Groundstate, the rock duo formed by brothers Aidan and Connor Smith, have released their new single “Floating Away” on streaming platforms. The band recorded the effort with producer Jim Wirt (Incubus, Hoobastank, Centershift) during the pandemic along with other tracks for their upcoming 3rd full-length album, The Things We Leave Unsaid. Since 2014 the duo have continued to share a deep bond by writing music that connects on a new level with their fans and radio around Cleveland and beyond. The band first came to fruition in 2014 when the brothers began writing music with a hard rock tinge that pays homage to the heavy, alt sounds of the late 90’s while placing their own modern stamp on each creation.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hey Groundstate, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What is your dream project?
Basically what we’re doing right now really! This new record is the culmination of everything we’ve done so far as a band and we can’t wait for people to hear it and get out on the road to play it around.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
Well maybe not entirely outside of music haha but Aidan and I are both avid vinyl collectors and we always love going record store hopping in our free time.
Your latest song is 'Floating Away'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
So Floating Away was actually the first song we wrote in its entirety for this record, and back during the initial recording sessions everything was still at the height of the original COVID crisis so it definitely was a bit of a different process than usual but we made it work anyway!
When you are working through problems in your work, who do you talk to?
Whenever Aidan has a problem with me or vice versa there’s usually a solid hour or two of arguing before any solution is found, but we always find a way to work things out! Usually several drinks are involved in this process.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
When it comes to writing music we really never take a day off, Aidan always has at least a few new riffs to show me on any given day and I improvise a lot lyrically in my spare time so really every day is part of the growing process for us as a band. We love what we do and everything we write we go into with the mindset of improving, evolving, and refining our sound.
Describe your favorite and least favorite part about being a musician.
My favorite part personally is just the satisfaction of seeing people enjoy something you put a lot of time and effort into creating, it’s truly the most rewarding feeling to see people get excited about something you’ve created. I honestly can’t think of anything I don’t like about it aside from being completely broke all the time haha, but it’s worth it!
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
One of the best shows we ever had, in my memory anyways, was opening up for Saliva at The Odeon in downtown Cleveland. We had a really great turnout that night and up to that point I’d say it was definitely the most polished live performance we’d done so far.
What makes you angry?
One thing that’s always really irritated me is seeing how many great, talented, but completely unknown bands are out there and not getting the recognition they deserve for their craft while the major labels are always busy just shoving the same 3 or 4 garbage pop artists down people’s throats around the clock. There’s a lot of great music in the world and sadly the vast majority of it never gets heard the way it deserves to be.
What is an artistic outlook on life?
I’d never really considered that honestly, I think to me at least, I’d say it’s just having the perspective of seeing anything as a potential source of inspiration, good or bad. A lot of what I write draws from my own various past experiences and you just never know what might end up being the spark that becomes a great song later down the line.
What accomplishments do you see yourself achieving in the next five to 10 years?
I think at this point the sky’s the limit really, I’m really confident in the potential for success with this new record and ultimately we hope to be able to end up making a living just doing what we love to do!