By: Daniel P’Lopez
Photos courtesy: So Fierce Music
There’s a new wave of queer artists coming out on the scene, and Smashby, pronounced (SmashBe), is one of them. Smashby is a nickname a fellow friend gave him while in theater school, and it stuck, so he used that name for his professional stage name. Smashby is a British queer country artist who grew up in the UK. As a youngster, Smashby loved to perform and do theater school and drama club until he fell in love with music as a teenager. When bullying was pretty bad for him, it encouraged him to write songs about his life and experiences.
Smashby wasn’t always confident in his voice. It wasn’t until he was thirteen years old that he took piano and voice lessons, which improved his voice and musical background. Smashby started off doing pop songs until he went to country or country pop. His influences are Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, whom he highly praises.
Once he left school, he started recording songs and started performing at festivals all over the UK. Smashby had a long run like most upcoming artists in the industry. It didn’t happen overnight, but in 2019, Smashby collaborated with (a RuPaul’s drag race girl), which put him on the map. Smashby admits TikTok also helped him gain many fans and followers, and many of his videos have gone viral. This year has been excellent for the artist, who got management and distribution deals. Many good things for him have been coming together, as well as a reality show that is in the works.
Smashby writes most of his own songs and has a new single out from his new era called “Love Myself (How I Used to Love You), a new country pop song. It’s very electronic and dancy, a far stretch from the typical sound of country pop—a song Smashby is proud of and happy to be out.
By doing new pop country music, Smashby admits he stands out like a sore thumb as a British gay man, but he admits that by being himself, he doesn’t have to stand out, as his music does it on its own. Smashby has upcoming appearances and shows in the works, and he’ll be performing his older pop songs and his new country-pop songs.
At the current moment, Smashby is single and admits, “How good it is to love yourself, above everybody else.” He admits to focusing on himself and his music and career. When Smashby is not making music or working on his career, he loves to go out and drink margaritas with his best friends, go to the movies and have wine and gossip with the girls, go to the gym, and be social with his friends.
With his music and future projects, Smashby has been working with Velvet Code and Emmie Jay, just a few people off his management team. Smashby has a lot to look forward to. His videos are on YouTube, and his music is on all the streaming platforms. To follow Smashby to know of upcoming shows, you can visit him on social media @Smashbyoffical