Smoosh join Tokyo Police Club, Attack in Black, Winter Gloves and Ruby Coast on the Exlaim! 16th Anniversary Tour
In the eyes of the public, being a kid is like being handicapped. If you manage to succeed in the adult world despite being at an apparent disadvantage, then you have somehow found the secret warp zone of life and get to skip right to receiving the highest respect of your peers (known colloquially as “overcoming adversity”). Not only is it insulting to even insinuate that Smoosh deserve special treatment because of their underage status, it’s doubly so to suggest that their age somehow puts them, by default, at a lower rung on the ladder of artistic merit. Their songs are sophisticated, catchy and dynamic, and their technical skills rival those of most “successful” indie rock bands out there. The fact that the three Smoosh sisters, Asy, Chloe and Maia (the girls haven’t divulged their last name), are 16, 14 and 12 respectively is becoming less and less noteworthy, and considering the quality of their latest material, should be stricken from their press releases forevermore.
Talking to keyboardist and singer Asy, the eldest member, it’s clear that the girls have been made keenly aware of the age gap between them and the bands they play alongside. More importantly, they know that it’s all bullshit. Asy handles the age question as if it were her height or the shape of her nose that attracted all the attention.
“I don’t want people to just think that we’re a gimmick, and only come and see us because we’re young or something,” she says plainly. “I want people to actually listen to our music. We do everything like bands that are older; there’s not really anything different about us, except for our age.”
The band has come a long way from their first album, 2003’s She Like Electric, whose most popular song, “Rad”, features an 11-year-old Asy rapping. The then two-piece (Maia was only recently added to the roster) still kicked the piss out of Kidz Bop, but even Asy agrees that some of the material is starting to feel a little lukewarm compared to more recent efforts, like their surprisingly minor key second album, Free To Stay.
“When I look back at the songs and the stuff we did when we were younger, I definitely feel like there’s a disconnect,” says Asy. “Like, my voice sounds so much younger [on those songs]. Just everything. We were a lot younger, so I hope that we’re different now. I think it’s kind of just natural for us to play differently than we did when we were really young.”
While the group is beginning to tighten its grip on musical maturity (one new song, “Dark Shine,” is particularly precise), their relative newness as people is still apparent — they may kick out the jams with the rest of them, but the sisters don’t pretend to be more than they are. Asked about being invited to sing for Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch on the soundtrack to his upcoming film, Asy says she only knew about B&S from the movie Juno. It’s a particularly un-indie answer, and one that shows why Smoosh may be in a better position than anyone to create future works of genius. They have the benefit of honing their craft so early in their lives and in their careers, and the lack of self-consciousness that comes with being so young makes them sound sure of themselves — a quality that some artists spend most of their adult years to achieve.
