Episode 130 features Theo Smith, who you may have heard on streaming music services as King Triumph.
We discuss his first album Everything is Fine, his music origin and hiatus from music, as well as, what got him back into it, how things have changed for him, what’s next, and so much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
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00:00:00:01 – 00:00:19:10
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com. Early internet offers practical fantasy and magic of the Plains. By the sword. The workweek shuffle playlist. And if you haven’t cracked the spine on any of the many book suggestions from last episode, what’s keeping you? This is The Palmer Files episode 130 with Theo Smith, who you may have heard on streaming music services as King Triumph.
00:00:19:25 – 00:01:01:57
Agent Palmer
We discuss his first album, Everything Is Fine, his music origin and his hiatus from music, as well as what got him back into it, how things have changed and what’s next. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:02:02 – 00:01:27:48
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to The Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 130th episode is Theo Smith, whose music you can listen to as King Triumph on your streaming platform of choice. And that’s really how I came to know Theo. First, I found him on his social media and gave his music a listen, specifically his first album, Everything Is Fine, which has been in regular rotation for me since and then invited him to come on the show.
00:01:27:48 – 00:01:50:20
Agent Palmer
And now that he’s here, you’ll hear us discuss that album and its creation. After a long hiatus from many things music, especially playing and writing, you’ll hear about process and Theo’s origin story, as well as learn what’s to come for King Triumph on the next album, which Theo is working towards. As you listen to me record this, all of that and a whole lot more is coming your way shortly.
00:01:50:20 – 00:02:15:30
Agent Palmer
But first, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can find all related ways to contact my guest, Theo and myself. In the show notes. You can find links to all of Theo’s music at King triumph.com. That’s King Tree. You mph.com, which will not only link you to all of his work on the streaming music platforms, but also his contact and connection information as well.
00:02:15:35 – 00:02:30:31
Agent Palmer
Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com. And of course email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
00:02:30:35 – 00:02:38:18
Agent Palmer
Theo, you just released your first solo album. What was that journey like? Well,
00:02:38:23 – 00:03:01:32
Theo Smith
I suppose it was one of learning. You know, I’ve been writing and recording music for decades at that point, and, sort of when the pandemic hit, I got a pandemic divorce, like a lot of folks did. I found myself sort of on my own, in my own space, for the first time in a long time.
00:03:01:37 – 00:03:35:45
Theo Smith
And, sort of rediscovered, the musical side of me. It kind of gone dormant there for a number of years. And, so I wanted to I want to finally put something out in now, you know, the, the musical landscape is such that there are digital publishing companies now where, you know, pretty much anyone can just pay and get their get their stuff out on, you know, Spotify and Apple Music and Amazon Music and all the other YouTube, all the other various, you know, platforms.
00:03:35:50 – 00:04:04:45
Theo Smith
And so I thought, you know, I want to do this, you know, I want at least have something out there. So, so yeah. So I did it. I, it took me probably about a year and a half. And I revisited a lot of older music, some of stuff that had already sort of been, worked on in to some degree, to varying degrees, and other stuff that sort of essentially was new, or started as something that was completely different by the end.
00:04:04:45 – 00:04:13:53
Theo Smith
So essentially new. Okay. But yeah, it was, I would say it was it was sort of a cathartic journey. It was,
00:04:13:57 – 00:04:22:52
Agent Palmer
And you played you it was a true solo album. Like you printed this thing up. You did all the all the instrumentation, everything.
00:04:22:57 – 00:04:30:37
Theo Smith
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t go so far as to compare myself to Prince, but, but, yeah, I either played or, or programed all of the music.
00:04:30:37 – 00:05:22:12
Agent Palmer
Okay. And, and I want to talk about the dormant side before we get into the album, because how long were you dormant and when do you say dormant? Right. Like, I, I, you know, I, I talk about this enough I should know, but like, a 14, 15 year old me picks up, an electric guitar for the first time, followed a month later by a bass guitar, which is really what I played in bands because, you know, and then, I think maybe, my, my nine year, I don’t know, maybe there’s probably a 15 year gap where I go from like, even in college, I’d noodle around on the bass
00:05:22:12 – 00:05:45:38
Agent Palmer
or guitar or whatever. And then, I ended up in what I like to call retail hell for, like, seven years. And I got my first professional gig for nine. And then when I was let go of that, I started to get back in it and it’s like, well, I, I own a house and I know I’m lucky to own a house, but it’s filled with amps, musical instruments.
00:05:45:49 – 00:06:07:53
Agent Palmer
I, you know, you know, now sitting here, I have, three bases, I have two electrical guitars. I have four acoustics. I, you know, at a certain point it was like, all right, I got to get back into this. But I did have a what I would call like at least a 15 year dormant period where I, I held on to these things, but I didn’t touch them.
00:06:07:58 – 00:06:12:41
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah. When you say dormant, were you noodling at all? Were.
00:06:12:46 – 00:06:43:13
Theo Smith
No. In fact, I had sold almost all of my gear. I, I kept a single acoustic guitar, which was the first guitar I bought, back in my teen years. Still have it somewhere. Okay. But, I didn’t play it. And so for, for a few years prior to when I sold everything off, you know, the, the amount of time that I spent practicing, the amount of time that I spent playing or recording or writing, you know, sort of dwindled.
00:06:43:13 – 00:07:05:34
Theo Smith
So from about, I would say 2010, I think I sold everything in like 2014 or 2015, you know, just got less and less and less. And then eventually I, I sort of was like at this point where I was in my mid 30s and, you know, and I don’t mean to disparage my ex-wife, but she didn’t really like the music that I wrote.
00:07:05:34 – 00:07:28:19
Theo Smith
So I sort of, I sort of just got it into my head that like, hey, maybe this isn’t this. This was younger me. This isn’t something that I should be pursuing now. I should be pursuing these other things part of my career. I should be going this, you know, back to school and, you know, learning about all this other stuff so that I can support, you know, family and do all that kind of stuff.
00:07:28:19 – 00:07:54:00
Theo Smith
And music was a, you know, pursuit of, of the past. And I’ve sort of past that point of my life. And, and so I just kind of stopped. I just kind of gave it up. But I never really found anything to replace it. Okay. No, there was never anything that, like, held the same sort of place in my soul as music.
00:07:54:05 – 00:08:19:57
Theo Smith
So. Yeah, so I would say then, you know, I mean, I guess pandemic, divorce, all that happened around 20, 20. And so it was really probably early 2021 when I started, you know, going to buy a new buy a new bass, you know, and, like, start practicing again and kind of get back into it. Then it slowly sort of evolved into, you know, the project that became, you know, my first album.
