new more reflective and personal songs accumulating — so I have to finish writing those and find a vessel for them.