Bo: I’m sitting here today with Mr. Keegan Smith from Keegan Smith and The Fam. How are you doing today?

KS: I’m doing pretty good. I’m up at my mountain cabin in Rhododendron, Oregon up close to Mount Hood just relaxing in a beautiful area just like Montana.

Bo: A press release mentions that you frequently feature all-star performers with you on stage. Who are these performers?

KS: Tyrone Hendrix on the drums. He is a grand-relation to Jimi Hendrix which is pretty cool because his skills are clearly out of bloodline there.
The thing about The Fam is you never know how many of us are gonna be there. It’s kind of a collective. Usually when I come to Montana, I bring a five piece. I think this time I’m either bringing six or eight and I know that my percussionist Josh is gonna be there. Josh Burns is a young guy out of L.A. He’s a dance instructor, percussionist, a backup singer, and a drummer, I think he’ll be out there on percussion with us as well. So I think that trip will consist of Tyrone Hendrix the drummer, Chris Charge the bass player, Josh Worth the guitar player, Justin Dodge the keyboard player, Josh Burns on percussion and possibly Max Ribner (flugelhorn) and John Ram (trombone). So we could have a pretty lethal unit out there if we bring these guys.

Bo: So, how did you end up having Jimi Hendrix’s relative play in your band?

KS: He’s Jimi Hendrix’s brother’s grandson. So whatever that makes him. He’s just a good drummer. I didn’t know he was Jimi Hendrix’s anything. I met him and he was an excellent drummer and my band was full of excellent musicians.

Bo: I saw you guys perform at The Leigh Lounge in the MSU SUB building a while ago. My friend, Pat Lokken, did the sound for you guys that day. [Tryone]’s pretty fun to watch.

KS: Yeah, we definitely put on a show. We don’t ever, ever really do the same show twice. You might hear the same songs that I sing. But I’m always mixing it up. I do a lot of improvisation so my show always stays fresh even after doing over 200 shows every year since 2006.

Bo: Quite a few notches in the belt.

KS: Yeah, just working hard, man. They say it takes ten years to be an overnight success. I didn’t win my first award until my tenth year playing music. I got Male Artist of the Year [in the Portland Music Awards] and my band won Best Live Performance in 2009. In 2010, I won Male Artist of the Year again. My band was up for Best Live Performance again but didn’t win. And then in 2011, my band won Best Live Performance. A bunch of my songs have won awards. We went down to the Hollywood Music In Media Awards in L.A. One of my songs was nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Song. In the Effigy Awards, I won Reggae Song of the Year and Adult Contemporary Song of the Year. My genres vary a lot. When I win awards for them, I never know what category they’re gonna put my stuff in.

Bo: Sounds great. What drives or motivates or otherwise keeps the engine of your creativity going?

KS: Well, it’s a tricky question because there’s a couple things that keep me going. I suppose what keeps me going first and foremost is that I really truly do enjoy making and performing music. It’s a passion. It’s not something that I wake up and I’m laboring and say “Oh gosh, I have to go do my job.” No man, I love to do that. I love to be on the road. I love to tour in my van. I love to sing for fans. But what keeps me doing it is my wife and baby. The fact that I have to provide for my family is why I don’t stop. There are times when I get tired and I want to just slow down. At times where I even think about “Is enough enough?” But my wife and baby keep me going. It’s really effective to enjoy what you do and also have a reason to do it.

Bo: When I saw you play live for the first time, I immediately noticed how you really engage the audience to participate in the show. This is a common idea but you really pull it through so I guess that would be reason #8 to go see Keegan Smith and The Fam.

KS: I love to incorporate the audience because [of] what I noticed. My band is pretty awesome. My songs are well received. But unless I engage the audience, it doesn’t always work. If I get up there and play a killer musical show and I sing really well, but I keep my eyes closed the whole time and don’t really try to bring somebody in to what I’m saying, it won’t grasp them the same. If I go up to somebody and start singing my words right to their face, or even deeper, if I know something about them and I involve them in the song and start making stuff about them on the spot they’ll never forget that. Then next time they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, you know he put me in a song’ or ‘He sang to me’ as opposed to if I’m just up there behind a microphone not looking at anybody. Engaging people is the bridge that sometimes it takes for them to become fans of your music. If you engage them, they feel obligated to pay attention. That obligation turns into excitement. That excitement turns into a possible album purchase and then spreading of the music. It’s a word of mouth thing. Word of mouth is my strongest promotional tool.

