Meet Paxton Smith of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paxton Smith.

Hi Paxton, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in Texas, and what initially launched me into the public eye for the first time was actually a speech that I gave at my high school graduation about the Texas six-week abortion ban. After that speech, I spent the next year and a half of my life as an activist for abortion rights, and now I sit on the board for a national abortion fund. But when Roe got overturned, I decided to take a step back from activism and pursue what brings me the most joy in the world, which is music.
I’ve been doing music ever since I was a little kid. I spent eight years playing trumpet, and at this point I’ve been producing music for about four years. I started launching my debut EP, “But I Love It,” last year in May, and I am just about to wrap up the rollout of that first EP.
My music is characterized by this pop, borderline hyperpop sound, with the use of synths and glitch-esque editing of vocals. It’s like party pop with this airy, gritty tone, and the EP centers around my coming-of-age story. So there are songs about overthinking, songs about boys, songs about partying — all of the things that have kind of shaped my late teens and very early 20s.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest struggle for me with music has been learning how to do all of the things that come with having a music career in this day and age. I have had to develop a lot of skills that I never anticipated I would need. I’ve learned how to produce music, do sound design, produce music videos, edit videos, color-grade, I’ve learned about music marketing, branding, favorable deals, licensing, negotiation, royalty distribution, and rights. I’m sure there’s more, but I’ll stop there haha.
There’s just a lot that happens behind the scenes that people never think of, or people seem to think the artist isn’t in charge of. And if I was somebody like Taylor Swift, of course I wouldn’t have to be in charge of all of this, I could pay somebody else to take care of it, but in these starting stages, that’s not a feasible option for me.
Nobody has come to save me or do the work for me, and I’ve learned that the only way that I can move forward is that I can trust people to help me, but I can’t trust people to make me into what I want to be. All of that has had to come from me.
It’s been challenging, but it’s also been an absolute blessing to have to figure it out.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Well, as you know, I’m an alternative pop artist. I make gritty, airy, dusty pop that verges on hyperpop and has glitch elements in it. My music focuses on who I am as a now 23-year-old and centers around my experiences. Something that I think is special about the music that I make is that I write and produce almost all of it. Sometimes I have a co-writer, but I usually produce entirely all of my music.
So all of the sounds that you hear, all of the choices that you hear, came straight from my mind. It’s something that I’m really proud of.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Oh man, this is a great question. You know, in music I actually haven’t felt all that lucky. I feel like with music, my mindset has had to be that people will look at me and pay attention to my music when I give them something worth looking at. And I feel that I have done that now at this point, but I need to keep going with it and I need to be patient, because what I have coming towards me is undeniable and it will come.
When I was 18, I had a very different experience with luck in the world of politics, because the very first thing I did in activism went absolutely viral. Hillary Clinton tweeted it, and then a day or two later I was on CNN, and I was in a very public spotlight for a long time. I can’t tell you how many opportunities just fell in my lap to advocate for what I believed in in front of a large group of people. I’ve been able to make a huge impact on people’s lives because I got lucky that the right people saw what I had to say at the right time, and it was culturally relevant enough to make it onto the news.
It’s been a bit jarring to go from that response with my activism to a world in music where the market is super oversaturated and breaking through feels almost impossible. But I feel very confident that music is where I’m meant to be, even if there is a little bit less luck with it at the moment. I love making music, and I can’t see a world where this wouldn’t be the best, most fulfilling thing to do with my energy.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paxtonasmith/
• Twitter: https://x.com/PaxtonASmith
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgYJ7PA4bnUBn1tVdBQpnsg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/61ZRdor1Su7CKfbGfz6LzQ?si=euAJgFfnQ0GU-qPoNUsAlw

Image Credits
Chair photos (STOP ! Music Video)
Other Photos: Andrew Crumpton of Atlas Studios