Linda Smith / The Smashing Times: "We Don't Really Fit in a Popular Genre or Scene, So When Someone Gets It, It Really Feels Like an Accomplishment"

Baltimore's own outliers Linda Smith and The Smashing Times crash together on a brand-new split 7" from London's Upset The Rhythm. Two sides, four cuts — Smith's sun-dappled keyboard reveries and The Times' jangly psychedelic daydreams — all sparked by friendship, road miles, and a shared obsession with pure pop delirium. It's bright, it's bold, it's now!  In a new interview, Linda Smith and The Times' bandleader Thee Jasmine Monk chat about the highs and lows of touring, what ties their musical worlds together, and how this split EP came to life.

Hot Sounds: How did both of your most recent tours go across the East Coast / Midwest? I really liked seeing you both perform out as trios. 

Thee Jasmine Monk (The Smashing Times): I was really chuffed by the Midwest. Beautiful country, great bands, and lots of young people came out — one guy drove seven hours! Our hosts and the attendants at the shows were very supportive. Its strange, you would think the five piece would allow me to do more as a bandleader, but it felt pretty restrictive. The three piece really leaves lots of room for make believe. 

Linda Smith: The East Coast tour was a great experience. Of course, all the credit must go to the people I was on tour with. Besides playing drums, Paul [Krolian] put the whole thing together. Booking shows can be a challenge but he knows the ropes! I wouldn't be doing any of this without Paul, Blake [Douglas], and Britta [Leijonflycht] (on the three previous tours). I never liked playing live in my younger days but working with them over the past year or so has really helped me to understand making music in a different way and how it connects with people face to face. They also play my songs better than I do and are very aware that I'm 70 years old, have bad knees and need help getting around. What made the tour special, also, was sharing the bill with and getting to know Cindy (the band). Karina, Staizsh, Will, and Ollie played perfect sets each night and cheered us on during ours. Friends for life! 

HS: What are some of the pros and cons touring these days?

LS: The biggest pro for me is meeting the people who know my recordings, some who have just discovered them and some who go back to the cassette days. I'm still amazed by this every single time it happens. The 1980s and 90s were not anything like this, believe me. I also enjoy the travel aspect. It's a great excuse to book flights and hotel rooms. The cons have to do with being older and sometimes lacking the necessary amount of energy required to stay up past 10:00 p.m. Performing the first song helps to wake me up a bit, though. Ok, time to go to work!

JM: We've been friends for a while so I guess its that. If Paul and Britta didn't want to do it, I'd just go back to making tapes in the basement. On this tour it was great to see Now and Sharp Pins every night. Splendid, original music, everyone was fun, there were no bad times. Meeting new people. I met Martin [Meyer] of Soup Activists for the first time. What a treasure and I think we might be lifelong friends from now on. Great bands out there, Mod Lang, Thee Pins, TV Buddha, Artificial Go, Nick Maurer. Will Smith (from Now) and I were saying what a privilege it is every time we sell a record. Our music is difficult for a lot of people to understand and we don't really fit in a popular genre or scene, so when someone gets it, it really feels like an accomplishment. We went to Martin Newell's house on tour in December and he took us out for lunch, I had a ploughman's. I'd say that was a perk. He sang me all my favorite Cleaners Christmas tracks. It was the best concert I've ever been to. Thanks, Britta. Cons? You've got to go back to work, you've got to fit it into the work schedule, you lose money. And you either miss your family or you choose not to have one. Cons? Alcoholism. Maaasssive depression when you get home. Manic panic attacks leading up to tour. You've got to watch what you eat and you've got to tell everyone you like them. Constipation, diarheahh! Can't pee in London traffic! Cons? Britta and I were leaving Paris after the tour in December, we showed up at Charles DeGaulle three hours early for our flight, went to check our bags and they told us that the flight had been cancelled and they'd moved us to a flight that was already gone. There was no Aer Lingus service desk and we couldn't get anyone on the phone to reschedule so we had to pay massively for last minute flights on different airlines that left the next day. I'm never leaving home again. 

HS: Do you both like living in Baltimore or do you feel a bit isolated? Did you both grow up there?

JM: Love it, its cheap and old. Definitely close to a lot of major cities, NYC, Philly, DC, Richmond. If you tour the West Coast, where I am from, you could drive five to seven hours to get to another city. Baltimore is a great place, full of kooks and dandies. People smile here. I haven't been home in years. 

LS: I grew up in Baltimore and have lived here all my life except for three or so years in New York City during the 1980s. It's very hard for me to be objective about the city. There are so many memories and experiences associated with it for me. But as I drive from point a to point b around town, I can see that it's a city where people are struggling to live not far from other people who are not struggling. Lately, I've been thinking I'd like to live in another country, especially right now when things are going downhill so fast that we can't even process it. 

HS: What brought you two together for this new 7" split on Upset The Rhythm?

LS: The original idea was to have a special release for the merch table in Japan. (Smashing Times and I were both going to tour there, playing some shows together and some separately.) Though plans changed along the way, the split single project continued. Jaz contacted Chris Tipton at Upset The Rhythm who immediately said yes!

