Motown Metal with The Smyrk
Self-proclaimed mo-town metal band, The Smyrk, hits the scene with soulful vocals infused with rock and unconventional song subjects.
At first an instrumental three piece with Ari Sadowitz, Chris Barone and Nick Logan, The Smyrk started under the alias “Canine Smyrk.“ Two years later, vocalist, Doron Flake, found Canine Smyrk performing at the Idiot Festival. It wasn’t long after he joined the band and left his R & B group, On Point, forming, The Smyrk.
Their inspiration comes from musical influences like Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Recently they’ve been experimenting with Prince, Revolution and whatever soulful influences they can get their hands on.
Regarding the songs’ subject, according to singer, Doron Flake, “nobody thinks about Venom or Joker … There’s nowhere to talk about being a nerd. I figure we can be that place.“ The songs subjects are very atypical of most rock bands. Rather than just love, hate or society, their inspiration draws from fiction. One of their latest songs, “The End of Jason Todd” describess what the Joker would have sung after he successfully killed the Boy Wonder. Reminiscent of Prince, it’s sung primarily in soprano and ends in a falsetto. In “Farewell to Arm,“ Flake recalls his favorite movie, Evil Dead, with a breakdown of classic metal zombie music played by Sadowitz on guitar. The band’s MySpace is designed like a ‘50s movie poster; even their EPs’ names, Monsters on Maple Street and New Fiction (produced by Incubus’ Ben Kenney) reflect their love for fiction. Flake is quite proud of his nerdiness. “We are nerds because we are way into Marvel,“ he boasted as he spoke about playing with Corey Glover from Living Colour on the Afro-Punk tour.
Though they’ve blown up underground, they still have hopes to be signed. “It would be nice,“ comments Flake. “ATO records is really cool but, pretty much anyone who would have to do with us.“ Though they hope they won’t face the option of selling out. “It’s a little bit of a scary proposition. If we go mainstream, hopefully people realize that our appeal is because we are different and not like ... Soulja Boy,” says Flake.
Now-a-days hybrid bands have become extremely popular, yet many producers and administrators in the music world never seem to catch on to the phenomena and for whatever reason these bands disappear. “[Gnarls Barkley] made a path that no on seems to walk behind,“ says Flake. The Smyrk almost opened for Gnarls Barkley in Rhode Island. According to Flake, in a conversation he had with Danger Mouse, “they stopped producing records because it was going to eclipse Led Zeppelin in the UK. People have been wanting this for a long time but, there’s no act to step over the boundary for Black kids to say ‘this is my rock song.“
The members of The Smyrk hope it becomes a full-time sustaining gig. They want to make something that will become a classic, “something that could be on Guitar Hero so that my little cousin could play it or make something so that someone 20 years later will say, ‘this is awesome.“
(Photo credit: Academy Printwear)
