Nobody puts Nate Smith in a corner—or a box.
The Paradise, California native released his sophomore album, California Gold, on October 4. And while Smith has roughly 2 billion career streams and three No. 1 country hits, his new album fiddles with genres more feverishly than Charlie Daniels tacked the devil in Georgia.
The 16-song album is home to the EDM-leaning “I Like It” with Alesso and his second Avril Lavigne collaboration, “Can You Die from a Broken Heart.”
Smith promised more rock songs in the vein of his “Bulletproof,” “Whiskey on You,” and “World on Fire.”
“I was telling my producer when we were putting together (new) songs like ‘Goodbye Again’ or ‘What Alone Looks Like,’ which is super heavy, that there’s not enough guitars in here,” Smith said. “We need heavier guitars. We need baritone guitars. It needs to hit harder.”
Smith and his producer Lindsay Rimes went back and forth, amping up the sounds until Smith was positive they had a rock song.
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Nate Smith: “We’re Definitely Pushing It Out Of The Genre”
“We’re definitely pushing it out of the genre,” he said. “I feel like I’m barely country, but I love country, and I love the lyrics. I love being a part of the community in so many ways, but it’s pretty unapologetically rock.”
The 39-year-old singer doesn’t worry about crossing creative genre lines. If he loves a song, he doesn’t worry about whether or how it fits in; he just releases it.
“It’s been an amazing process picking the songs and figuring out exactly what I want it to sound like,” he said. “If something sounds too happy on a song, I speak up, and I go, ‘Hey, we got to change the guitar up on this one.’ I’m very involved in the entire process. The album is just a bit of a journey. I always have variety in my songs or my album, so there’s really something for everybody there.”
Smith promises ballads, ‘Desperado’-type of songs, rock songs, radio bangers, EDM tracks and more. He’s particularly excited about having a second song with Lavigne, “Can You Die from A Broken Heart.”
“She is the pop-punk princess,” Smith said. “I’ve always been a fan of Avil for a long time. I’ve always loved her music. ‘Can You Die from A Broken Heart’ was so emotional. It made me feel things.”
Smith recorded it and loved what he heard but felt something was missing. He thought of Lavigne, meditated on it, and then asked his producer to insert an AI replication of her voice on the track to see what it would sound like.
Nate Smith Initially Used AI to Replicate Avril Lavigne’s Voice
With the addition, he thought the track was perfect. Then, he had to figure out how to get the song to Lavigne to see if she would sing it with him.
“She didn’t even know who I am,” Smith said. “So, we literally took that AI and sent it to my team. I let them listen to it. Then, they sent the song without the AI to Avril. She said yes. It was the craziest manifesting.”
Smith said working with her “is a dream” and that performing “Bulletproof” with her on the Academy of Country Music Awards was “so much fun.” Now, they have two songs together–and a basket of rumors about them dating to go with it. Smith recently said on The Viall Files that he was happily dating a Canadian but pointed out that didn’t mean he was in a relationship with Lavigne.
“You usually see an artist do a feature with one song, but we got two of them,” he said. “That’s crazy. Who does that?”
Smith said she “sounds so damn good” and that it has a nod to his favorite Lavigne song, “I’m With You.”
“I feel like if anybody who is a fan Avril, they would see it and be like, ‘Man, that’s what I envisioned,’” Smith said. “I haven’t heard her put anything out in this lane in a long time. I’m so excited. I think it could be a big song. I really do in my heart.”
Ashley Gorley is Nate Smith’s Hero
Smith wrote “Fix What You Didn’t Break” with Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips, and Lindsay Rimes. Gorley, he said, is his hero. They decided to chase his influences in the writing room.
“It was like, ‘Let’s write a 2000s rock hit,” he said, explaining they were thinking about Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” “We’re like, ‘Let’s just make it this epic love song or tough boy love song. And it feels like we did that. The melodies are so nostalgic. They’re so familiar in a way, but it’s new, and it’s country, and it’s me.”
When it comes to choosing songs for his albums, Smith said it’s just a gut feeling. He asks himself if he can hear his voice on it. Do the melodies sound like him? Are the lyrics something he would sing? Does it feel like an undeniable smash?
“It’s so hard to explain,” he said. “I pull it up to my ear, and I close my eyes, and I just go on this little journey with it. I’m like, ‘Alright. The verse is good so far. Okay. That pre-course. Okay. I love the lift on that. If this chorus doesn’t lift and hit really hard, this isn’t the song for me. And then boom, when it hits it, I’m just like, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s it.’ I want to have the best choruses in country music.”
(Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for ACM)
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