Meet Nick Smith

Nick Smith is a 21 year old singer, songwriter, and producer who graduated from Berklee in May 2019. We spoke to him about his experience making music in the Boston area, how Berklee helped him grow, and what his biggest aspirations as an artist are. 

How long have you been making music?

I’ve been singing forever and always wanted to be a performer when I was little. In terms of actually making music, I used to copy songs in Garage Band in 6th or 7th grade and tried to remake them without having any music production experience. Sophomore year of high school, I got Logic Pro and learned how to play piano. From there, I got more musical and started really playing instruments and experimenting with live takes. Then, I went to Berklee and was amazed at the jazz/R&B influence. There were musicians who were way better than I was producing and making their own music, and I learned so much from them.

Who are your biggest inspirations/influencers on your musical style?

Vocally, I love Sam Smith and Bruno Mars. Recently, I’ve been more into D’Angelo and the way he arranges his vocals and layers. The fluidity of his arrangements is something I’ve been getting into. Also, Timbaland’s use of samples and his creation of huge hits has influenced me.

Is there any point in your career so far where you looked back and thought “I could have done that differently and had greater success”?

I think there are some things I wish I had done earlier. I wish I had started playing piano earlier and developed more musical skills at a younger age. I wish I had played drums and gotten more into bass playing, because now I’m starting to learn and realizing how useful those skills would’ve been. Aside from instrumentally, I wish I had learned production skills and mixing four years earlier.

How did attending Berklee develop your craft and help you grow as an artist?

Being surrounded by a ton of people who are WAY more talented than me and are doing what I want to do made me realize how much work I have to do. I wanted to put myself around those people and learn from them, just cause everyone creates differently. Also, honestly, being able to use the name of Berklee helps to put me in a room with people I might want to meet who I may not have been able to work with otherwise. For lack of a better term, it's almost like I’m using the clout of the school, but my thought is if it helps, why not?

What are your plans post-Berklee?

As much songwriting and production as possible. I’ve already been making a ton of music since leaving. Obviously I want to go to LA, I’m hoping next year maybe, but for now I want to keep collaborating with everybody. Even if it’s stuff we just make now and hold onto and one day down the line get an opportunity to pitch it to a bigger company, I just want to keep growing. It’s like I was saying with Berklee - I can learn a lot from working with other artists and seeing how I can do things better or differently. 

Do you have a favorite song or project you’ve created over the years? What about a favorite feature?

Honestly, most of my favorite original stuff is the unreleased stuff I’ve been working on. It’s just all so fun and I’m really excited to put some of it out. For a feature, I’d probably have to say any of the work that I did with SMLE, especially our song Runnin’ that we got on the Rocket League video game. That’s been really cool. 

   Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

    Like I said probably in LA, but just making tons and tons of great music. I want to make the highest quality commercial music I can… let me put it this way. I want my music to be huge, I don’t care if I’m huge. You know, ideally I’ll have an artist project of my own doing moderately well, or at least well enough that it’s sustainable, but I want to write songs for other artists too and see those get to be huge. I’d be totally happy with that.

Blog Editior: Meghan Moore