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Steven R. Smith is a prolific Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist known from various bands such as Thuja and Hala Strana and his solo works. Smith is the head honcho at Worstward Recordings which focuses on releasing Smith's unique records on different physical and non-physical formats.

How are you doing?

Things are going alright at the moment, it's kind of up and down here in Los Angeles. I was fortunate enough to be able to continue working at home through the last year and a half so we were able to get by. Weird times, for sure. I've just been trying to make use of the time the best I can-and looking back it's been pretty productive, music wise-I was able to get a lot of music recorded, but otherwise, it's been pretty difficult adjusting to this new era we're all in, just the uncertainty of it all, a lot of anxiety...

Your latest album "In The Spires" came to life this year in a limited edition of 100 LPs. It was released by Brooklyn based label Cold Moon Records. Did you enjoy working with them?

Yeah, it was great. I don't know how he did it but Ben, who runs the label, was able to get the vinyl pressed up in a real timely manner. It came together really fast compared to the current situation we're in now with year long wait times. I think he must have just squeezed by the deadline when the whole vinyl pressing industry just got completely backed up. And he was really game to try and do things a little differently in the packaging with the screen printed covers and adding in the chapbook. I'm really happy with how that all came out, everything went really smoothly.

Back in the Jewelled Antler days lots of JA recordings were recorded "out there" and to my knowledge Thuja material was recorded mostly in Rob Reger's warehouse. Has this way of recording in a certain place, or the surroundings being this sort of extra musician, shaped the way you make records these days?

It changes all the time, but yes I still do a bit of recording in non-studio type situations-In fact, "In the Spires" has, I believe, two songs that were recorded outside, complete with my neighbor's rooster crowing in the background, etc. Thuja did a lot of recording in Rob's warehouse, that's true, but we also recorded all of our live shows and many of those were held in this large greenhouse in his backyard-it was like a little glass cathedral, the sound was wonderful in there. We also played in art galleries, clubs, etc. so we would cull the best bits from all those recordings and that's what would become the records. Hala Strana had a lot of recording in unusual environments, as well as just adding in field recordings of train stations and footsteps on cobble stones, etc. But yes, I really like that. It's really just sort of another color to add to the recording. It's not always appropriate for everything and I like working in a more defined space too. Like you said, it's sort of an extra character in the mix, and that really does affect how you play as well. I imagine Thuja would have been a much different thing if we had only recorded in a "professional" studio.

You have so many different projects (in which you are the only performer) with different names such as Ulaan Kohl, Hala Strana, Ulaan Passerine, Ulaan Markhor... On top of this you release stuff under your given name... Why so many?

I regret that it's made things sort of confusing, but mostly I just enjoy creating a new name and a new direction for a project to head in. It keeps it interesting for me. It helps to keep me from treading in the same water, so to speak. A new challenge. For example I started yet another offshoot of this Ulaan thing with Ulaan Janthina last year and basically the focus of that was to use mainly keyboards and my homemade instruments and some field recordings. I'm pretty sure there's no guitar on those two records at all except for a tiny overdub of playing the electric guitar with a paint brush (which didn't sound like a guitar at all, it might have well just been a synth or something). So that alone, focusing on keyboards such as analog synths, organ and electric piano really helped shift that music into a new space (in my opinion). Do other people see it that way? I don’t know, but I feel like I came up with some music that I wouldn't have done if I had just been focused on starting songs with electric guitar riffs. Not better or worse, just different and that's what I'm looking for.

I loved the 43 Odes tape that Eiderdown Records put out a few years ago. You go way back with Glenn Donaldson. Is it easy working with him?

Definitely. We met and started playing music together back in high school and have been in quite a few bands together and so there's a long friendship and history there. I learned how to play music with him, so even after years go by, and we've been busy with other projects, it's still really easy to work on music together. We finished another 43 Odes record last year that should come out soon, and he also played a bit on an Ulaan Passerine recording I'm putting together as well. The nice thing is there doesn't have to be a lot of discussion about what to do, he seems to instinctively know the right thing that is needed in a track...very intuitive.

Do you consider yourself a record collector?

Well, I prefer vinyl and have a pretty large collection of records here but I'm not a "collector" in the sense of buying records as an investment or solely in the hope that they will go up in value. In fact, I'm not all that concerned about getting hold of the original pressings or whatever, reissues are fine with me too. I only buy what I listen to, and will sell something that I didn't like. I used to buy and sell/trade a lot, not so much lately. I just prefer vinyl as opposed to cassettes or CDs and so if a record I'm interested in is available on LP, then that's what I would get, and if not, then I'd pick up the CD or whatever format it came out in, cassette or whatever. When I grew up everyone was switching over to CDs and getting rid of their records so vinyl was cheap and easy to find, used record stores were plenty where I lived so it was a good time to be picking up records. Nowadays, it’s just gotten really expensive and as mentioned above, really hard to even get vinyl pressed up in a timely manner. Bummer for musicians and a bummer for the listener.

What is your relationship with cds? Do you like the format?

I don't mind CDs, although I've always preferred vinyl. But I've got an awful lot of CDs here too. Seems a lot of labels and musicians are starting to rethink their relationship to CDs and maybe we might start seeing them a bit more in the near future since vinyl is getting so difficult and expensive to get pressed. I would prefer ANY physical format over a download-only release which I have a real hard time getting excited about. I've done them, but it's always kind of a let down, it feels like sending an email out. It doesn't seem real.

Is your personal draw to experimental music derived from the cerebral aspect or from the emotional aspect?

I think there's always a bit of both, for sure, but I would lean much more heavily toward to emotional end of that spectrum. I play music and also listen to music because of how it makes me feel. It's always an emotional response. I do think about music a lot, and analyze things, music is a sort of puzzle at times, certainly when creating and recording it-there's always technical issues that need to be sorted and concepts that need to be manifested, but those are just means to the end-if the finished song doesn't give me that emotional response then the song isn't working. And also, I'd say for my own music, if I have to think about it too much, then something isn't quite right.

Do you like to listen to music loudly?

Some of the bands I was in, Mirza in particular, played loudly. Too loud really-but that was the 90's I guess, that's how it was done. Thuja, by design, was very quiet. Other than playing/recording drums, I usually record pretty quietly too. These days it's more about small, little tube amps turned up rather than big 100 watt amps cranked up. Microphones like that better, my ears do too. As far as listening to records, it's nice to turn up a stereo a bit but it's not crazy loud, not like rattling the windows loud.

Could you recommend three albums that you've enjoyed lately to our readers?

These aren't necessarily new or anything, but these have been on the turntable:
Movietone "The Blossom Filled Streets"
Brigitte Fontaine "L'Incendie"
AR Kane "69"