00:08:19:57 – 00:08:21:28
Theo Smith
Everything’s fine. So does it.
00:08:21:32 – 00:08:47:53
Agent Palmer
Still feel like I will say, as a personal note, I, I think my first love is still the bass guitar. I don’t know if I like I there were times when I am playing music where it ebbs and flow. It’s like, oh, I’m just on an acoustic kick. I’m in on an electric kick. But like, I still feel like a teenager when I strap on, a bass.
00:08:47:53 – 00:08:58:59
Agent Palmer
Like, I just, I just do, you you got away from it. I got away from it. I still feel like that now that I’m back in it. Does it did it come back?
00:08:59:04 – 00:09:19:52
Theo Smith
Yeah, I would say that. I would say a lot of it came back, although I still feel rusty or that I did in my prime. Today, you know, even today, but I think I have approaching how I write differently, or at least I have been. So, so it’s been okay. Okay. But, yeah, I mean, I hear you about the bass guitar.
00:09:19:52 – 00:09:36:54
Theo Smith
I was, I was prior to, you know, all this stuff in, in sort of the early aughts. I was in a band in Arizona, and I was the bass player and one of the singers. And I’ve always kind of loved bass. Bass is kind of my first, my first instrument, I guess I would say.
00:09:36:58 – 00:09:47:13
Agent Palmer
How did you get to it, though? I know legitimately I got to it because I was friends with a drummer and a guitarist, and they needed a bassist, and I was willing, you know, it was like, that’s.
00:09:47:24 – 00:10:06:42
Theo Smith
Yeah, it’s kind of how it evolves. That’s, I mean, that’s kind of the same thing for me. Like, okay, I had a, you know, a really good friend. I mean, he’s really I consider him my brother, but, you know, I started I sort of initially, like, his mom had an acoustic guitar around 13 years old.
00:10:06:42 – 00:10:29:13
Theo Smith
I decided I wanted to start playing it. So she let me take it, and I noodled on and figured a few things out. And then she decided that, like, oh, well, you know, the I was interested in it. I, I should, I should get her an interested in the guitar and he had no interest in playing it. But she got him lessons and he just took off like he just immediately excelled at it.
00:10:29:18 – 00:10:47:10
Theo Smith
Whereas, like, I kind of a she had lessons, you know, I was like, punk rock, you know? But, but yeah. So then, you know, just kind of was like, well, well, somebody needs to play bass. And I was like, oh, I’ll play bass. And so I kind of did both, you know, I would play acoustic guitar and a lot of the time and I practiced both.
00:10:47:15 – 00:10:57:52
Theo Smith
But bass was always kind of like, I don’t know, you know, in playing in, like, a band or a live setting, bass was always the one that, that I was on, for the most part, that her vocals. So.
00:10:58:04 – 00:11:28:19
Agent Palmer
Okay. And where because I, I’m still going to, give you the Prince, title just because anybody who makes an album solo and has instrumentation, it’s not just you and an acoustic guitar that that that’s printing it up because you also mixed it. Right? Okay. So yeah, you did everything right. Where does the drums come in and the percussion, like, did you I mean, I mean, I have an electric kit that I can doodle on.
00:11:28:19 – 00:11:37:26
Agent Palmer
I can be bad. I, I’m not horrible, but I can be bad, right? Yeah. Where does that come in?
00:11:37:31 – 00:12:05:47
Theo Smith
It’s, programing. Okay. So, Yeah, I actually got started drum programing pretty early on in my musical journey. A lot of it was because I wanted to do I have, like, ideas that I wanted to explore, and I didn’t know how to play drums. And, so it was just kind of easier to get a drum machine, and, like, figure out how to program a drum machine.
00:12:05:52 – 00:12:28:30
Theo Smith
And so depending on the song, I would approach it differently. So these days I mean, you know, they have, you know, drum synths that sound like you can’t tell if you’re if you can program a model, you can’t tell it’s not a room drummer playing. But some songs don’t call for that. Some songs you want to have like more of an electronic vibe or more of a, you know, sort of a dance vibe or something that’s going to sound a little less like a human playing.
00:12:28:35 – 00:12:54:44
Theo Smith
But other ones, you know, you want to try to at least I want to try to mimic it as much as I can. So in those scenarios, I’ve always tried to sort of put myself in the headspace of a drummer as much as I can, and try to figure out, like, how can I program something that sounds as realistic as possible and like where I’m not doing something where a drummer, like, physically could not play it like like the drummer would have to have three arms to play the speech, you know?
00:12:54:48 – 00:13:07:47
Theo Smith
So, you know, that’s sort of the mindset that I go into what I’m when I’m working on something like that. And those tend to be more like rock songs or things that are more sort of traditional in that, you know, in that sort of rock genre.
00:13:07:52 – 00:13:49:59
Agent Palmer
Now, I, I have a confession to make. I have mixed my own songs and songs from my friends, as that 15 year old kid with a Tascam Porta Studio eight track, and I think we had a four track as well. And so finally coming around to podcasting and getting back into what I like to call the audio space and playing with a mixer and like, good microphones and I’ve, I still have my, my, all my original like amps and cables and everything.
00:13:49:59 – 00:14:10:58
Agent Palmer
I, I’ve been playing with this stuff for a very long time. Is any of that original music good? No. Would I consider doing it, for someone else? Yes. Because I, I don’t know that I, I don’t know that the drive to write a song is still in there like it was, but I also don’t know that I had it back then.
00:14:10:58 – 00:14:29:36
Agent Palmer
I think I just enjoyed in, like, I maybe I’m just a gearhead who just kind of enjoys playing the instruments occasionally. Do you go back that far? As far as writing, because, you know, there are plenty of us or people around me that I know never got into writing the. I just like playing, you know, so well.
00:14:29:38 – 00:14:31:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Does the writing go back that far?
00:14:31:55 – 00:14:59:30
Theo Smith
Oh, yeah. That’s the primary motivator. Okay. Yeah. So sort of while my friends when I was growing up were sort of honing their skills with their instrument, I just wanted to make songs. Okay. So I focused less on becoming good at any single instrument and more on, I want to write a song, I’m going to write a song and I’m going to make it happen, record it however I possibly can.
