Tell us about the genesis of your project. How did you get to where you are now?
We all went to school together for many years, we grew up playing in different projects around our hometown, toured in different groups and Small Words is the result of us four finally getting together and not worrying about what kind of music we were creating and just creating songs that we love. Creating for the love of it.
How would you describe the highs and lows of being an artist?
I think there are so many highs and lows to being an artist. The lows can feel so rough and bring you down and the highs can feel incredible, but if you honestly take a look into being an artist, doing it for the art is the best low you can have and the highs that come from that are far worth it.
What are some sources of inspiration for you?
There are so many great ones, for us currently The 1975, Fiji Blue, Leisure, Coin, The Japanese House, The Band Camino, and WeTheBand are artists we look at and really push us to better our craft. Our friends in our local scene here in Indy inspires us as well. Playing shows with such talented people here is a great motivator.
Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?
We really look up to a few different artists whether it’s for their art, talent, or how they are as people. Dua Lipa, The Maine, 5SecondsofSummer, John Mayer, The 1975, Bae Miller, J. Cole, Snarky Puppy just to name a few.
Favorite activity to blow off some steam?
We are all pretty active dudes, so if it’s not music related, playing frisbee, sparring, and going to the gym really help, but Getting together and jamming whatever we are feeling in that moment is an incredible distresser as well.
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
When Quarantine hit we couldn’t do anything but create, so we created a ton of tunes and “Traffic” came out of that process. “The futures on its way,but it’s stuck in traffic.” Is a line that really stuck with us during this period because everything literally came to a halt and we had to learn how to deal with that. This song is also about taking a risk on a relationship, and knowing it might fail. “I want it so bad even though it might hurt….You baby.” Pretty much sums that up. A play on words representing this could hurt me or you. Also being stuck in traffic, representing being stuck in that cycle and being afraid to fully commit.
What are some things you do to deal with anxiety and creative blocks?
Learning when to take breaks was huge for us. We had many long days of getting together and just grinding, to the point of complete mental and physical exhaustion. You get stuck there and it’s hard to get results out of that space. So when something isn’t coming to you, we learned to not force it, take a breather, and either come back to it later or jump to another tune. When you’re not creating for the love of it anymore then you got to walk away for a bit.
What’s the future looking like for you?
We have tons of new music coming out this year. New record towards the end of the year, hopefully more shows now that things have started to open up. The big goal is to hopefully be able to do this full time. Hopefully everyone will love this record as much as we do and we can make this our career.
What inspires your visuals, videos, looks etc?
Hmmmmm… for us we let the music guide us with that. We feel the vibe of each tune and go from there. We don’t really question those feelings that much either. When something hits us because of the song and we like it then, we like it.
What is the most embarrassing memory and most proud moment of your career so far ?
So awhile back our vocalist Nick hit himself in the nose with the mic and his nose started bleeding. He decided he was going to stage dive and…. no one caught him because of the blood haha. That was pretty embarrassing. Other than that, having technical difficulties live always sucks. Right now though our most proud moment changes so often. Writing this record was it, then putting the first single out, and now “Traffic” being released is our most proud moment. So as we keep going that moment will continue to change I’m sure.
What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
If it sounds good, it sounds good. You can get so caught up and worried about the art, whether it’s how it will appeal to others or if you did good enough, but on top of being a musician you are also a consumer. You can recognize when something sounds good to you and just learn to go with what feels good in your heart.
Where do you think the music and entertainment industry is headed after this past year?
You know it’s funny, because the moment we decide to not be a pop punk band anymore that genre explodes haha. It seems we are dipping into our past though. We’ve already begun to see the 80s revival, everything is 80s now. Even in the subcultures you’re starting to see 90s grunge kind of vibes. Also with Covid bringing everything to a halt, and now things are starting up again everything entertainment wise is going to be so expensive, you can already see that with ticket prices. Hopefully everything will level out and concerts and other live events will be normal again.
