Rob Beaulieu – An Interview with Rob Smittix

Rob Beaulieu.

RRX: I’ve had your name on my desk for months, so I’m finally glad that we connected.

RB: I appreciate it.

RRX: So just for the back story, the abridged version… if you don’t mind if you can tell us a little bit about yourself, about the bands and the music?

RB: I’m pretty much local, I was raised in Niskayuna. I was a hockey player, I played semi-pro hockey in Europe. I was a huge music-head, a huge music fan, like all of us. I learned to play a couple chords in college. After I was done playing hockey I decided to take that obsession and put it into music. So I got going in my mid to late twenties. I got in a Grateful Dead cover band, I had no idea what I was doing but that was a good experience. Then I ended up with a more original project. Things just started snowballing from there. I played in Kim Buckley’s band, that was a really good turning point, we had a pretty good thing going for a while. I also played in Slipknot for a while, I did that for a stint. I’ve now been with Raisinhead for 22 years. I’ve always had things that came in along the way. I’ve played with The Stone Revival Band. A band called Council Fire which is closer to what I’m doing now. Lots of shows with different bands and different people. It’s been an amazing run. So I just put this band together, it’s a little more on the Soul/R&B/Rock side of things. Very Tedeschi Trucks (kinda).

RRX: I love it.

RB: We’ve got a female singer (Sherry Jean Waite) and Tony Perrino on organ, Chad Ploss on drums, James Alanson Kirk on Bass and Dave Spadaro who I’ve been playing with for years; we started together in Stone Revival Band and we became close. We’ve written some stuff together and have probably been playing guitar together for almost 15 years now. So that’s where we’re at. I’ve written more songs this past year than any other year I bet.

RRX: Oh really? That’s cool.

RB: I still have a few songs I’ve written for Raisinhead over the last year. We’re just cooking along, it seems like I’m in a good space creatively.

RRX: That’s awesome man that the writing is coming along so well. That’s one of the funnest parts of the process, I think.

RB: Without a doubt. I’m always writing but sometimes it’s about finishing songs and having them at least, reasonably good. That’s always the trick.

RRX: Right! For real. I’m sure there are more unfinished songs written in the world than completed.

RB: Oh my God, I have so many on my phone. All of these little ideas, literally hundreds of them. At some point I hope to go back and listen to what the hell is on there. It’s probably nothing but there might be a couple of things. You know?

RRX: It reminds me of the Tenacious D song where they wrote a tribute to the greatest song in the world because they couldn’t remember how it went. That’s the cool thing nowadays that an artist of any type but especially song-writers can save their ideas. Years back, I wrote what I thought were the greatest lyrics I’ve ever written but because I wrote them on paper, I lost the melody. Then it became nothing more than words on a piece of paper. So having a phone and being able to record ideas in segments is a great tool to use.

RB: No doubt about it. How many things have we thought of that the next day we couldn’t remember? It could’ve been something that was pretty good too.

RRX: It used to happen all of the time.

RB: Well I hope you find that melody.

RRX: I wish, it’s long gone. Now the jamband scene is hands-down the greatest community scene there is. No-one pulls in heads like jambands. I like all genres, I’ve always liked a little piece of everything but it wasn’t until I met Lucy that I really took to jam music but I’m a punk rocker at heart. I’ve been really vibing with the jam community these last few years, so I’m into it.

RB: What are the punk rock bands that you like?

RRX: If you talk to Art Fredette (RRX) his era of punk are The Ramones and bands like that. Of course I like them too but my era of punk is more like NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion and bands like that. Then at the same time I was always down with 90s Hip Hop and stuff like that. I thought I hated country but then I realized that real country music is actually pretty damn good.

RB: F**k yeah. That’s the thing, it’s like that water downed s**t that you hear, like the country-pop, it’s not that good.

RRX: It’s friggin ridiculous. I can’t get down with pop anything.

RB: I go in all directions. I really like Dead Kennedys, Sex Pistols, 70’s Genesis and I love hip hop. If there’s something that gets me, it gets me. I like sappy love songs, I love the grungiest Neil Young “Tonight’s the Night,” sleep under your covers kind of s**t, you know? I love it for myself but sometimes it sends me in a lot of different directions simultaneously. Some people ask what’s my music? I have a hard time with it sometimes, to say that it’s this or it’s that. It all depends on the song.

RRX: Why put yourself in a box, you know? I don’t know about you but I’ve never written a song for an audience. If they like it that’s cool, if not that’s just what I was feeling at the time.

RB: Oh definitely, if you’re writing for the audience man… it’s sticky. You just got to write your own thing and if it’s there, it’s there and if it’s not, it’s not. You just got to make art and express yourself, the rest of it, don’t worry about any of that. Maybe that’s why we’re not selling out Madison Square Garden.

RRX: Exactly, but at least we can look at ourselves in the mirror.
(Both Laugh)

RRX: Well what about Rye Bread man?

RB: Oh my God, I can’t say enough about Rye Bread. I love Rye Bread, everything about Rye Bread, I love. I was not hooked up into the Rye Bread thing until about 6 or 7 years ago, maybe. I don’t know exactly when it was but I’m not an OG, like my friends in Dr. Jah. I’m like second generation with Rye Bread. I’ve played in a number of different incarnations at Rye Bread. Nick Batto has been tremendous with me and to so many people. It’s just the whole community, they come out they support, they support one another. We’ve done a lot of benefits for people. Everything about it is community and having fun while genuinely supporting one another. It’s something I’m really happy to be a part of.

RRX: Yeah man and you’re playing this year.

RB: Indeed!

Rye Bread Music & Arts Festival
July 27-29 Schaghticoke Fairgrounds