00:14:59:34 – 00:15:18:19
Theo Smith
So that’s drum machines and, you know, playing bass when I can, or playing guitar or, you know, I mean, like, I would, I had like Casio keyboards, I would hook up in like kind of hammer out, like, you know, bad synth lines and stuff on it, you know, just anything I could, just sort of get it there, you know?
00:15:18:24 – 00:15:21:36
Theo Smith
That’s always kind of been my main focus is this is the songwriting, for sure.
00:15:21:36 – 00:15:40:25
Agent Palmer
And have you and you’ve been in bands since then? Did you write songs in bands? I did, yeah. How was the collaboration from like starting out as, like, they can get good, they can get chops. I want to write the songs to like, oh, I got to collaborate with somebody else.
00:15:40:25 – 00:16:09:14
Theo Smith
Yeah, it depended on the band. So some of them, it was more of a collaborative approach, with like 1 or 2 other members and, and you kind of present it to, you know, the other people who were in there and, kind of let them take their parts as, you know, as they they could figure it out, like you, I’ve, I’ve always been kind of loathe to precisely dictate, like, play it exactly like it was written, you know, exactly like it is only recording.
00:16:09:19 – 00:16:30:34
Theo Smith
You know, I was in another I was in another band for a while where I was just the singer. I was basically, I didn’t participate in songwriting writing at all. They just kind of brought me in to sing and, and that was fine. And I loved the music they wrote, so it worked out pretty well. And then, you know, the last one I was in, it was very collaborative.
00:16:30:34 – 00:16:44:39
Theo Smith
We would all just kind of get in a room and play together and sort of jam isn’t really the right word, because we weren’t really a jam band. But, you know, we would kind of play and then come up with stuff that we liked and then sort of flesh that out into a section and then figure stuff out.
00:16:44:39 – 00:17:08:57
Theo Smith
And some of the times the guitarist would bring in stuff or the drummer would actually play guitar sometimes, and he’d have like a thing that he wrote and we’d figure it out and where I’d bring in a partner, you know, we’d go from there and it wasn’t necessarily always, limited to the instrument that we played, you know, and the actual sort of live setting, like, you know, I would bring in, I’ll, you know, here’s some guitar parts I wrote and give it to the band and then we’d, you know, go from there or whatever.
00:17:08:57 – 00:17:26:49
Agent Palmer
So did you, did you get to do a van tour at any point in all of that? Oh, I wish, because I never did. Like I’ve talked to people that have. Everybody says it was horrible and yet it was the best. Like no one says it was great. I mean, they all say in hindsight it was great. I never got to.
00:17:26:54 – 00:17:38:52
Agent Palmer
Yeah. The closest I ever got was a couple of, like, school dances, a couple battle of the bands, and the rest of it was just literally jamming with friends. That’s. Yeah. That’s it. Yeah.
00:17:38:57 – 00:17:49:24
Theo Smith
Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, I wish I played around Arizona with my last band, but, But yeah, no, nothing that I got, I got as far as doing a van tour. That would have been awesome. We would have had fun.
00:17:49:28 – 00:18:18:39
Agent Palmer
So we fast forward all this time. You have all this time, in, in the pandemic, newly single. And you’re like, I’m going to get back into it. Was it I mean, like, as cliche as it is, was it like riding a bike? Like were you just immediately like, I finally, you know, you got the new electric guitar, you probably got a bass, you know, you got you, you geared back up and then you were like, oh, I know I yeah, let’s go.
00:18:18:43 – 00:18:19:22
Agent Palmer
00:18:19:27 – 00:18:41:08
Theo Smith
Somewhat. I would say it kind of took me about six months to settle back in. Okay. But I mean, it wasn’t, it didn’t it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I a lot of it was, a lot of it was getting sort of back into ProTools, which is the, the digital audio workstation I used to record and to write and stuff.
00:18:41:12 – 00:19:06:07
Theo Smith
Okay. And sort of learning that again, because I like to for me, the process of writing is also the process of recording. Okay. At least it has been up, you know, for a long time. And up until this point, I may try to decouple that in the future and try different tactic, but for the for the time being, that’s how I, I tend to do it.
00:19:06:12 – 00:19:27:01
Theo Smith
And so, you know, it being sort of like my digital sketchpad, you know, it’s a really important tool and sort of getting comfortable with it again was I think the, the biggest part of that. And then once I was, it was like I was able to just kind of get my stuff down or bring up older stuff and listen to it and go like, oh, that’s got a kernel of a good idea.
00:19:27:01 – 00:19:35:38
Theo Smith
I want to expand on that. Or, oh, what was I thinking? You know, let’s throw that one back in the band and not listen to it again. You know, so I.
00:19:35:43 – 00:19:57:41
Agent Palmer
I mean, very dangerous question, but, like, did you need this time, for all those ideas and, you know, to, for you to be able to tell a good idea from a bad idea, like, because I, I’ve, I’ve looked back at even stuff I wrote six months ago that I’m like, that’s okay. But then I’ll be like, oh, but five years ago, that was amazing.
00:19:57:41 – 00:20:16:38
Agent Palmer
But I wouldn’t have recognized that at the time. You know, for the blog, it’s just like, oh, this is my next post, you know, or, you know, that’s an episode I did. It was mixed. Okay. And then like, I go back to like, this is great, but like, I, I need space. I almost crave it in all of my processes.
00:20:16:38 – 00:20:34:24
Agent Palmer
Like where, like, is this I, I don’t want to get into the lyrics, which I love, but that that stuff is very much, post, pandemic, mindset. But like, musically, was this something you could have done had you not given it up?
00:20:34:29 – 00:20:35:11
Theo Smith
But,
00:20:35:16 – 00:20:36:16
Agent Palmer
I don’t know.
00:20:36:21 – 00:21:00:35
Theo Smith
You know, probably not. I, I think you do. I think I think where the album ended up was a result of probably that break. But also probably a new set of influences. So the stuff that I listened to changed pretty dramatically from the time that I sort of stopped working on music to the time that I picked it up again.
00:21:00:35 – 00:21:17:34
Theo Smith
So, you know, I listen to a whole lot less rock and roll these days that I used to. Okay, not that there’s anything wrong with rock and roll, but, I mean, that was kind of like my defining genre, right? A loved rock n roll. That was sort of how I wrote music, how I thought about writing music.
00:21:17:39 – 00:21:40:31
Theo Smith
And then, you know, as the years went on and as sort of the practice faded, you know, for that period of time, I mean, I got into a whole bunch of other stuff. I got real heavy into classical music for a while. I got real into, like, anime music. Okay. Which, I mean, you know, a lot of it is rock and roll, but, you know, just kind of with its own, there’s also a very flavor like.
