Band of the Week: All Smiles

The older I get the more begin to realize that success is a moving target. For each success you achieve there is an insecurity waiting around the corner. Furthermore, the more successful you are the harder you have to work to remain at that level of success. Throughout his career Jim Fairchild has found a humble and "modest" way to move from one success into another, and he shows no sign of stopping.

Fairchild has played with Grandaddy, Giant Sand, and most recently Modest Mouse, but in my opinion his biggest success has come in his own project All Smiles. Not because All Smiles has the largest fanbase (allthough it is not lacking), but becasue this is wherehe can be the honest and make the deepest connections. He released his first album as All Smiles back in 2007 while living in Chicago. Ten Readings of a Warning was released by Dangerbird Records and featured contributions from some of Fairchild's high profile friends. His new album, Oh For the Getting and Not Letting Go (self-released, June 30th), finds him in Portland and clearly loving the West coast once again.

Recently, Jim Fairchild was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Orange Alert (OA): The new album sounds great, what can you tell us about "Oh for the getting and not letting go..."?
Jim Fairchild (JF):It's the new All Smiles album with myself, Nik Freitas, Joe Plummer, and Solon Bixler, all recorded and mixed by Mike Cresswell. It's our second album and best so far.

OA: This is the first album you've recorded here in Chicago, what brought you to Chicago and what has your experience been like thus far?
JF: We were supposed to record it in Chicago with Brian Deck, but in the end there were always delays imposed by forces outside our control that prevented making it there. So we did a few songs in Los Angeles and the rest in Omaha at Mike Mogis' studio.
Chicago was a golden period in our lives though. We turned an old store front in to our house and made good friends. I miss it there, but I think I'm supposed to be closer to the ocean.

OA: How did you decide to self-release the album? With all that can be done on-line though services like cd baby, and so on, do you feel it is necessary to have a label?
JF: It just made the most sense right now. The people who were interested didn't seem to be able to offer much to us that I wasn't gonna be able to do on my own with a lot of hard work. I've been lucky that people have been offering us some help in various ways. I think we're doing something vital and important, and if I've learned anything, it's don't give somebody something for nothing. This is my life, basically. But I also like having a team. I'm a good collaborator, and there is strength there. So if the right team came along, we'd be happy to oblige.

OA: You have had a fairly successful career compared to most, but I am curious how you view success? Does the measure of success change with each album?
JF: Yeah, it's important to have some objectivity here. When I get frustrated about things, I gotta realize that most people who make music never release albums or tour all over the world or play with rad people. I get to do all that shit. Often. I'm blessed. But I'm always worried about whether I can sustain it, 'cuz I've never made much money doing this. So I'd like it to be sustainable. And I think the ultimate success in music is to create a world that people trust. The coolest thing in the world would be to have All Smiles albums seem like a place that you might not know what you're gonna get, but it will definitely be a good place to spend time. That would be success to me, to have All Smiles represent the hub of a thriving community.

OA: How much thought or emphasis do you put into album covers? Do you feel that cover is becoming increasingly less important?
JF: Natasha Wheat, my partner for the last five years takes care of that, sometimes with a little direction from me. She's around while I pull my hair out working on this stuff and a real visionary in general, the way she sees and processes life. By the time I'm done with a group of songs, she just knows how to convert all that light in to something tangible and perfectly representative. And no, I think of music in terms greater than just hearing. But maybe it's not just the cover now, but about lots of other parts as well. Maybe the cover is not the the only introduction to our world, but one of them. And it's more than just bits of nettles on a harddrive. It's a total environment.

OA: What is next for Jim Fairchild and All Smiles?
JF: We're gonna tour in the Fall. Working on that now. Before that, I'm going back out as the guitar player in Modest Mouse. Which, by the way, is just about the best job in the world. It's a huge honor and pleasure to take part in their music and lives. I thought they were one of the best bands on the planet before I started playing with them. So to play with them is f**king insane. I am really fortunate.

For more information on All Smiles please visit their website.