The key to a great band? It’s the drummer. You can have a great singer or songwriter, but without a solid drummer, someone who knows how to craft a beat that compliments the tune on hand, a combo won’t gain much traction. San Diego is fortunate to have a wealth of great musicians in its midst with many great drummers including Jake Najor, Larry Grano and Duncan Moore. One of the newer additions to the list is Point Loma-based percussionist Greg Smith. Smith was born and raised in San Francisco, moving to San Diego in 2011 after a two-decade stay in Sacramento. “I grew up playing music in San Francisco. I stayed mostly around the San Francisco Bay Area until I met my wife,” he said. His relocation to San Diego was set in motion by his daughter joining the Navy. “She was stationed in San Diego. After a number of visits my wife, in her infinite wisdom, decided that San Diego would be a much better place to live,” Smith stated. Currently performing with rock quartet, Falling Doves, who next perform at the House of Blues in Anaheim on Feb. 6 and Winston’s on Feb. 11 as a warm up to a West Coast tour. Smith is a veteran of the California scene, recording his first single, “DOA in San Jose,” with singer Rama Lama in 1972. Although he knew nothing of it at the time. “I did the session and never heard anything about it until a write up in the Sunday paper calling it a ‘cult classic’ surfaced years later,” he laughed. Smith has since recorded with numerous groups including Flowerthief and Bandelier.
For Smith, there has never been a time he didn’t want to be a musician. “I think the profession chose me,” he said. “My dad played guitar and my parents bought me a toy drum kit when I was 5 years old.” Though a family friend soon broke it, he eventually got a replacement. “For my 11th birthday, I had asked for a snare drum and cymbal I saw at a neighborhood music store. My parents went out and bought me a Ludwig Super Classic 4-piece set for that birthday! I still play that same kit today,” he pointed out. His musical influences remain the same today as when he first started out playing. “I would have to say the Beatles and the other British Invasion bands on ‘Ed Sullivan’ were my original inspiration to play music,” he said. “I was into the progressive rock of the ’70s, so Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer were definitely an influence and I also listened to a lot of Steely Dan. I really appreciate the precision of the rhythms in their material.”
Smith recently performed on a tour of Europe, filmed for an upcoming documentary, which saw his band, Falling Doves, playing the same clubs the Beatles did when they were starting out. “It was fun to see and play in some pretty historically significant locations,” he remarked. “We went with the goal of following the footsteps of the Beatles from The Jacaranda and Cavern clubs in Liverpool to The Kaiser Keller in Hamburg, Germany. Call it a return to my original inspiration, if you will,” he said.
“Touring with the Doves tends to be fast paced as you seem to be always going,” he continued. “But I like being busy so that suits me just fine. We played eight shows in two weeks, so there was a good balance between gigging days and travel or rest days.”
The next year looks to be a busy one for Smith. He’ll be recording tracks with singer Kailyn Gold this spring as well as touring Europe once more with the Falling Doves later this year, with U.S. festival dates in the works as well. Smith is happy where music has taken him. “There is nothing like it,” he said. “Creating and honing songs in the moment and being able to play them successfully live is a unique feeling. It keeps you young, because there are no age barriers,” he mused.