00:21:40:36 – 00:21:54:08
Agent Palmer
Electronic, like, not Nine Inch Nails, like like I like to I like to say that anime music is like Nine Inch Nails, but happy. Yeah. So I get it. It’s it’s there, but it’s not. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:54:12 – 00:22:15:22
Theo Smith
So I mean, yeah, so that I got into R&B, you know, just getting into like a stuff that I guess I had previously not, been as interested in. And so I feel like that had, an influence on what ultimately I put out, even if, like, I would say the influence is probably greater now. But, yeah, I think you can hear it on there.
00:22:15:22 – 00:22:42:48
Theo Smith
There’s a handful of songs that are that are pretty much the way they were written back in the day, like, let me think like there’s like maybe two songs on that album that didn’t significantly change. Okay. And, but the rest, I mean, had some pretty wild changes from like, the original versions and some of them I have like 4 or 5 different versions of them that I’ve recorded over the years.
00:22:42:53 – 00:23:16:46
Agent Palmer
So what was I like? I mean, that must have been, even aside from the album and what becomes on the album, like, that must be a, what? I like a trip going and being like, all right, well, this was the first iteration and this was the second iteration, and this is the third. Or like and and to sit down, during a pandemic, when all of us have nothing but time and like, take the time to take in all those versions like, that’s, was it time travel?
00:23:16:46 – 00:23:19:48
Agent Palmer
Like, what was that like? I.
00:23:19:48 – 00:23:36:14
Theo Smith
Mean, it was it was cool. Okay. It was, it was cool to revisit some of that stuff, like, because, you know, I mean, I like the music that I write, so, you know, and, and I guess I am my primary audience is me. And I hope that other people like it, but, I mean, I write the stuff that I want to hear.
00:23:36:14 – 00:23:53:19
Theo Smith
And so, so hearing that, that other stuff, I mean, a lot of my brain was going like, well, I hope I’ve improved as a, you know, recording engineer, and I hope I recoup improved as a mixer because some of this stuff is poorly done in that way. But, but like the, the, the ideas are good.
00:23:53:24 – 00:24:13:15
Theo Smith
Okay. You know, or this song is good like the bones of the song is good. So then, you know, how do I take it to the next level? Or, you know, like I said, occasionally I come across a song and be like, oh, well, that’s maybe not so great, and maybe this one doesn’t come out of the, you know, out of the catalog and get published or anything like that.
00:24:13:20 – 00:24:22:18
Theo Smith
You know, but even those, even those old ones that are so great, I mean, I don’t know, there’s something there, there’s like a, there’s a,
00:24:22:23 – 00:24:24:05
Agent Palmer
Energy, passion, like.
00:24:24:05 – 00:24:41:52
Theo Smith
Yeah. I mean, or just even, just like, I was trying something even if it didn’t work. Okay? You know, it’s like, I’m so glad that I. I was so glad that I tried it because some of the some of are weird, you know, at least they’re weird to me. You know, where I’m at. Maybe it was experimenting with a new technique or something like that.
00:24:41:57 – 00:24:43:50
Theo Smith
You know, it just didn’t work, and that’s okay.
00:24:43:56 – 00:24:51:49
Agent Palmer
I mean, this is going to sound like a very, personal question, but, like, are are you afraid to fail?
00:24:51:54 – 00:25:27:18
Theo Smith
Oh, every time. Yeah. Everyone is, I think. But yeah, for sure. And I think that held me back for years. Okay. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think I’m less afraid to fail these days, but, but I think that was a primary factor as to why I kind of gave up the pursuit of music. Not even, you know, back in, like, 2015, but there’s a whole section, I guess, that I haven’t really mentioned, but like, after I worked in LA for a while at a recording studio and was sort of pursuing the music industry, at one point in my life.
00:25:27:18 – 00:25:49:43
Theo Smith
And, and it was that, I think primarily that fear of failure that, ended up steering me towards more, you know, normal paths in life. Okay. And, you know, that’s fine. That’s, you know, you end up where you end up and, you know, no regrets. But looking back with clear eyes, I mean, for sure.
00:25:49:54 – 00:25:50:15
Theo Smith
Yeah. Okay.
00:25:50:29 – 00:26:23:17
Agent Palmer
Because I’m, I came across you randomly on threads and I say randomly because I’m a lurker on threads, such to an extent that I’m probably just at whim of every algorithmic change they make. And it’s like, I will try to follow people when I see stuff, but I’m still not quite sure I want to look back in the day, I was a heavy Twitter user.
00:26:23:22 – 00:26:47:39
Agent Palmer
And so I don’t know that I want to invest any time into any one of these anymore. Like, I, I think I was there at for at a certain specific time at its heyday, and I don’t know that I how much I want to invest, but I’m also in this place where I’m taking a musical journey. And I’m listening to a whole bunch of like, older stuff.
00:26:47:53 – 00:27:12:13
Agent Palmer
But I’m also trying to be open, to new stuff. And part of that, is because of Taylor Swift, because I, and I still haven’t listened to the new album because it’s a double album and I’m, I’m listening to other stuff. But like, I wanted to educate myself and I was like, I, I know of Taylor Swift, kind of like I know of Michael Jackson and I know of Prince.
00:27:12:13 – 00:27:31:35
Agent Palmer
The differences, Prince and Michael Jackson. I’ve heard their music and Taylor Swift. I was like, I don’t know anything. So I was like, I’m just going to listen to her discography. You know? I’m I’m going to do it. And I did it. And it kind of opened my eyes to like, all right, maybe the some of the songs aren’t for me, but like, she’s a really good you, she or the people.
00:27:31:35 – 00:27:54:31
Agent Palmer
She’s working with great songwriters. I have some problems with the way the albums are put together as, but I think the album as an art form is something we may or may not be losing, and that’s a whole different discussion. But it opened my eyes. So like, you came across my feed and I was like, I’m just I’m just going to listen to it like I don’t.
00:27:54:36 – 00:28:22:18
Agent Palmer
I have no expectations. It’s I don’t even know what the, the status update was, but clearly you’re not telling me all of your musical interests, your your background, your history, like where it comes from. I’m just like, okay, let’s hit play. And I liked it, and I invited you on, and that’s why you’re here. But it’s also like, I heard a lot of me in your music, which is the other reason you’re here.
