Ep. 251: Myles Smith | Stargazing, Therapy, and The Secret Cost of Success

Today's guest is a rising star who's risen so fast he's not really rising anymore — he's just a star.

From a bedroom in Luton playing $50 nylon-string covers and open mics playing for 4 people... Three years later: a billion streams, "Stargazing" on President Obama's summer playlist, two singles that took over pop radio before he'd ever made a debut album, and a debut album sourced from the notes he wrote in therapy that saved him.

He's proof that sometimes all you really need is a guitar, a work ethic, and a Taco Bell-poisoned night in Malibu to write a song people argue about in twenty languages.

And the writer is... Myles Smith!

If you've ever wanted something so badly you didn't think to ask what it would cost when it arrived — this is the conversation.

And The Writer Is... Myles Smith!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

• Why he scrubbed every song he made before 2023 — and what "I didn't exist before 2023" actually means

• His advice for up and coming artists...

• The end-of-Covid breakdown at 18 that almost ended things — and the therapy notes that became My Mess, My Heart, My Life.

• Meeting Peter Fenn on the last day of a six-week US trip — and writing "My Home" in the first hour

• The Taco Bell food-poisoning night in Malibu that produced "Stargazing"

• The hidden cost of success on his relationships

• "Hey mom, I want to retire you" — and what she said back

And much more...

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A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

2:21 My Mess, My Heart, My Life.

3:16 The pressure of being "right at the start of the journey"

4:35 "If you take away the hits, you could see where I really am"

4:54 "I wake up some days in a catastrophe"

6:01 The five albums he wore out

7:23 His mum, his absent dad, and a single-parent household

8:22 Singing in church with his grandma

11:41 First talent show: Fix You by Coldplay

13:01 The $50 nylon-string guitar that started it

14:02 Playing "Dream Girl" for his mum at 10

15:23 Growing up Black in Luton and the Labrinth Electronic album that broke his brain open

18:45 Open mics at 11 — his mum driving him to every one

20:18 Why open mics built him in a way the algorithm can't

21:43 "I was really lucky that I got to fail a thousand times"

22:30 The first real gig — 100 cap, 90 friends and family, indie band Bear with a Three

29:18 Covid, isolation, rock bottom

30:44 Therapy — and the notes that became the album

33:06 Trust issues, anxiety, the night at 18 he tried to "ctrl alt delete on life"

35:12 What he'd say to 18-year-old him

36:55 The videographer who pushed him to try TikTok

37:25 "I'm not trying that shit" — and the Sweater Weather cover that changed everything

40:24 How he paved his way onto an Amber Run tour with one recorded song

43:40 NMPA mid-roll

44:22 The day his career actually started: meeting Peter Fenn

46:08 "Music with other people is supposed to be fun" — Peter's first lesson

49:01 "My Home" — written in the first hour of meeting Peter

54:48 After Stargazing: "stuck in the future"

60:06 Brain scans, burnout, smiling through it all

62:30 "Hey mom, I want to retire you" — and what she said

63:31 The UK artists who don't love being famous — Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Niall Horan

66:12 Are you happy?

78:29 "I hated Niall Horan" — and why

80:11 Rapid fire

83:32 Meeting his wife with all this happening

85:00 The album as the closing of the first chapter

90:46 Pulling up the old voice memos

92:02 The Taco Bell night that became "Stargazing"

95:39 The biggest pinch-me moment of the last three years

98:06 Ross and Joe tape notes

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CREDITS BLOCK

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki

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