The White Buffalo
He has described himself as a ""big white motherf…
He has described himself as a "big white motherf...." which is well, one way to put it. But the giant from Southern California known as Jake Smith (whose alter ego goes by the name of White Buffalo) is gentler than his stature may have you believe. The 32-year-old singer and songwriter might look like he'd wrestle you to the ground in a second, but there's actually more than meets the eye when you search beneath his wild blonde hair and long sun kissed beard.
Jake Smith finds plenty of comfort playing his guitar, an instrument he picked up at the age of 18, following the advice of a friend's father. "I remember it clearly, my friend's dad got me into people like Bob Dylan and John Prine," says Jake Smith. "There is no trace of musical history in my family, except my mother played the piano a bit. I just bought my first guitar at 18 and went from there. It sounds cliché but it came naturally to me. I learned a few basic chords from my friend's dad and started writing songs soon after. It was immediate yet I don't know what drove me to do that."
His own music is inspired by a variety of artists and it isn't hard to detect hints of early Bob Dylan, whiskey soaked introspection not dissimilar to Tom Waits and indie ponderings only a stone's throw from that of Thom Yorke from Radiohead or the late Elliott Smith. Songwriting is a simple affair for Smith. He tells personal stories, some dark and others using his wildest imagination. Take the song 10 til 2 on his EP titled The White Buffalo as an example, where he sings about falling in love with a hooker. "The concept of falling in love with a hooker seemed like a hopeless situation but a nice idea to write about in a song," he says.
There is always an element of down to earth rawness that prevails in each and every song.
Perhaps it's the way he strums his guitar that provide solace or maybe it's his deep vocal range which lures, but there's a tenderness to Smith's style that lingers long after his songs have finished playing. "A lot of people comment on my deep voice, but to me it's nothing I take too much notice of," he declares modestly.
From his first whisper to the last gasp on this EP, Smith hits a raw nerve, leaving one to ponder about life and its greater message. Songs such as Love Song # 1 open with the tender strokes of his guitar. There's a sense of longing, a touch of loss and one of hope when he sings. As Love Song 1 progresses Smith's voice becomes possessed with a heightened rage as he screams much like a lion would roar. The Moon is tickled by a moment of introspection, once again looking to the sky for answers.
"To an extent some of the songs I write are personal but I seem to write in a few different styles," he explains. "Some come from life experiences and others are kind of fantasy or darker situations I put myself in. I usually come up with gibberish or scrambled thoughts that eventually form into a concept or idea, and then set out from there. But yes, they can be about relationships mostly or something I've seen that made me want to pick up the guitar and sing about it."
Smith was born in Eugene Oregon but moved to Southern California soon after his first birthday. He grew up in Huntington Beach and studied history while at University. He later spent four years in San Francisco waiting tables, being an all round wild card and singing into venue answering machines to secure shows. "I wasn't super motivated in San Francisco when I lived there," he says. "I just spent four years floating but during that time I wrote a lot of music and I realised this was something I wanted to do. I partied while I was there but sang down telephone lines to get shows at bars. I knew I had some kind of talent but had to channel it."
In 2005 he recorded The White Buffalo EP in Los Angeles and this year goes back in the studio to work on a full-length album. He has toured Australia once to perform the Falls Festival and also performed in the USA, Europe and Japan with the likes of Ziggy Marley, Donavon Frankenreiter and Xavier Rudd. He will be supporting Gomez this April throughout Australia.
"A lot of the people that come to these shows are hearing me for the first time," he says. "I have opened for various styles of people from Ziggy Marley to punk and rock bands. Before taking those Ziggy Marley dates I was unsure if I would get across to his audience, thinking they just wanted to hear reggae songs. The realness and rawness of what I do and what I sing about really touched some people. I think it comes down to people just enjoying the songs and the sound and not getting caught up in genras."
Download