00:28:22:23 – 00:28:51:26
Agent Palmer
It’s not necessarily something I would have normally listened to, but what? You know, I’ve listened to it a few times since that initial thing, and I think that you and I probably have similar backgrounds, or overlaps, and influences, but there are I just, I think I like the poetry of your lyrics and I think you I have a friend who’s self-described not a lyrics guy.
00:28:51:31 – 00:29:21:24
Agent Palmer
But that’s always the first thing I’m gonna make or break. You know, you can create an earworm if I think the lyrics are dumb, I’m done. I’m out like, it’s. It’s fine. It’s just. And everybody’s different. But it also, all of that leads me to this question for you, which is, and I know it’s probably different for each song, but generally speaking, what comes first, the melody or the lyrics?
00:29:21:29 – 00:29:44:28
Theo Smith
Yeah. I mean, it really does depend on the song. I would say for those songs, most of the time the lyrics came first. Okay, there are handful that did not like Everything’s Fine. The actual song, Everything’s Fine, that was one of the last ones to have lyrics written. And I was like, what is the melody to this song?
00:29:44:30 – 00:30:00:22
Theo Smith
What is the melody to the song? What am I going to sing? And I was like, oh, I’ve got that piano part in there. That’s the melody. I’m just going to sing the piano part. And then once I had that, I was like, okay, now I’ve got a like a cadence and I’ve got you know, notes, so I can write lyrics to that.
00:30:00:26 – 00:30:31:56
Theo Smith
I would say with the new stuff I’ve been working on, I’ve been taking that approach a little bit more. Okay. But yeah, it really does depend on the song. So like sometimes like, especially recently, you know, I’d say in the last year, year and a half or so, I will hear ideas in my head and sometimes I will get the kernel of like, lyrics in my head, and I’ll wake up and 130 in the morning and, like, run out to the garage and, like, sing into my phone, okay, you know, to like, get the idea down so that the next morning I can go back in and, like, try to flesh
00:30:31:56 – 00:30:37:54
Theo Smith
it out a little bit more and, and really kind of capture that. But but yeah. So sometimes that’s how it will come.
00:30:37:54 – 00:31:00:25
Agent Palmer
I don’t, I mean, I don’t envy you like because I as a writer, I’m just like, oh, I gotta write this down. Like I the complexity of I have to write this down and I have to sing it or. Yeah, get the melody somehow. I mean, I know we’re blessed with microphones everywhere, but that there’s there’s hearing it in your head and there’s getting it out.
00:31:00:30 – 00:31:04:33
Agent Palmer
It recorded. And those two things are not easy.
00:31:04:38 – 00:31:08:25
Theo Smith
Yeah, yeah. No one wants to hear those voice memos. I’ll tell you that.
00:31:08:30 – 00:31:12:50
Agent Palmer
But you know what to do with them, to make them so we do want to hear them.
00:31:12:55 – 00:31:17:21
Theo Smith
Yeah, I like to think so. So. Okay. Preciate that.
00:31:17:26 – 00:31:47:48
Agent Palmer
All right. So we’re quick left turn. Sure. You’ve, you’ve you’ve been able to support yourself in outside of music. Music. It’s a passion. When you’re not, when you weren’t playing music, were you still listening? Like, I mean, because, and, you know, you said that the listening has changed over the years. Classical and, you know. But were you listening, was it just background?
00:31:47:48 – 00:32:18:18
Agent Palmer
Were you listening intently? How were you listening? I guess because obviously, and I’m in a I’m in a project for a moment when I’m listening as a 15 year old with my new bass, I’m listening for. Do I think I can play this, or, you know, you know what? What can I steal from this? Right. And, you know, thankfully, being the age I am, I had music videos.
00:32:18:18 – 00:32:43:50
Agent Palmer
So it was also like, okay, well, I mean, two of my big influences, no surprise to anybody, are like, Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith and Duff McKagan from guns N roses. And it’s like, well, Tom played with his fingers and Duff played with a pick and I, I, I one of the things I learned was while I was kind of a bit of a finger snob, you can’t play duff with your fingers, you know, you need the pick for whatever.
00:32:43:50 – 00:33:03:47
Agent Palmer
So like I, I know that, but that was the way I listened. It was not. I guess this sounds maybe a little weird, but I wasn’t listening for pleasure. There was an educational part of it. Obviously did that change as well, like.
00:33:03:51 – 00:33:30:14
Theo Smith
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I got to a point before I sort of went on my musical hiatus that, it was hard to listen for pleasure. Okay. So I was really analytical about everything that I listened to, and this was sort of, you know, as I was coming out of LA and I had been working in the recording studio and had really been sort of focusing on trying to learn the skills, of that environment and.
00:33:30:19 – 00:33:37:00
Agent Palmer
Listening for like, layering as well as like, volume. And where does that come in? Where does that fade out?
00:33:37:02 – 00:34:04:57
Theo Smith
Yeah. Everything like, yeah. This from the songwriting to the arrangement of the song to, you know, the mix of the song, all that kind of stuff, like really sort of. Yeah. It was very analytical in how I approached listening to music, which made it made it challenging to enjoy. Okay. And then, you know, as that sort of era of my life faded and sort of music faded with it for, you know, at least creatively, music faded with it for a period of time.
00:34:05:02 – 00:34:26:24
Theo Smith
I got really like, I would say that there was a period of time where I really just didn’t enjoy listening to music or new music, like when I was. I mean, I like classical music a lot, but I was listening to all of Baroque. That’s sort of probably my favorite era. And at the same time listening to like, basically just yacht rock and for like a few years, that’s like all I listened to.
00:34:26:29 – 00:34:45:34
Theo Smith
And it sort of just was like this weird palate cleanser in a way where I didn’t have to think about the music too much, like with the classical stuff. It’s like I could just appreciate it because, like, I know I can’t play that. Okay? Right. So I was just like, my mind didn’t need to analyze it. And the yacht rock was just like, I mean, yacht rock is good, but, you know, I don’t know.
00:34:45:35 – 00:35:03:29
Theo Smith
I didn’t need to like, think about it. That part either. And it was once I started getting back into, working on music for myself again, I was, I think I’ve been able to find a sweet spot where, like, I can listen to something now and, like, enjoy it. And I don’t need to be in that analytical mindset.
00:35:03:33 – 00:35:13:49
Theo Smith
But if I want to get there, you know, I can put that hat on and really, like, listen critically to something and try to pull out the things that I want to learn from that piece of music. Okay, so.
