Dai Smith - Biography

Music has been a vital part of Dai’s life since a very early age and for as long as he can remember he’s been excited by it – hearing it, playing it, writing it, recording it and producing it. He lives and breathes music and frankly, if you cut him in half like a stick of seaside rock you’d find the word ‘music’ running through him.

Early inspiration came from his brother;

Pocket money was duly spend on building his own record collection……The Beatles…..Fleetwood Mac…….Kate Bush……….Jimi Hendrix……… but it wasn’t long before Dai was itching to start creating some of those sounds for himself. He first picked up the guitar at thirteen years of age and has not looked back since.

By the age of fifteen, with his brother-in-law’s help and a Tascam Four Track he learnt how to record. This opened the door to the wonders of songwriting. Looking back, Dai recognizes this as a pivotal moment;

The pocket money soon started being diverted into buying musical instruments, (keyboards, percussion, effects boxes and guitars a plenty) in order to create the sounds he wanted.

Attending the Performing Arts course at Neath College, South Wales for the next four years meant that Dai was surrounded by likeminded souls and, truly immersed in music, he loved every moment.

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Babyface, his first band (1994) was a product of his College years, as were the innumerable songs he wrote during that time. During college Dai also began to build up his recording gear – and what started out as a few bits of equipment, bought to be able to record both his and other people’s music, soon grew into a pretty tidy studio, which he christened ‘Daisy Stores’. Such was his passion for recording and producing that even driving lessons were foregone in favour of buying vintage instruments.

Real life post-College beckoned and whilst making ends meet with the obligatory ‘day jobs’ Dai’s heart remained firmly rooted in music – songwriting, recording and performing in a band called ‘The Flame Trees’. And Daisy Stores studio really came into its own too with Dai recording and producing all of the band’s material.

Dai says of the band

Clearly, he wasn’t the only one to think so, on the back of Dai’s demos, the Flame Trees were signed to Sony S2 (A&R Muff Winwood, Sam Winwood and Lincoln Elias) in 1997 and they also signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music.

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The Flame Trees album was unfortunately never released, coming as it did in the late 90’s when the music industry was changing beyond recognition. Dai says he has no regrets though;

Inevitably the Flame Trees eventually disbanded, but Dai was already writing and recording stacks of solo material as well as co-writing with established artists and songwriters.

In 2000 Dai co-wrote a song with Mike Terry and Tim Woodcock called ‘Just Hold On’ which went on to become a top 20 hit for the hugely successful band Toploader.

Dai recalls how he first realized the benefits of working with others on a song;

During this time Dai also co-wrote with a host of other noteworthy songwriters, including; Paul Stacey, musician and producer who played guitar for Madonna/Oasis/Finn Brothers and was a member of The Lemon Trees with Guy Chambers; Pascal Gabriel, Producer/Songwriter who wrote for Dido; Katherine Davies, solo artist signed to Atlantic Records who has also written for Randy Crawford; Robert Hodgson (Bobby Bluebell, songwriter, member of the ‘The Bluebells’ who’s written for Texas and many others and Simon Tauber.

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Another song-writing collaboration came in the form of Steve Balsamo, a coming together which eventually led to the creation of the band ‘The Storys’. Dai’s journey with this band would see him support world class acts such as Elton John and Tom Jones.

The Storys’ songs started life around a kitchen table in Swansea with Dai and his 3 co-writers (who would go onto become fellow performers) writing profusely and producing songs with such startling harmonies that they would go on to be compared with The Eagles and Crosby, Stills & Nash. In the event the songs were of such high quality that they led the writers down the path of forming their own band. The Story’s first official gig was to over 70,000 people outside Buckingham Palace, playing on the same bill as Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne and James Brown.

With initial gigs receiving a fantastic reception, the band’s thoughts soon turned to recording their own album. It was at this point that Dai’s talent as a producer came to the fore and he, his studio Daisy Stores and all of the classic recording equipment he’d built up over the years transferred to a former cinema hidden away up in the Neath Valley in South Wales to record their debut album.

With his studio newly set up in the unusual but acoustically superb venue the band set to work performing, and Dai (along with co-producer Rob) set to producing and engineering. Closeted away for 6 months Dai found great inspiration up in the lush valley as well as some lifelong friends, whose generosity in feeding, watering and generally looking out for this music-producer-on-a-mission he will never forget.

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Months of production and engineering paid off and the self-titled debut album ‘The Storys’ was released on their own label ‘Hall Recordings’ in 2005. Dai looks back on the album process;

Here history repeats itself…as again, Dai wasn’t the only one who rated the album; in 2006 it was picked up and released in the UK and Europe by Warner/Korova and by Ryko in America. What followed were extensive tours with Elton John, Katie Melua and Joe Cocker with the band playing all over the UK, Europe and America. Songs from the band’s debut album were featured on TV (in teen US drama ‘One Tree Hill’) and in film (‘The Bank Job’ starring Saffron Burroughs and Jason Statham, and in which the band also made a guest appearance performing their own songs!). The Storys’ follow up album ‘The Town Beyond The Trees’ was recorded and produced by Jon Kelly (Beautiful South, Kate Bush, Paul McCartney) at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in 2007 and released in 2008.

A few months after the release of that album, Dai realised that, despite the wonderful experiences he’d had as a band member, the calls of his first loves of songwriting and production were too strong to ignore. Taking the tough decision to leave the band Dai went back to his roots and once again committed himself to the craft of songwriting and production; the areas where his heart truly lay;

And there, in a nutshell, you have it. Or rather him – Dai Smith, songwriter – producer.

Dai is currently writing with various artists, including a band who are enjoying success across the UK, especially on Radio 2. Keep checking the News page for the most up to date goings on.

Writing the best songs he can and producing both his own – and others’ - music is Dai’s past, present and future and he's never been happier.

If you are interested in working with Dai as a songwriter, musician, producer or engineer, just get in touch; he’d love to hear from you.

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