Spotlight on Chris Smart – Bass

Chris Smart by Sandie Besso

How did you meet Chrystabell and come to be in her band?

Chris Smart:  CB and I have been buddies for going on 20 years. I did some work at the recording studio her parents owned and they used to visit the guitar shop I worked at. I’m pretty sure I sold CB her first guitar? One night my band Robotboy was playing across the street from her band 8 1/2 Souvenirs and we just sort of became life long fans of one another. I was always way into David Lynch so years later when she approached me about playing together it was a pretty easy decision.

Of all time, what is your most favorite venue to perform in (with any band) and why?

Chris Smart: I’d have to say CBGBs in NYC. It was a filthy nasty old dive, but just being on the same stage where so many great bands had played (Ramones, Blondie, Suicide, Television, Talking Heads) was pretty exciting. There was also an infamous old joint in San Antonio called Tacoland where my band used to rehearse. I probably had more great blurry nights playing there standing in spilt beer and getting shocked by the bad electricity than I can remember. Sadly both clubs are long gone.

Why did you choose to play the bass?

Chris Smart:  I started off as the singer back when I was 16. Then the bass player quit so I became the singer/bass player. Then the guitar player quit so I became the singer/guitar player. Luckily the drummer never quit.

Chris Smart and Jayson Altman

Please share a story from the Chrystabell Summer 2017 tour (whatever the tone: humorous, scary, weird or exhilarating).

Chris Smart: Searching for lunch in Berlin, CB and I came across a cool old walled in graveyard. It was unlike any we’d seen. Each grave was like a little garden with well manicured flowers growing on the plots. We wandered around a bit taking photos and checking out the who’s who of inhabitants and stumbling upon the grave of legendary German playwrite/composer Bertolt Brecht. Wow, good company!

As it was getting dark, we made our way towards the front gates only to find them locked. “Certainly they didn’t lock us in the old graveyard at night” we laughed…oh crap they sure did. A quick survey of the joint proved the only way out was over the eight foot stone wall. Great.

Luckily towards the back we found some gardening tools and trash cans that we stacked up to climb to the top. I jumped first, splatting on the active roadway eight feet below. CB hopped next, me attempting to catching her. A successful and ungraceful escape. The old German gentleman who passed by gave us the strangest look.

Do you play other instruments as well (including singing)? If so, which one’s?

Chris Smart: I sing, play bass, guitar, fake a little drums and keyboards. This last tour I suddenly became a theremin player? But above all else I am wicked on the tambourine!

Chrystabell and Chris Smart at Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh, Scotland (2017).

How many years have you been a working musician and do you have music in the world other than the music you’ve done with Chrystabell?

Chris Smart:  I played my first show on Halloween night in 1980 and I’ve played the majority of Halloweens since.

I’ve produced and guested on several records but mainly I’ve released music with my bands Lung Overcoat (1980s), Thirteen (1990s), the Mechanical Walking Robotboy (2000s) and a DJ mixer collective called the Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine.

Robot Monster Guitars in San Antonio, Texas

In the middle of a CB UK tour, we suddenly found ourselves guitar playerless. We were in Bristol where a guitar show buddy of mine has a music shop called Treblerock. I phoned him up and he suggested we call his old pal Adrian Utley from the band Portishead to fill in, which to our amazement and delight he did. Cool!

The avant-garde composer and musician William Basinski is your first cousin. What was it like growing up? Did you spend holidays together? Was music a big part of your family identity?

Chris Smart: William (cousin Billy to me) was from a very musical family and all of us cousins spent many summers together. Billy had the only Ziggy Stardust hairdo in Dallas Texas in the mid 1970s. No surprise he quickly relocated to San Francisco and later New York City.