[Right then Keegan’s kid daughter comes in and asks if he wants to go see a slug.]

Bo: Speaking of family, your manager, Kelsey Smith, is your sister. That must be great to have family support your project in an immediate way like that.

KS: You bet. Keegan Smith and The Fam. My other sister Bryna makes my music videos. I’m very supportive of my family and I’ve really enjoyed success due to their efforts to support me. It used to be just all me, though. I did all my work myself until I included my sisters in 2009 to get on board and help me out. Since then they’ve been really helpful.

Bo: What’s the focus of your new studio album?

KS: Boy. If I could answer that in one interview that would be more of a miracle than anything else. My new work. I haven’t released a new album since May 2009. So we’re gonna release this live [album]. It’s gonna be Volume 1. It’ll be a lot of stuff we’ve done over the last couple of years. Volume 2 is going to come out a couple months later.

I have a documentary soundtrack I’m working on. I have a hip hop project I’m working on with a couple of talented hip hop guys. I have a project I’m working on with my producer Justin. It’s so eclectic. We have probably fifty different songs that we’ve done not to mention a bunch of instrumentals that we’ve made. Then I have more of a Jason Mraz-y, Dave Matthews-esque Band album that we’re gonna do in the studio in August. So the real question is, what project am I gonna put out first? I have probably five albums worth of material that’s going to be released within the next sixteen months so I’m not sure which one will be the focus.

Bo: I saw the article in the Seattle Examiner about your contribution to the Sustainable Oroville movie soundtrack. You indicate in there generally that you want to start using your music as a tool to help promote sustainability in general.

KS: Well, that is true. But, I’m a man of many causes. I work with the C.C.A. (Children’s Cancer Association) and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. I want my music to promote growth and change. If it’s a sustainability project, then yes that’s a cause that I’m 100% in. I’ve been in that since 2007. I also have written a song with a terminally ill boy that I let play guitar on the track and he’s supposed to pass away within the next couple months to two years and he’s only sixteen years old. I did a song with him and that cause was what it was for that moment. I basically write for causes. I write for things that I believe in. Sustainability, helping people with cancer, arts programs, dance programs, music programs in schools. I’m consistently doing charitable work. It helps give me purpose.

Bo: There’s really no mention of that in your press release and band bio.

KS: That is who I’ve turned into in the past two years since releasing my last album. I do benefits. I’ve done many shows for the Red Cross for tsunami relief for all the horrible tsunami and earthquake disasters in Japan. All the different stuff that has gone on I’ve always been called upon to do shows for that and I get swamped with calls to do charities all the time. I’ve done stuff for a man who was killed outside of a club in Portland who had kids who was doing security and I did a benefit for him. I feel like I’m always kind of getting these phone calls to help people’s causes. If I agree with the cause, I’m always down.

Things are always changing for me. It’s on a day to day basis. I’m opening up for some of the bands I used to listen to growing up. I’m opening up for The Big Hole Planets, Pharcyde, Del The Funky Homosapien at a festival called Fire in the Canyon. I just did a song with my friend David Michael. The song’s featuring Grammy nominated recording artist B.o.B. David Michael called me in to do that song and I’m excited to do it. It should be a pretty cool track.
You know, I just keep it movin’ man. I license my music on a regular basis. I’m trying to turn mostly into a songwriter for famous pop stars and stuff. That would be excellent so I can spend more time with my baby and be able to perform out whenever I want to. Do big shows in Bozeman, come back home, chill out for a while, do a big show in Philadelphia, come back home, chill for a while. Do a big show up in Canada. You know, just do them once in a while instead of having to be on the road eight months out of the year.

Keegan Smith and The Fam will be playing Music on Main on Thursday August 18 in beautiful Bozeman, Montana as well as the following night on Friday August 19 at The Zebra Cocktail Lounge (with local band Do It Kappa opening) so be there and bring your dancing shoes!

Bo can be reached at bocephusbrown@gmail.com. He hosts a KGLT jazz show, plays guitar with earnest, and can probably be seen at the next show with his trusty camera.