In this week's 10 Questions we get to know Smokin' Cola - an eclectic rock artist from Maryland. Their track 'Brand New Day' is currently featured on the NAS Spotify playlists. You can follow Smokin' Cola on BlueSky, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

1. Tell us a little about where you are from

I am originally from Louisiana, but I've lived in Maryland for the last 25+ years. I played in bands in my 20s and 30s, but let life take a detour and stopped playing seriously for about 10 years. The itch never went away though. So, a couple of years ago, I put together some cheap gear and went from there. Now I'm doing Smokin' Cola, which is an eclectic, 1-man rock, punk, whatever, music thang. I'm just writing songs, having fun, and putting it all out there.

2. What inspired Smokin' Cola to start playing and making music?

Well, I've been around music since I was born - my dad was a radio DJ nearly my entire life, so you could say I literally grew up in radio stations. My mom was also in bands when I was younger, she was an incredible singer (as in, she could do a killer version of Gimme Shelter and then turn around and nail The Pretenders). My dad is also a singer, he was in bands back in the 60s and again in the last decade.

So, I just grew up in a musical family, surrounded by music. But the funny thing is, I never played until I was a senior in high school, when my buddies and I decided to start a metal band! I guess you could say I was destined to make music, but I certainly made my own way - and took my own sweet time - to that destiny.

3. Who are Smokin' Cola's biggest musical influences?

I mean - yes? I take influences from everything, from all the music I grew up listening to on the radio and all of the bands I found own my own, to music I 've been exposed to from around the world. I get a lot of that from my dad, who I would describe as an unofficial musicologist.

I will say, knowing I can get really out there if I don't set some boundaries, I very intentionally created a set of influences that guide the music I make as Smokin' Cola. I mean, it's still a wide set of sounds, anything from 60s psychedelic garage rock, to experimental 70s music like Can, through 80's post-punk, into 90's grunge, with touches of hard rock, heavy metal, and hip-hop. Really, I never set out to do a genre, I'm just making music that sounds good to me, which is just a product of listening to all of that stuff for a lifetime.

4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?

I have zero goals in the music industry. That is just a subset of the world of music - really it's adjacent to the world of music, the industry is just the commercialization and capitalization of things from the world of music. My interest lies much more in the world. I want to keep playing and creating music for as long as I can. I want to share that music in a way that is really accessible. I want to interact with and learn from other musicians. I believe music is something very primal to humankind and immersing yourself in it is a natural and good thing. Too many things in our society have led to music being seen as something crass, commercial, or counter to the norm. Part of the industry is presenting music as a commodity, so it loses some of it's impact. I want to make music that is pure and raw and impacts someone, somewhere.

5. Tell us about your creative process

It can start with anything: a snippet of a lyric, a chord progression, a guitar lick. Sometimes it's more intentional; I kind of like doing songwriting challenges, whether that's something public or a self-imposed challenge. The first "official" Smokin' Cola song is a 3-chord song because I had never written one before and I heard a radio show hosted by Rick Springfield where the theme was 3-chord songs. That song is For Real Life, it came together in one afternoon, basically, at least the guitar and vocals. Other songs have started as a guitar riff that took two years to fully complete.

There are many times the song doesn't really get written until I get around to recording it, and it can really change once I decide on drum and bass parts. That's part of writing by myself in Smokin' Cola - I try to inhabit a persona for each part. So I know my drummer-self is really into tight grooves and has a less-is-more ethos, my bass player-self is a little funky, but meanders from time to time, my guitar player-self likes weird pedals, etc. Once I get a little self-collaboration going, that's when the magic happens, such as it is.

6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?

Impossible question, in the sense that it could change from minute to minute. But I will use this space to highlight "Matador" by Western Jaguar. It's on my list of perfect songs. Western Jaguar is another indie, (mostly) 1-man, project. Look it up, it's just fantastic.

7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?

So many answers, it depends how you mean "in terms of music". As far as advice I've received? In terms of playing an instrument, I would say practice slowly - it builds muscle memory. In terms of songwriting, I would say be honest and, when in doubt, always start a lyric with a truth. Advice I've given? Like, be cool and not an a-hole? I guess that's just life advice. In regards to music, I think my advice would be remember to listen, whether that's to your bandmates while you're playing or to music that's outside your comfort zone. Don't be complacent, constantly grow and evolve (that might be life advice, too).

8. What is your proudest accomplishment?

It probably hasn't happened yet - at least I hope not! But I am really proud of Smokin' Cola, especially knowing that I've basically done it entirely by myself. It would have been really easy to say, "I'm in my 40s, what's the point?", so to have pushed past that doubt, to have picked my instruments back up, to have written and recorded new music - that alone is a really thrilling, satisfying thing! But I'm also really proud of things I'm doing right now, new collaborations I've been working on, new music I have planned. It's been a fun ride and I want to keep it going as long as possible.

9. What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?

Haha, um, just about every time I pick up a guitar it has the potential to get pretty embarrassing! But seriously, I'm not sure. I've reached the stage of my life where I'm hard to embarrass - like, I've made enough mistakes and come out the other side in OK shape to realize most things aren't that big of a deal. I realize embarrassment is just an expression of insecurity, and I'm pretty secure in my skin. You know, every time I play live I make at least a couple of mistakes, and in the past those things would haunt me for weeks afterwards, but half the time, if I listen to a recording of the performance, I can't even find the mistakes - and most of the ones I do notice, nobody else would. And even if I do mess up badly enough to stop the song - heck, last time I saw Pearl Jam it happened to them. And they just laughed about it, started the song over, and kick it's ass. To me, that is the way.

10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

Oh man, I guess my lowest point would just be those years where I largely stopped playing, telling myself that there were things more important than music. And, hey, that's not entirely wrong - I have a family and my kids are certainly the most important thing to me. But why did I think that music had to be excluded just because other things existed in my life? And now, my kids kinda love that I make music, they're always asking me if I'm going to be famous, haha. I just tell them I'll be as famous as the universe allows. As far as musical high points, it's got to be playing live. I've been lucky enough to play with my bands in front of crowds that were just totally into it. That energy - that synergy - happening between musicians themselves and between the music and the audience. It really creates the most natural, powerfully spiritual, feeling I can imagine. I hope to have that a few more times in my life.