Rob Smith - Never A Dull Moment (2009)

Rob Smith - Never A Dull Moment
(Released 2nd July 2009)
Released by Polar Music New Zealand
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
"Free Spirit", "Tears Of The Sun" & "Let Me Out - Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming)
- Nils-Ole Finbak (Keyboards - "Cinderella")
- Matt Sturgess (Bass - "On Common Ground")
- Richard Anderson (Narration - "On Common Ground")

1. Cinderella (Rob Smith)
2. It's Getting On Top Of Me (Rob Smith)
3. Never A Dull Moment (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
4. What Happened To My World? (Rob Smith)
5. Free Spirit (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
6. Freedom To Be Who I Am (Rob Smith)
7. You Say You Want To Be Free (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
8. On Common Ground (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith, Matt Sturgess)
9. Tears Of The Sun (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
10. Good Memories Are Made To Last (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
11. Let Me Out (Rob Smith)
12. You're Free (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)

Written and recorded during several different sessions, this collection is Rob's 3rd official solo album. "On Common Ground", "Good Memories Are Made To Last", "What Happened To My World?" & "Cinderella" were all written and recorded during "GONE WILD II" sessions. "Tears Of The Sun" was the first ever song that Rob Smith and Richard Anderson co-wrote together.

Notes by Richard Anderson:
Rob was initially going to begin recording this album in 2007, but testament to him being a team player, he put aside the bulk of his attention to complete writing and production of both the "Something To Remember" and "GONE WILD II" collections (as well as finishing up work on the Houston Wells collection "Now & Then", and
also remastering several of his own archived releases).

Whenever the moment took him and whenever the muse was kind, Rob was able to write and record several of the songs that make up this album during the middle of the previously mentioned sessions. This in itself shows what a talent Rob is, being able to flit between genre's as if it wasn't a problem at all...it still astounds me.

Other tracks that make up "Never A Dull Moment" have been sitting in the archives for a wee while waiting for their moment in the sun (or rain), it was a pleasure to have been once again involved in the writing process and seeing that Rob's 3rd solo album is brought to light as we had discussed, we have a motto in that if we say we are going to bring an album out, then we will do our best to complete each project.

GONE WILD - GONE WILD II (2009)

GONE WILD - GONE WILD II
Released May 2009
Released by Polar Music New Zealand / GONE WILD Productions
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Chris Szkup's Guitars on "State Of Euphoria" & "Georgia Peach" Co-Produced by Bill McMartin @ Beyond Therapy Studio's, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming)
- Richard Anderson (Vocals, Narrations)
- Matt Sturgess (Bass)
- Chris Szkup (Lead Guitars - "State Of Euphoria", "Georgia Peach" & "Bourbon Blues")
- Robin Wellaway (Sax - "Living On The Edge", "Legacy", "Is It Real?" & "In The Year Of The Blues")
- Nils-Ole Finbak (Piano - "Silent Tears", "If Only I Could Find The Words" & "In The Year Of The Blues")
- MC Hizzy (Rap - "Oblivion")
- Madame XXX (Spoken Intro - "Georgia Peach")
- Kenny Killz (Spoken Intro - "Once Bitten")
- Kayla Driskel (Children's Narrations - "Silent Tears")

Disc I:
1. Silent Tears (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
2. Rock This World (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
3. Immortal (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
4. Bitter Sweet (R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
5. Living On The Edge (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
6. Oblivion (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, MC Hizzy)
7. The Living Dead (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
8. Straightjackets (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
9. State Of Euphoria (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, C.Szkup)
10. Once Bitten (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
11. Legacy (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
12. My Good Addiction (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
13. The Death Of A Hero (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
14. Georgia Peach (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, C.Szkup)
15. De Ja Vu (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)

Disc II:
16. Thunder & Lightning (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
17. I Caught You Out (R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
18. Thicker (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
19. Is It Real? (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
20. Karma (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
21. Doesn't Really Matter (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
22. Rise Up (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
23. The Way Of The World (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
24. If Only I Could Find The Words (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
25. In The Year Of The Blues (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
26. Where Would We Be? (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
27. Bourbon Blues (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, C.Szkup)
28. 21st Century Cool (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
29. Wild Boy (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)


Notes by Richard Anderson:
Matt and Nilsy were both pretty fired up after the release of the first GONE WILD album, both of them at different times jokingly said they were looking forward to doubling the efforts (Nilsy had actually mentioned a 3rd and 4th album as well).

