For Jake Smith, The White Buffalo had humble beginnings and retains its humility as time wears on.
“It’s all been on my own. I’ve never had any label or anything until now,” Smith said. “My first two releases were all just self-released with no promotion, no PR, no marketing. Just word of mouth.”
Smith’s project, The White Buffalo, comes to Jammin’ Java in Vienna, Va., tomorrow night touring behind his third release, Prepare For Black & Blue, a five-song EP out on Ruff Shod Records.
The White Buffalo, based in Ventura, Calif., is the result of continuous songwriting by Smith, who has developed his own version of folk music, with his deep voice and acoustic guitar chords.
Smith said that the whole musical process for him has been organic.
“When I was 19 or so, I got my first guitar and immediately started writing songs for no real apparent reason other than that’s just what I did, with no means to a career or aspirations to be a musician or anything,” he said. “I just started writing songs. I kind of did that in my living room for five years and then started playing out periodically, first by myself, then kind of proceeded and kept writing songs and kept playing.”
The fact that everything Smith has built for The White Buffalo, from the 2005 debut The White Buffalo E.P. to 2009’s re-release of a discontinued full-length, Hogtied Revisited, up to Prepare For Black & Blue, has been from his own hands is something that he wouldn’t have done any other way.
“It’s all I know,” Smith said. “I don’t know what it’s like. It’s definitely a slower road, but at the same time, there’s no bullshit behind it either. It is what it is.”
Smith knows the origin behind The White Buffalo gives it a sort of charm or personality that draws fans in and makes them want to tell all their friends about it, supplementing the word of mouth effect that has been so effective for him.
“The mystique is what it is,” he said. “It’s not some label or some marketing thing telling you to check this out. It’s fans telling fans. I think it has its positives for sure. Your fans are there for the right reasons. They’re not really fleety. You’ll retain them.”
This “mystique” comes from the reality of Smith’s lyrics. His storytelling style spins yarns that draw people in and refuse to let go. Smith aims to have truth behind his songs and not muddle them with hidden meanings.
“Some of the stuff is a little darker, a little more honest,” he said. “My songs are pretty transparent. They’re not always sunshine. My whole idea is if you’re not doing something lyrically and melodically in order to try to move something, I don’t understand what the whole point is. Each song kind of serves its own purpose.”
Smith wants fans to take something away from his tales when they listen to The White Buffalo. He feels much music today is empty with no substance behind it, and he wants his stories to make people think about what is happening in his characters’ lives and in people’s own lives as well.
“So you have one song that could be this dark journey [about] a murderer that’s really conflicted or confused about his way in life, and he’s lost his way, or it could be a love song about a woman,” Smith said. “It’s just different things. Everything has a purpose. A lot of stuff seems to be just fluff.”
Smith has varied muses for The White Buffalo. While his life experiences might lend him inspiration, some of the stories behind his songs are based on complete fabrication.
But his delivery masks what is truth and what is fiction, adding to The White Buffalo persona and presence.
“Some of them are 100 percent biographical,” he said. “Some of them are like bad versions of my own existence, and some of them are completely fantastic, like complete fiction. I don’t kill people or fall in love with hookers, but I do drink a bit, and I do get into trouble sometimes.”
The White Buffalo plays Jammin’ Java in Vienna, Va., tomorrow night. The show is sold out. Show time is 8 p.m.
dgallen@umdbk.com
