Coming from a sunny city like Los Angeles, you’d figure Darryl Smith
would bemoan dealing with the Canadian winter he faces in Halifax.
Don’t be fooled—the singer/guitarist/bassist for The First Aid Kit
says he’d much rather be here in Halifax than in his self-described
“paralyzing and strange” hometown.
“I don’t like the winter, but LA is the worst
city in the whole world, so anything is better than it. I’ll take one
hundred winters here over driving in LA any day,” says Smith.
It’s surely swell to be in Halifax when your
band is preparing to unleash a brand-new EP on fans and friends. The
First Aid Kit’s first EP—Rocket Summer—was recorded shortly
after the band came together in 2006. They went with recording in a
studio for the new release, Still Standing, and nowadays feel
better about the music they’re creating.
“With this one we’ve been playing shows for a
year or year and a half, so these songs were more of a culmination of
what we’re trying to do,” says Smith, who first met the band’s other
main songwriter, Matt Davidson, at a summer camp in his youth.
The music is energetic, emotional and laden
with sharp hooks, which isn’t surprising when you consider some of
their favourite artists are The Clash, Bruce Springsteen and The Beach
Boys. Smith has tried to work with these musical ideas in other
locations—even in Glasgow, Scotland, a move he calls “the worst
decision in my life.”
As was the case in Glasgow, he came to
Halifax without knowing a soul. As Smith sees it, things couldn’t have
worked out better. “We came here with a similar situation, but everyone
was really friendly.” Thus, The First Aid Kit is still standing.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.