Rob and I both took that to mean they were serious about continuing to ply away rocking out together, so we put our heads together and devised a plan to record a double album. Unfortunately during the writing of this album we had several personal upheavals (2 divorces, 1 death of a sister, 1 death of a father, 1 death of a beloved pet - and several musical heroes passing too). Nilsy was unable to direct his energies fulltime into writing and recording for this album, so we decided rather than wait - while the inspiration was running red hot we decided to plow on as a 3 piece. Rob handled the bulk of the musical composition (Matt handled the writing of his basslines, Rob and I teamed up on vocal arrangements on several tracks), and Rob and I both handled the lyrical content. In fact we wrote more songs than wound up on this album, and had dozens of lyrical and musical ideas floating around, some that may find their way to being used in the future.

Inspiration was never a problem when working on this album, but the time it took was something we have agreed we wouldn't want to have to go through again, although looking back personally I feel we have come up with the best set of tracks possible for this follow-up album. We tested ourselves with the production of this album, often coming up with songs in different genres that we hadn't thought we'd travel in - there is some metal, some rap and even some croony blues type things on this album - GONE WILD can never be accused of being one-dimensional that's for real.

I personally like the fact that we were able to put in some of our humour ("Rock This World", "Georgia Peach", "Bourbon Blues") alongside some rather thought provoking songs ("Silent Tears", "Bitter Sweet", "State Of Euphoria", "Legacy", "The Way Of The World"), overall as songwriters I think this album contains not only some of our best hooks and lyrics, but also some outstanding playing, we were motivated enough to try our hand at representing ourselves differently than we had on other projects we had worked on - thus making the 2 years of effort worthwhile in the end.

Hayley Oliver, Rob Smith & Richard Anderson - Something To Remember

Hayley Oliver, Rob Smith & Richard Anderson - Something To Remember
Released April 2009
Released by Polar Music New Zealand
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Hayley Oliver (Vocals)
- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming)
- Robin Wellaway (Sax - "How Many Ways")

1. Drifting Away (Rob Smith)
2. I Can't Help But Feel The Way I Do (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
3. Something To Remember (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
4. The Silence Of It All (Rob Smith)
5. Let's Get To The Heart Of The Matter (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
6. Love You Forever (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
7. Through The Heart (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
8. How Many Ways (Rob Smith)
9. I Believe In Angels (Rob Smith)
10. The Simple Things In Life (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
11. You Might Think (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
12. Days Gone By (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)

Rob Smith teamed up with English country singer Hayley Oliver on this wonderful collection of ballads, this marking Rob's first complete collaboration album outside of New Zealand.

Notes by Richard Anderson:
Working with Rob and Hayley on this project was a priviledge, all of the songs are packed with lots of emotional content and every song is a gem. It was an interesting experience working on songs of a different nature, gelling the pop-rock with country was something that we found both challenging and appealing. Rob and I both liked how we were able to show we were versatile as songwriters, and working with a vocalist of Hayley's calibre was certainly a blessing.

GONE WILD - For Your Love (Mp3 Single)

GONE WILD - For Your Love

Released in 2007 as a free online mp3 download
Released by Polar Music New Zealand / GONE WILD Productions
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming)
- Richard Anderson (Vocals)
- Matt Sturgess (Bass)

1. For Your Love (Graham Gouldman, Arr: Rob Smith)

"For Your Love" is a cover of The Yardbirds classic, Rob used to play this song (with a similar arrangement) live during his years with Crazy Paving.