00:35:13:54 – 00:35:47:42
Agent Palmer
And I guess, do you, what’s the best way to put this? Who is your, record store clerk? Like, are you a, slave to the algorithm? Do you have friends or, you know, like, who is telling you like, oh, hey, you like. And it’s not, you know, I’ve I’ve started kind of turned this corner where new music is not just new music, it’s not 20, 24 music.
00:35:47:42 – 00:36:16:12
Agent Palmer
It’s also new to me. Music. Yeah. Which, is a very, what I will say a vast, like, nebula of things because it’s like, well, the even your favorite bands probably release stuff you’ve never heard unless you’ve literally done the discography thing. And and we all have our favorites. We probably forget. Right? So, like, new to me, is is important to me now.
00:36:16:12 – 00:36:37:40
Agent Palmer
And I have a friend who’s got a music podcast and I’ve some friends that still listen all the time. So I, I think between like 6 or 7 people. I have a record store clerk, in my life, I’m, I don’t know, do you have that or are you just kind of, you know.
00:36:37:45 – 00:36:56:29
Theo Smith
It’s a it’s a combination of things these days. I would say, I’ve got a couple friends that I trust their music taste, for sure. So if they recommend something, I’ll go and check it out. It’s not always 100%, you know, like, they might dig something that isn’t really for me. You know, I might dig something that’s not really for them, but I’m always willing to give it a try if they suggested.
00:36:56:40 – 00:37:16:20
Theo Smith
Okay. And more often than not, I would say they, they, you know, they they know my taste. Okay. You know, for some of the stuff, like, especially, like with the anime music, I was watching a lot of anime and so they’d have, like, an opening song and an ending song, and I would figure out who that was on ones that I like.
00:37:16:20 – 00:37:33:25
Theo Smith
And then from there, sort of like I was like, oh, okay, well, I’ve seen this artist Lisa comes up a whole bunch, like, I’m going to look into her music or, you know, and then that we kind of branch out from there or whatever. There was some algorithm stuff, especially with sort of like alt R&B and whatnot, which I’ve been exploring over the last few years.
00:37:33:30 – 00:37:51:40
Theo Smith
I don’t know the artists well enough. So, you know, find like a playlist and then like, go through. And when I really like on artists, then it’s like, okay, now I’m going to deep dive into this one’s catalog. Grab all their stuff, put it in a separate playlist, and just kind of go through and really learn, you know, that artists, you know, catalog.
00:37:51:40 – 00:38:14:44
Theo Smith
And, I like doing that. And then over the last year, I would say threads, honestly. Okay. The music community on threads has been really cool. And, there are some amazing musicians up there like it, just people who blow me away. And I am so glad that I found their music. And it’s just kind of awesome to be a part of that.
00:38:14:44 – 00:38:31:51
Theo Smith
Like, I feel like threads, at least from the music community side of things, is in this sort of sweet spot right now where it’s, you know, there’s no ads on it yet. There’s the toxicity isn’t really there, you know, a little bit. It’s always online and, you know, there’s always a little bit of online toxicity, but you can ignore it pretty well.
00:38:31:51 – 00:38:47:27
Theo Smith
You block people. You, you know, you you don’t engage. And really it’s mostly a positive experience. And I think the people on there want to make it a positive experience and uplift everyone. Yeah. So that I would say in the last year I found some amazing music through threads. Okay.
00:38:47:31 – 00:39:17:57
Agent Palmer
The only the only one that neither of us have mentioned. And this is gonna sound ridiculous is my blog has, I’ve made some thematic playlists, one that has been drafted. I don’t know if it will be out before or after this episode, but it’s days of the week. So, here are my top five Monday songs.
00:39:17:57 – 00:39:46:50
Agent Palmer
Tuesday songs when I’m going to do a separate weekend one for, Saturday and Sunday. And I’ve also done like months and like I’ve done other thematic ones and, and really it’s a way for me to break the algorithm a bit. Because if you look up under Songs Monday on Spotify, you will still have a week’s worth of music to listen to, like.
00:39:46:50 – 00:39:47:06
Theo Smith
Oh, I’m.
00:39:47:06 – 00:40:12:55
Agent Palmer
Sure sample and it’s a way to, discover artists that, you know, and go, oh, okay, I didn’t know, David Bowie wrote a song about Thursday. And it’s also like, oh, but of course, for my month thing, I’m going to use, waiting for October by Polaris. Like, so there’s the things, you know, and the things you discover along the way to do it.
00:40:12:55 – 00:40:40:43
Agent Palmer
And it’s, it’s the closest thing I’ve come to like a mixtape for myself where I can still surprise me. Because to do the research, the homework, you have to listen to the songs. I can’t listen to everything, and I’ll admit that, but I listen to a great deal before I narrow it down. And that’s kind of the only other place where it’s like, even if you don’t have a blog, like I do like challenge yourself to make a thematic playlist of something.
00:40:40:43 – 00:41:08:32
Agent Palmer
I did one, I did two recently. I don’t remember, it’s this year. Last year, one called promise and one called promises, and it was only songs that were titled either Promise or Promises, and there was enough where I could do a playlist of the singular and the playlist of the plural, and it was just kind of wild, as a ride to go through and be like this.
00:41:08:32 – 00:41:20:58
Agent Palmer
Many songs have been written about, like just with the title of this One Word or This other. It it’s kind of wild, but it’s, you know, even if you don’t have a blog like, it’s it’s a fun exercise.
00:41:21:04 – 00:41:23:17
Theo Smith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds cool.
00:41:23:22 – 00:41:33:47
Agent Palmer
Yeah. All right. So when you’re not in the studio, write writing music down. What what are you doing for fun?
00:41:33:51 – 00:41:52:28
Theo Smith
I mean, hanging out with my wife. You know, we, have a good time, hanging out with my stepson. We’re playing video games, so I guess that’s kind of my main stuff. Okay. You know, probably not too exciting outside of, outside of music.
00:41:52:28 – 00:42:28:23
Agent Palmer
Well, no, I see, I ask because music’s your passion, but it is also a pursuit. And you need something that’s for you. Like. And I, I talk to a lot of creatives on this show, and a lot of people monetize their passions and they don’t have another one. And in the back to replenish with. So if, if, if, if, you know, hanging with the fame recharges your battery if playing video games and you do that not streaming and not sharing it with the world, you know, that’s I’m happy that you have these other things.
00:42:28:28 – 00:42:29:03
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:42:29:07 – 00:42:35:14
Theo Smith
Yeah. The, the gaming stuff. Like I can’t, I can’t be in the, in the mindset of working on music and gaming at the same time.