JM: I think just wanting to work with Christopher Tipton and Linda. They are both lovely people doing important things and I am proud to be involved with them. At one point The Times and Linda were planning to tour Japan together, the Times had a show lined up with Tori Kudo! But after the Paris disaster I just can't financially, physically or mentally handle that shit. I'm pushing forty and I'm a shut in — I'm not made for planes, trains and automobiles. 

HS: What can you tell me about the songs here? Did either of you experiment in new ways sonically or structurally on your tracks?

LS: On both tracks I used a Roland J-6 chord generator. I bought it not long ago to experiment with chord combinations that I wouldn't be able to find with my rather limited knowledge of guitar chords. It was easier to create a song with it in some ways even though I wasn't quite sure of what I was doing. It allowed me to think a little differently. 

JM: "King Bidgood" was recorded when we did Mrs. Ladyships. It was a really reactive productive time. I've been buying cassette decks and hope to make some copies of the full Mrs. Ladyships for the die-hards. 

HS: How did you initially meet one another and discover each other's music?

LS: I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly but I had purchased a copy of the first Smashing Times album from Bandcamp and really enjoyed it. Then, a little while later, in Sept. '23, either Jaz or Paul contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in playing at a local wine bar with them. I didn't know at the time that they had been to Normal's Bookstore and had seen my tapes there. I agreed to the show and arranged with my friend Paul Baroody to play a set that included some of my songs and some of Paul's. That was the first time we all met. I didn't really expect that I would see them again any time soon or get to know them. We reconnected in April of '24 when Paul Krolian asked if I would do some shows with Smashing Times. I didn't have another musician to play all the shows with me and thought about using backing tracks. Anyway, Paul offered to play drums and Britta agreed to play bass and keyboard. We did a couple of rehearsals and played our first show together at Rhizome in DC. After that, Britta put together a great tour on the West Coast. I started to think this might be a nice part time activity. 

JM: I heard of Linda through the purveyor of goods at Normal's Books and records. Who told me that she played a where-house show with MDC once upon a time...she said they hung a noose behind her while she performed???

HS: What ties your two musical worlds together, in your eyes? And what do you think makes your styles distinct from one another or the same?

JM: John is our favorite Beatle. I think she was in the Smiths is that right? We both enjoy tea. On these new tracks of Linda's, I can hear the baroque pop influence and we both tell it like it is as far as things like mixing go. Love it or leave it. 

LS: I think that both of our worlds connect because of a shared love of 1960s pop music, particularly the records that came out of the UK then. Of course, I grew up listening to it as a child on my transistor radio while The Smashing Times would not even be born for a couple more decades! During the sixties, there were many different approaches to pop music. The bands and solo artists all had their own distinctive sound; you could tell Dusty from Petula Clark and The Kinks from The Beatles. Even record labels like Motown that had an immediately recognizable musical approach gave each artist their own special vibe. The Supremes and The Marvelettes couldn't be more different! The best thing is to have a sound that a listener can distinguish from others who also use the same basic tools. Smashing Times has their own style and I have mine. :)

HS: What can you tell us and readers about the songs you’ve included on the compilations we’ve compiled? 

LS: When you suggested I contribute something to last year's Action Now!, Martin Phillips had just died, I think. I was recovering from hip surgery and couldn't get to my recording equipment for a couple weeks, but I decided on a cover of the song "Submarine Bells." That album is one of my all-time favorites, with the title song itself being a perfect expression of melancholy mixed with hope. It was harder to figure out how to play and record than I thought it would be. I found one note in the right key to sing with and then added the chords after. Not the usual approach. 

JM: "The Face of Another" — just trying to be a villager and fit in with Joe Glass and Alga. Top tracks by top acts. "Cool Arthur's Pink Heaven" — another Mrs. Ladyships song. It's a long one so it was cut from the vinyl. I'm really into putting things out physically. I don't care for Spotify. Once Britta and Paul quit and I can no longer tour, I will just put out runs of 20 cassettes. Maybe if I make enough songs I'll be able to make something that sounds like The Beatles. 

HS: Have either of you ever received a negative review?

LS: Certainly! There were a couple in the '90s that I recall. I was always a bit sensitive to criticism, mainly because of my upbringing, but I realized later that not everyone felt the same way from other responses I received and that what really mattered was my own belief in what I was doing. It all balances out at some point.

JM: This isn't my livelihood so luckily I don't have to care what anyone thinks. I don't believe it when people say they like it, I doubly don't believe them when they say they don't.  

HS: What's next on the horizon for the each of you after this release?

JM: Mrs Ladyships has received such glowing feedback and I enjoyed working on it and touring it so I'm delving deeper into the toytown sound. I have some things I'm working on but I'm working more slowly this time. 

LS: The trio will become a foursome (Paul, Blake, Britta, and myself) for the Japan tour at the end of September. None of us have been there before and are getting prepared at the moment. It is being organized by Kenji Sekioka, who has long been a follower of independent music and has his own record label. After that, I'd like to record a new album. I haven't done an album of new songs since 2001, though I've recorded some instrumentals and sound collage pieces. The song on the split single is a kind of preview of what I'd like to do.