Notes by Richard Anderson:
Rob showed me a video he had of a Crazy Paving (one of his former bands) practice, it was quite hilarious in that they would all be giving each other cheek and would dress up between songs. Rob remembered later that there was a version of "For Your Love" that they would play as a 3 piece to give his wife Carol a break from singing, he had mentioned how he had always wanted to take that arrangement and have it recorded. During downtime between tracks for the "GONE WILD II" album (in fact Matt, Nilsy and I were going to work on a collection of songs with various singers while Rob was supposed to be working on his 3rd solo album, but plans changed when Rob decided he was dead keen to get on with "GONE WILD II"), Rob had set about recording "For Your Love", Matt added his bass and I added some backing vocals to the completed recording. The feedback for this track has been amazing, and we do all really like how what started out as a bit an off-the-cuff idea (so many of our good ideas come about this way) turned into something that has garnered a lot of compliments for us from all over the world.

GONE WILD - GONE WILD

GONE WILD - GONE WILD

GONE WILD + Friends @ Facebook

Released January 2007
Released by Polar Music New Zealand / GONE WILD Productions
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming
- Richard Anderson - Vocals, Narrations
- Nils-Ole Finbak - Norske Narration, Piano, Keyboards, WILD Guitars
- Matt Sturgess - Bass
- Carol Smith - Harmonica - "Don't Need Them Blues"
- Chris Szkup - Lead Guitars - "Montage"
- Robin Wellaway - Sax - "The Good Ole Boys", "Heavens Above" & "Don't Need Them Blues")

1. Don't Wanna Be A Star (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess)
2. Escape (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
3. The Good Ole Boys (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
4. GONE WILD (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
5. Heavens Above (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
6. Achilles (Instrumental) (R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
7. War Of Words (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
8. Don't Need Them Blues (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
9. Montage (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith, Matt Sturgess, N.Finbak)
10. El Pronto Mofo (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
11. Ditto (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
12. Comfort Within (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
13. Introspective/Outrospective (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)
14. Turn Off The Lights (R.Anderson, R.Smith, M.Sturgess, N.Finbak)

Notes by Richard Anderson:
Both Rob Smith and Tim P Hall had been at me to put together a solo album of my own at some point, but I didn't really think anyone would want to be hearing me do my thing. As a compromise I had said to Rob that perhaps we should pool our efforts alongside Nils-Ole Finbak, who I had been writing a lot of material with (and also Rob had some material he was working on with him) and create a hard rock project that we could be listed within as equals rather than a solo album. Rob was at first keen to come onboard to play some guitar as needed, but then he thought about it further and suggested that why don't we go the whole hog and have him come onboard fulltime as both guitarist and producer?. Given that Rob had other projects he was working on we felt that he must have indeed been quite serious in his wanting to come onboard, so we took him up on the offer - and thus GONE WILD was born. Actually the name was supposed to be GOING WILD but somewhere along the line one of us (we've blamed Nilsy) typed the wrong name in an email. During one of his get-togethers (christened Ratapiko Rockfest) at his place I met Matt Sturgess and having heard good things about him from Rob, we struck up a conversation and I mentioned to him how Rob, Nilsy and I were going to be working on a hard rock-blues rock based collection of songs and that we would be keen for him to come onboard as a bass player if he wanted. Matt didn't have to take a second asking, he was keen as. The "GONE WILD" album took only 4 months to complete.

More information on the making of this album and also some reviews will be added to this blog soon.


