Dallas Smith Cements His Status on Side Effects
By Adam Kovac
IT ’ S ONLY MID-AUGUST , but Dallas Smith is soon headed to Hawaii for a well-deserved break .
Contrary to his Canadian roots , he ’ s not snowbirding away to escape a bleak winter . And despite the stereotypes of the heartbroken , forlorn country singer , he isn ’ t looking to escape the lady who done him wrong by shuffling down the road to some exotic new locale where the women are hot and the beer is cold .
Instead , the singer , awaiting the release of his new album Side Effects , is merely resting up after a four-year stretch that has seen him record three full-lengths and an EP that have made him arguably Canada ’ s brightest rising star in country and western music .
“ I ’ m pretty excited . I just got the masters three days ago , so I ’ ve just been living with the record and hearing it as a whole for the first time ,” he says .
There ’ s plenty to be excited about . With Side Effects , Smith will cement something few public figures ever truly get a crack at : a real professional rebirth .
Five years ago , you ’ d be forgiven if you ’ d dismissed the idea of Smith needing to reincarnate himself . Back then , he was the frontman for the successful , if not particularly revolutionary , post-grunge rock outfit Default . The band had scored a few modern rock hits in Canada and abroad , most notably 2001 ’ s “ Wasting My Time ” and were settling into the kind of career most garage bands would sell their eyeteeth for . But while the band had established themselves in a niche that was comfortable on both rock and pop radio , Smith was feeling like he ’ d hit a creative plateau . The
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