Sometimes knowing what you don’t know can be just as important as what you do.
The daughter of a high school English teacher and dentist, Rachel McIntyre Smith grew up in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, near Knoxville writing poetry. When she started taking piano lessons at age 9, she figured out that songwriting and singing were what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
She took a huge step toward that goal last week with the release of “Glory Daze,” a six-song EP, which she recorded at Deadbird Studios in Chattanooga.
But even if she figured out her career early on, she was self-aware enough to realize that there is more to being a successful singer/songwriter than singing and writing. It takes marketing, promoting, booking shows, video, photography and myriad other skills that you can either pay someone to do for you or learn to do yourself.
Smith took the latter route and enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she studied communication and Spanish. She spent her time there learning to edit video, take pictures, and learning about marketing and branding.
“I knew what I wanted to do, but I knew I wasn’t ready,” she said during a Zoom chat.
Then she got an internship at Songbirds and learned from veteran music buyer Mike Dougher what people like him are looking for when they book a show. She also paid close attention to the many artists who performed there.
“I got an inside look at what a musician’s life is like,” she said.
“I had no connection to anyone doing music prior to Songbirds,” she said. “Like I said, my mom is a teacher and my dad is a dentist. I had no idea how to book a show or anything like that. Interning there was very formative. I learned from artists and Mike what sort of things music buyers are looking for.”
She also met musicians Dran Michael and his wife, Amber Carrington, at Songbirds. Smith and Carrington, a Season 4 “Voice” finalist, sang together at several shows as the pandemic hit, and Michael would eventually produce Smith’s EP.
Michael also played several instruments on the songs including banjo, bass, electric guitar and mandolin.
Smith said the songs on the debut were written primarily as she moved back into her parents’ home in Oliver Springs during the pandemic, which coincided with her UTC graduation. The songs were inspired in part by the realization that her childhood contemporaries were getting married and having kids, while she was back sleeping on the twin bed she grew up on.
“It wasn’t all ‘woe is me,’ but I had been so focused on personal goals,” she said.
Deadbird Studios / Rachel McIntyre Smith’s debut EP, “Glory Daze.”She said she and Michael built a trust over the recording sessions and she holds him and his playing and producing talents in high regard. On one of the EP’s first singles, “Miss Highfalutin,” Smith said Michael proposed changing up the arrangement.
“I liked the words, but I was not tied to the arrangement,” she said. “Within five minutes, he was like, ‘How about this swampy acoustic riff?’ It was so different, but it fit the song so much better.”
With the song “High School Reunion,” Smith had a clear vision of what she wanted, however. She also put her college degree to use for the song’s accompanying video. Because she couldn’t perform live to promote the song because of COVID-19, she came up with the idea of asking fans to submit photos from their high school days. She used about 80 of them in a video she put together herself.
It had about 40,000 views, she said.
One song that is not on the EP is “The Kitten Song,” a whimsical number she plays live, especially at shows at cat cafes. Smith was scheduled to do a Kitten Coma Tour in 2020 when the pandemic cut her plans short.
“I’ll still perform it at shows,” she said of the song.
The “Glory Daze” single was released in June, while “Miss Highfalutin” came out in August and “The Woulds” was released in early September. Smith will perform during a NoonTunes show at Miller Plaza on Oct. 6 with a full band.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Follow him on Twitter @BarryJC.