For as long as my memory has served me, music has been the strongest passion in my life, and in my 13 years at Shoreline Christian (K-12) there was never a time where this was untrue. I am neither a virtuoso or a prodigy who harnessed creative control of rhythm and melody from a young age, but nevertheless, music has always pushed and pulled at my emotions in an intense way that I very rarely have experienced otherwise. I can vividly recall a time in 2nd grade when the high school band visited the elementary building to perform the theme song from Jurassic Park, and as the woodwinds played the melody together (at least two octaves stacked in unison), I felt that yearning glow creep onto the back of my neck and steadily illuminate my back and shoulders, and I immediately determined that I wanted to learn the clarinet. I would later discover, with significant disappointment, that the clarinet alone was not responsible for creating the emotions I had felt, but I stuck with it until middle school when I switched gears and set my sights on the guitar. By freshman year I had begun jamming and writing rock music with friends after school, and we eventually merged with another band at SCS, calling ourselves Bilateral. It was great fun gigging around the state as often as our parents and academic responsibilities would permit, while also building self esteem as we created a reputation amongst our peers (let not the thickest of official school record books cease to proclaim that Bilateral swiftly seized the noble prize of $25 to Dick's Drive-In, in our victory at the 2002 SCS high school talent show). No doubt my studies often took a back seat to my interest in the guitar, but in my mind, a career in music was a seemingly clear-cut path, as I even crafted my entire senior project in 2004 around the premise that passions like my own were gifts from God that deserved to be pursued wholeheartedly for His glory.
It was also in my senior year that I spent my mandatory school-wide "career day" at a
recording studio on Capitol Hill with acclaimed producer Aaron Sprinkle, having already realized just how much I enjoyed recording music. There was no actual recording taking place that day, and he spent the majority of my five-hour visit applying Auto-Tune to the vocal tracks of a Hawk Nelson album he was producing, but he hesitantly answered with honesty when I asked him if he had gone to school to learn to work with audio-"No. Everyone I know in the industry didn't go to school for it, and everyone I know who went to school isn't in the industry." This didn't discourage me from attending Shoreline Community College for two years to expose myself to the audio world, but I neglected a fair amount of "boring" non-musical assignments in favor of spending time recording my own music. My grades certainly reflected that choice, yet that never inhibited me even slightly from building a local reputation for quality that inspired bands to seek me out to record them. Bilateral would of course predictably end as nearly all high school bands do, but the band it became I still consider my main project today-progressive death metal act 7 Horns 7 Eyes (also featuring my brother, 2006 SCS graduate Brandon Smith).
In 2010, 7 Horns 7 Eyes signed a multi-album recording contract with mainstream metal label Century Media records, and we released our debut album "Throes of Absolution" worldwide in 2012, which I engineered, produced, and mixed. After two national tours in support of our album that summer, the reality of what it meant to be a young signed band hit us hard, and between the frustrating politics of the industry and our own lack of interest in continuing to live away from family and friends in a van in our late 20s, we decided that touring heavily simply wasn't worth the sacrifice. A bed, a steady income, and home-cooked meals start to become astonishingly appealing when you live in a van and earn no meaningful income for weeks on end. Century Media downsized greatly in 2013 and we were amongst the cuts the label chose to make, but by then we welcomed the change as it once again gave us complete control over the band to fit conveniently into our lives in whatever role we want it to be. We will release much more music in the future, potentially this year, but it will be on our own terms. 7 Horns 7 Eyes may end up being a studio-only band, but that's a prospect we can all accept without the regret of never having tried to tour. Although growing an active band consumed much of my life between 2004-2012, I never stopped recording music during that period, and today I make my living working as a self-employed audio engineer at my studio, Envisage Audio. I married my high school girlfriend Laura in 2014, and we own a home in Bothell where in the last year, I've invested a significant amount of money into building a professional control room, tracking room, and lounge, with the goal of expanding my audio business in ways I couldn't before. I owe a tremendous amount of thanks and credit to my parents for allowing me to host bands and record in my old bedroom at their house over a period of many years, as well as live at home rent-free as I climbed the ladder working at Albertsons, built up my savings, built my audio business, and pursued my lifelong passion. Without their love and generosity, the road to where I am today would have been far more rugged.
My story doesn't fit into the typical college degree-based narrative that many high school students feel pressured to follow as they graduate, but it does fit the narrative that if you work hard at what you truly love to do, even if it doesn't turn out exactly as you had envisioned, it is possible to find success. Surely God is glorified when we embrace our natural talents, sometimes even against the odds, and use our talent as a means of influencing others towards Him.