Exclusive Interview with April Smith of April Smith and the Great Picture Show!

I had the chance to interview April Smith of April Smith and the Great Picture show for the March issue of Encore Magazine. I have LOOOVED this girl and her band ever since I found her last year during SXSW! She will be playing an official SXSW showcase this year so check her out if you are in Austin, Texas this week!

Check out my interview with April Smith:

I first heard the sultry sounds of April Smith and the Great Picture Show in 2009 during the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX. It was love at first song! April Smith has a voice that you want to hear over and over again. The band is picking up speed in the music world and even played Lollapalooza last summer. April Smith and the Great Picture Show now have a new album, Songs For A Sinking Ship, which she financially backed with money from supporters and fans on Kickstarter.com. I recently had the chance to speak with April Smith about the new album, her sound, and life on the road.

Congrats on Songs For A Sinking Ship. You’ve backed it 100% on Kickstarter.com through supporters and fans. Does that automatically change the feel to the album when you don’t have pressure from a big label?

Well, I have never recorded with a major label, but I do have friends that have and there is definitely a lot of pressure from the label wanting things done a certain way. I think you can actually make a great album for a lot less money when a major label is not involved. When you are the one who is paying for it you can call the shots. Having the Kickstarter campaign really allowed us to make the record exactly the way we wanted it.

Tell me about the April Smith and the Great Picture Show Sound. How did you find it?

My sound was a lot different on my first album. My first full length album was more pop rock. I have always been influenced by turn of the century pop music like the Andrew Sisters and Big Band music. I just happened to start writing a little differently and putting more of a swing on the songs. It was just a turn that my writing took that wasn’t necessarily deliberate. I wrote “Wow and Flutter”, and that was the first song in this new style that really changed everything. It was a complete accident but it was a great accident.

So, you are a big Tweeter. Has social media impacted your career?

Definitely. Twitter has been really helpful during the Kickstarter campaign. Not everyone can donate money but what was just as valuable to me was that people were re-tweeting and forwarding the emails and posting on Facebook and spreading the word with the social networking sites. For me that was really helpful because instead of having maybe 100 or even 150 backers we had several hundred and they were all helping to spread the word through their own Twitter and Facebook profiles. It was definitely a huge help and I absolutely feel like it’s helped me.

I understand you have a special name for your tour bus?

Oh, yeah! Our tour bus is “Norman” and we actually inherited him from a great band called Hailstorm on Atlantic. My manager helped to sign them so we got their tour bus when they got a new one. Basically Norman is a 32 foot RV and Hailstorm’s dad is basically a mechanical genius. Instead of keeping the giant queen bunk in the back, he took that out and put four tour bunks in. We have a kitchen, bathroom, and a little dinette area, so it’s essentially like a hotel on wheels for us.

What’s next for April Smith and The Great Picture Show?

The album is out on February 23rd and we’re really excited. We hope that it really catches on and that people love it.

April Smith and the Great Picture Show is currently on tour and will be playing at South By Southwest in Austin, TX in an official SXSW music showcase. For more information please visit www.aprilsmithmusic.com.