00:42:35:14 – 00:42:36:30
Agent Palmer
Oh, that’s even better.
00:42:36:35 – 00:42:53:15
Theo Smith
Yeah. So it’s like if I’m taking a break, it’s like, I’ll take a break for a week or two. You know, have fun with a game or something. I don’t take it too seriously because I’m just I’m too old for that. Like, I don’t I don’t have the reflexes to keep up with these young gamers. Like when my stepson is just, you know, he’s playing everything on the hardest difficulty.
00:42:53:15 – 00:43:10:42
Theo Smith
And just like, you know, kicking butt. And I’m like, put me on story mode, man, I don’t care. You know, but, but yeah, it’s just sort of like a way to turn off my brain and then reset and get back into it. But if I’m, if I’m working on music, then typically I’m kind of like, that’s my main focus for every time.
00:43:10:47 – 00:43:11:12
Theo Smith
So.
00:43:11:21 – 00:43:27:34
Agent Palmer
Okay. And so everything is fine. Was 2022. Yeah. It’s two years later. Yeah. You, you’ve mentioned it, you’re still working on stuff. Yeah. So there’s another one coming.
00:43:27:39 – 00:43:30:26
Theo Smith
Yep yep yep.
00:43:30:31 – 00:43:36:18
Agent Palmer
Do you envision keeping going I mean. Oh yeah. Okay.
00:43:36:23 – 00:43:51:40
Theo Smith
Yeah. So I mean next album is going to be titled I’m Dreaming. I’m awake. And that’s, you know, largely influenced by the fact that at least half the songs have come at least in part, from a dream. Okay, this is waking.
00:43:51:40 – 00:43:52:35
Agent Palmer
Up at 130.
00:43:52:43 – 00:44:14:25
Theo Smith
Yeah, okay. I mean, I’ve just hear stuff and I’ll wake up and, you know, get that, get that idea, you know, recorded so that I can, you know, flesh it out and, but, you know, it’s it’s also a sort of thematically, I think takes takes the next step from Everything’s Fine. So like, Everything’s Fine was very much sort of about endings in a lot of ways.
00:44:14:30 – 00:44:37:12
Theo Smith
Whereas I feel like I’m dreaming. I’m awake. The idea behind it is, what’s the thing after the ending? Okay. You know, because everything’s cyclical, so, you know, okay, we’ve come to the end, you know, what’s the next beginning? And so that’s sort of where, I’m going with this one. And, the songs are mostly done.
00:44:37:16 – 00:44:53:42
Theo Smith
Two of them still need lyrics recorded. And that’s been delayed because of all the, you know, unfortunate illness I’ve had recently. And then I need to mix it, which I’m waiting for my left ear to get better. And then once it’s done, once it’s done, I’m in full on mixing mode. So I’m hoping to have it done here early fall.
00:44:53:53 – 00:45:09:19
Theo Smith
Okay, that’s the goal. At least I want to have it done this summer. But this is kind of kind of delayed it. So, yeah. And then after that, I’ve kind of already got ideas percolating for everything I want to do after that, but we’ll see how it how it shakes out. You know, I’ve got ideas.
00:45:09:19 – 00:45:30:05
Theo Smith
I have, like, experiments I want to do. So I kind of want to do a series of EP’s where it’s just sort of like I’m. I’m pursuing like a specific limitation, you know, like, okay, I want to just go out and sample stuff, and I want to create stuff only from the samples I’ve created or, you know, I want to use, like, only sounds like dislike.
00:45:30:10 – 00:45:52:11
Theo Smith
What does that become? You know, or I want to, you know, I’m going to write a album where my main inspiration is just colors, okay. You know, or whatever, you know, just something like that. Where, where it’s it’s just, I don’t know, taking some idea, taking some limitation and then seeing what you can do within the confines of that.
00:45:52:16 – 00:46:12:56
Theo Smith
And I envision that as sort of some EP’s, not necessarily full lengths. And then, you know, for my third full length album, I don’t know what the songs will be like yet, but I already know that I want it to be a collaboration more with other musicians, that I want it to be, less programing, less electronic, and more like real live instruments.
00:46:13:05 – 00:46:25:15
Theo Smith
I’ll kind of get back to, to a band setting. So we’ll see how that shapes up. That won’t be for a few years at least. But, but that’s the idea as it stands at this moment in time at least.
00:46:25:15 – 00:46:50:40
Agent Palmer
I mean, it it it sounds exciting, and I, I, I imagine. Oh, God, what I’m trying to think. I can’t think of an example that’s current, but like, I remember, I did an album where it was like him and a different collaborator on every single track, and it feels like you’re going to get there sooner than he did.
00:46:50:40 – 00:47:05:35
Agent Palmer
But like, it feels like everybody wants to do that at some point where it’s like, oh, I, I just like a collection of songs. I collaborated with cool people that I know. That seems kind of amazing.
00:47:05:39 – 00:47:27:29
Theo Smith
Yeah. It helps you grow. You know, you need to you need to play with other people. And it’s been it’s been too long for me. I want to, you know, you you grow when you have other people, you know, contributing or pushing you in a new direction, you know, or telling you when your stuff is bad, you know, I mean, and that’s fine too.
00:47:27:34 – 00:47:33:37
Theo Smith
So, so yeah. So I would be excited to collaborate for sure. So hopefully it all come to fruition.
00:47:33:44 – 00:47:42:14
Agent Palmer
We’ll see.
00:47:42:19 – 00:48:04:03
Agent Palmer
Thinking back on Theo’s journey, it feels like there was an inevitability in his return to music. I don’t say that because we had the conversation and he’s back now. I say that because he gave up music but didn’t replace it with anything. To me, that’s the key difference in knowing he was going to eventually come back. That detail is everything.
00:48:04:08 – 00:48:32:42
Agent Palmer
Giving things up for whatever reason happens to us for good habits, bad habits, hobbies, many things. But often they get replaced by other things. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but for how important music was to Theo to just have that void for so long. In hindsight, it definitely feels like an inevitability. But while that may be, I can say that I’m impressed with his drive to just make songs.
00:48:32:47 – 00:48:56:09
Agent Palmer
He obviously enjoys playing, but his creative drive is so strong. And now that it’s back. I look forward to what he’s going to do with his next album and beyond. What’s after the thing after the ending? It’s a pretty philosophical question, full of intrigue and mystery, but it has never stopped religions or societies from guessing, and it’ll continue to drive the human race for the rest of time.