You can purchase this album by simply emailing: robertsmith@xtra.co.nz or breakfree74@hotmail.com

Quadraphonic - Live In The Marquee - The Official Bootleg

Quadraphonic - Live In The Marquee - The Official Bootleg

Released in 2006
Released by Polar Music New Zealand
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars)
- Matt Sturgess (Bass)
- Hayden Okey (Drums, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals - "Mustang Sally")
- Robin Wellaway (Sax)

1. Flip, Flop & Fly (Big Joe Turner)
2. Little Sister (Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman)
3. Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
4. Rock This Town (Brian Setzer)
5. Move It On Over (Hank Williams JR)
6. Freebird (Allen Collins, Ronnie Van Zant)
7. Things Have Changed (Bob Dylan)
8. Do Ya Feel Like We Do ? (Peter Frampton)
9. Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett)
10. Hey Baby (Bruce Channel, Margaret Cobb)
11. Moving Up In The World (Rob Smith)
12. In The Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
13. Ratapiko Blues (Rob Smith, Richard Anderson, Carol Smith)
14. Wish (Rob Smith)

Notes by Richard Anderson:
Rob had been playing with The Hiway Blues Band, but after bass player Ryland Sheard (also a member of Rob's other former band Snapdragon) had gotten ill, he was replaced by Matt Sturgess (who had previously played bass with The Candles after Rob's brother Phil had left that band), a new name was conjured up - Quadraphonic. This live album stems from a gig that Quadraphonic performed at Pukekura Park under a marquee.

It's great that some original songs were used on this recording, and I was pretty stoked to have had our collaboration with Carol Smith featured on this collection - Quadraphonic have continued to play that song at all of their gigs since 2004.
"Moving Up In The World" has a long history as far as Rob's live and recording experiences is concerned, so it was good to see that one included here, alongside of course a favourite of many of Rob's fans over the years (including myself), the soul stirring "Wish".

Now onto their third drummer, there have been talks of putting together an updated live album...so that's something to look forward to there.

Rob Smith - Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Rob Smith - Actions Speak Louder Than Words


Released in 2006
Released by Polar Music New Zealand
Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand
Mastered by Michael Hill @ Killermoa Music Studio's, Waitara, Taranaki, New Zealand

- Rob Smith (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming)
- Catherine Smith (Backing Vocals - "An Angel Flies")
- Laura Smith (Backing Vocals - "An Angel Flies")

1. My Sanity (Rob Smith)
2. Why Did We Fall So Far (Rob Smith)
3. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
4. An Angel Flies (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
5. What Don't Kill Me Will Just Make Me Strong (Dawn Sinclair, Rob Smith)
6. What I Would Do For You (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
7. Let's Get To The Heart Of The Matter (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
8. In The Bottom Of A Bottle (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
9. I'm Gonna Miss You Baby (Rob Smith)
10. Forget Yesterday (Dawn Sinclair, Rob Smith)
11. Can't Stop Loving You (Rob Smith)
12. Inside Me (Rob Smith)
13. How Do You Feel? (Rob Smith)
14. The Woman I Never Knew (Richard Anderson, Rob Smith)
15. When The Wind Blows (Rob Smith)

Rob's second official solo album.

Notes by Richard Anderson:
After the release of "Be Careful What You Wish For", it was easy to see that there were still other tracks there left over from the same sessions that could be used for a second solo album. So we put aside some of those tracks and also co-wrote some new material specifically for what was to become "Actions Speak Louder Than Words".

Another lyricist was brought into the fold, English lyricist/poet Dawn Sinclair, who had been writing a fair bit with other artists, but took an instant liking to Rob's writing and recording style. As a thanks for her support, Rob included 2 Dawn Sinclair co-writes on "Actions Speak Louder Than Words".

I liked the fact that Rob was able to progress musically into rockier places where need be on this album - whilst it still sounding like a Rob Smith album, there was indeed some progression rather than just getting caught into repeating an exact formula, something we wanted with this label's releases was to always keep mixing it up. Thankfully Rob is inspired by a lot of different types of music and artists (and life experiences too), and as those things are all thrown into the pot with his own experiences the Rob Smith sound is always going to be varied.

It was an interesting experience seeing this project come together, as we had written some things that we both felt rated up there (and still do) as some of the best and most heartfelt things either of us had written, I take great pride in knowing that we were able to follow-up a great album that is "Be Careful..." with something equally as brilliant.