Prior to the sold out show at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston on September 15th, Canaan Smith expressed his excitement about performing that night with his fans via twitter. Statements like ‘can’t wait,’ ‘get ready,’ and ‘gonna be epic’ were sent out by Smith.
Canaan is currently on tour promoting his new single, ‘Love You Like That,’ in anticipation of his album release, which is set to drop in the first quarter of 2015. The song was inspired by his girlfriend at the time (the two are now married) and he wrote the song right after they first met. “She just texted me and told me she wishes she was here,” he explained after I congratulated him on his recent nuptials. “She’s by far the greatest thing in my life.” She is also the focal point of the music video for the song, which was filmed about a week before the two got married. “Out of all the treatments that came in, that was my favorite and I said you know what, I’m not going to do this with anybody but the woman I’m going to marry. She knocked it out of the park, it came out really natural, we’re proud of it together.”
The promotion of ‘Love You Like That’ on country radio and touring ‘a ton‘ is all for prep for the album release. There are about five more songs to cut before it’s released but being on the road is ‘so cool‘ for Canaan, because the longer he is out there and playing shows for people, the more inspiring it is for his songwriting and what he wants to say in his music. He’s taking everything in while touring and in the next few months they are set to go back in and finish the album, which obviously excites him.
Canaan’s music career started when he moved to Nashville ten years ago and started doing what all the other up-and-comers in the industry did, which was “write a bunch of songs and play them to as many people as possible and hope you get lucky.” He says, “That process isn’t as popular anymore these days with social media and technology being what it is. You can kind of make yourself known without having to go out and pound the pavement like they used to. But I did the pound the pavement thing and I passed my demos around and I got a regular gig around a couple bars in Nashville on a Thursday night and slowly built my songwriting craft.” Canaan did get lucky when one of the songs he wrote with Love and Theft members Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson got cut by the duo and was released as their first single. ‘Runaway’ went to number ten on the charts and was a huge starting point for Canaan. The success of the single landed him a publishing deal and for the next three years he ‘wrote his ass off‘ turning out about five songs a week. Through all of the song writing, he felt like he developed his own sound as an artist and started working with producer Brett Beavers. By working together, Smith and Beavers were confident they could get a record deal, and they did. Canaan signed with Universal Music Group and has been with the label ever since, one that he describes as being ‘awesome‘ to him.
The first single released by Canaan was ‘We Got Us’ and was a song he and UMG thought was special, and fans really resonated with the song which resulted in success. “I want to put out music that I feel like people can relate to and that’s what country music really does best in my opinion. It brings people together, there’s a common ground between you and your listeners, it’s about telling stories about life. The cool thing about song writing is you never know what you’re going to get, you just show up. I think the key is to just keep doing it, and keep showing up because eventually something might happen.”
After ‘We Got Us’ was released in 2012, Canaan went back to touring while waiting for the next single, which is his current release, ‘Love You Like That.’ Canaan described song writing and touring as so much work but said it never feels like work in sense of the word. “It just feels like something you love doing that wears you out every now and then. I’m just so passionate about it.”
“The music video, I’m pumped about it. People can check it out on Vevo. I’m excited about the single; I can’t wait for what’s next.”
Fans can stay up to date with Canaan by following him on Twitter and Instragram and liking him on Facebook.
[vevo id=”USUV71401283″ mode=”normal”]