00:48:56:24 – 00:49:15:46
Agent Palmer
Meanwhile, give King Triumph a listen. I believe Theo is doing some great work, and I want to spread the word to as many people as possible. And if you listen to the album, everything is fine. After you listen to this episode, let Theo know. Perhaps depending on you know when you are listening. His follow up album will be just around the corner.
00:49:15:51 – 00:49:35:29
Agent Palmer
Anyway, thank you for listening to the Palmer Files episode 130. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact my guest, Theo Smith, and myself in the show notes. There you can find links to all of Theo’s music at King triumph.com.
00:49:35:29 – 00:49:55:40
Agent Palmer
That’s King Tree um.com, which will link you not only to all of his work on streaming music sites, but all of his contact and connection information as well. The music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Email can be sent to this show at The Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent Palmer.
00:49:55:41 – 00:50:00:54
Agent Palmer
Dot com.
00:50:00:59 – 00:50:14:17
Agent Palmer
You.
00:50:14:21 – 00:50:40:31
Agent Palmer
Be.
00:50:40:36 – 00:50:53:31
Theo Smith
Well, I mean, you mentioned that you, you know, have played music and you’ve recorded music and stuff. You know, and you still have all these amps and and stuff like that. So, like, what is an Agent Palmer album sound like?
00:50:53:38 – 00:51:28:57
Agent Palmer
Oh, like, I mean, I get, I guess, there’s a few things. There’s at least. I mean, I don’t have any songs, right? But just based on listening habits and more specifically, playing habits. I think we’re talking about, a few acoustic numbers. Maybe like some, early Dylan or, like, I got a big band kick.
00:51:28:57 – 00:51:52:23
Agent Palmer
I got a big kick for the band. So maybe a little bit like that. I softened on country only because I was listening to a lot of old stones. And if you like some of the old stone stuff you can’t really hate on country too much. But but I think, you know, it would be something like that.
00:51:52:23 – 00:52:18:54
Agent Palmer
And then I, I, I feel like, you know, I still occasionally love to get up and play some of that, like late 90s, early aughts pop punk stuff. So I feel like it’s just going to be a roller coaster. But I think more than the music, I think I would try to tell a story with the full album.
00:52:18:54 – 00:52:47:24
Agent Palmer
I mean, if I’m making an LP, it’s going to start somewhere and end somewhere and, I’m going to punish the listener for hitting shuffle. Like, I feel like that’s that’s that’s me. I think I want you to listen to all, let’s say, 12 tracks. In order. Yeah, sequentially, because I, I, I have been listening to a lot of music.
00:52:47:24 – 00:53:12:01
Agent Palmer
I have been listening to a lot of albums not on shuffle, just straight through. And I there are times when I think of the artist and I go, all right, this is this is on purpose. There are times when I go, I think a producer got in here and moved some stuff around. I don’t think this is necessarily what the artist wanted.
00:53:12:06 – 00:53:38:46
Agent Palmer
But at the moment, you know, the Agent Palmer album is probably more produced by. I’m, I’m, I’m currently still, you know, this podcast aside, very much the man behind the curtain, guy in the chair. You know, helper rather than the doer most of the time. So,
00:53:38:51 – 00:53:51:45
Theo Smith
A lot of times, the producer role, you know, you can shape sort of the overall sound of something, shape the taste that kind of goes into it, you know, and, help craft those performances in a way that is cohesive. So.
00:53:51:58 – 00:54:18:58
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And I, I would hope that I still like I mean, I did it a little bit decades ago now, I, I would think some of that stuff has come back, especially because like, I still play with the mixer, I still play in audio editing, like I’m still listening to music. I would hope that some of those skip maybe rusty, but they didn’t go away.
00:54:19:03 – 00:54:46:24
Agent Palmer
I, I do have one song that I’ve been toying with at least musically, that has three parts now. Is it a verse, a chorus and a bridge? I don’t know. And which one is which? I also don’t know. And it just came to me and I, I still haven’t recorded it, but I can still play it.
00:54:46:29 – 00:55:10:49
Agent Palmer
And I know I’m playing with fire there by not just putting it down. And maybe at some point I will put it down. But I just for the moment, I’m just happy to put on my, like, base playlist and just play along with, you know, the, the influences I’ve had for the last 30 years.
00:55:10:49 – 00:55:38:04
Agent Palmer
And, you know, be happy when I, you know, play for an hour and my fingers don’t hurt. It’s like, oh, I’m back. And I’m not going to say their chops necessarily, but it’s like, well, I’m in playing shape and this is exciting. And then, you know, I’ll pick up my acoustic or electric guitar and I’ll play for like 15 minutes and go, oh, what is going on?
00:55:38:09 – 00:55:54:27
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I don’t, I I’ve that’s where I really fall off. It’s, I don’t have I, I, I’ve, I like lists and I try and schedule some things, but I just, I tend never to pick up instruments except in, like, waves.
00:55:54:32 – 00:55:56:08
Theo Smith
Yeah.
00:55:56:13 – 00:56:15:35
Agent Palmer
Which is probably the reason that I haven’t really started writing anything because, like, when I finally put down the bass after playing it for months, I’ll pick up the acoustic and then I’ll just try and learn a few new songs or play the old songs, and then I’ll be like, oh, I’ve got to go back to the bass now.
00:56:15:35 – 00:56:44:50
Agent Palmer
I have to play the electric for a few months, like it’s just. And so I’m not really in that space. And also, selfishly, I have so many other creative outlets. Yeah, that music is, a passion for sure. And like, if you and I weren’t across the continent, I would be like, I would gladly volunteer to ride the mixer for you or, like, lay down a track while you’re playing something else.
00:56:44:50 – 00:57:12:24
Agent Palmer
But, like, I don’t I don’t know if I have the, the spark to create the Agent Palmer LP, and I think that’s really what’s keeping me from doing anything is like, I’m at a point now where, like, if I want to do it, I’ll do it. But if I don’t have the spark, if the flames not lit, I’m probably not convinced I’ll noodle around with this song until I find something and hand it off to somebody, maybe.
00:57:12:24 – 00:57:22:16
Agent Palmer
Or maybe make to. But just for now. It’s just kind of like, no, I’m just. I’m just happy playing it as it is.
00:57:22:21 – 00:57:24:23
Theo Smith
If that’s what makes you happy, that’s all that counts.
00:57:24:32 – 00:57:24:52
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).