CRESTVIEW — Crystal Smith was destined to have a great birthday.
While the Crestview singer-songwriter admits the plan was always to release her debut eight-track album, “When Time Meets Destiny,” on Saturday, aka her 35th birthday, she couldn’t have planned the long and sometimes discouraging path to getting there better herself.
Plus, she has a feeling she had a little help.
Smith has been writing songs since she was 9. But now, with an R&B soul album and a scholarship to attend Northwest Florida State College for singing in the fall, she feels it is just beginning the music career she always hoped fate had in store.
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From choir to the Air Force
Smith feels like she has been singing all her life.
Music touches her on a deeper level, one that even she can’t explain to others, she said. Her first singing experiences were in church and later in the church choir.
She recalls one of her earliest memories in which singing made an impact.
“I remember one day singing out loud, singing my heart out, and there was a gentleman in front of me,” Smith said. “I was like 4 or 5 or 6, and I remember him turning around and telling my mom that I had a great voice, and I just remember being so excited.”
She’s loved it every day since.
In elementary school, her favorite class was music. It’s where her teacher played “Fur Elise,” Smith’s introduction to classical music
“I just remember being like, ‘One day, I want to learn to play. I want music to always be in my life,’ ” Smith said.
And she assumed it would be.
“I always sang and I always wrote, and I always kind of assumed that I would be a musician in some way because it meant so much to me,” Smith said. “Then as a teenager, you don't realize how much work goes into it. I was a teenager; I had no idea how to do life.”
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Smith was in her school and church choirs, took acting classes and loved to perform. She considers herself sheltered growing up, making the first time she heard the likes of Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” or Beyonce’s “Dangerously in Love,” particularly poignant.
The latter hit her hard.
“I would listen at home on repeat because of how romantic it was, and just how beautiful Beyonce's voice was,” Smith said. “I remember having moments even with Britney Spears, where I would hear her voice, and I'd be like, ‘How is the world not stopping right now? Why is everyone just acting like this exists and it's nothing; it's no big deal?’ But to me, it was. There were so many songs and so many musicians who have no idea who I am, but their music touched me. But I would say that Beyonce was one person.”
But as a teenager in the early 2000s, she had no guidebook on how to go from student to musician.
She joined the U.S. Air Force in 2011 instead.
“There were certain people in my life when I was younger who told me that I should probably not do music or music might not be the right avenue for me,” Smith said. “It discouraged me, because I knew how much I loved it and wanted in my life. I think that's another reason why I joined the military was just wanting to make people around me proud.”
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She still wrote songs while serving in the military and auditioned for Tops in Blue in 2010. Tops in Blue was a touring performance ensemble made up of active-duty airmen that no longer exists. She and her husband, Devon Smith, made it as finalists, but ultimately weren’t accepted.
She served five years.
Devon encouraged her, though, to go after whatever she wanted. And in 2017 she did just that.
It was the beginning of the year when Smith made the decision to pursue singing wholeheartedly. She lived in California and worked in a retirement home at the time.
She didn’t tell anyone about the decision; she just made it. The Lord works in mysterious ways, she said.
“The week after I made that decision, there was a resident there who played the piano, and I asked her if she ever needed anyone to sing for her while she played to just let me know,” Smith said. “But the time that she played was the time that I had to be at the front desk, so I was like, ‘Oh, no, it's OK.’ And so she ended up going to tell one of the activity coordinators that I sing.”
The next week, the activity coordinator asked Smith if she would like to sing for them.
“Since then, I was able to book two or three gigs every month,” Smith said. “Actually, they gave me the position as a singer, like I got to work in the morning as a receptionist and then in the evening as a singer. It meant so much to me.”
Later that year, she released “Still Standing.”
“It was for other people who have dreams,” Smith said. “Sometimes you have people in your life who doubt you. I've been in relationships where people laughed at me if I told them I wanted to sing, or they would make these snarky remarks, and you don't realize how much that can penetrate someone. And it did for a long time.”
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That’s how she knew it should be her first single.
“This is for other people, but it's also for me,” Smith said. “When I have those hard times I can go back and listen to this and remember all that I've been through to get to this moment, and just having faith in God. Just trying to persevere and keep going.”
Devon has continued to be supportive of her career.
“We have this conversation all the time, him just saying he wants me to be happy and, like I said, there are moments when I remember things that were said to me, and I think about the huge dream that I have and it's like, ‘Man, I don't know if I can do this. I'm scared. Were they right?’” Smith said. “But I always have him and he's always just encouraged me.”
Her mother and siblings encourage her, too, she said. It’s been the most influential aspect of her becoming an independent artist.
'When Time Meets Destiny'
Things are falling into place for Smith, and her album is the detailed account of how she got there.
“All of the songs that I've written, they're basically everything based on my own life experiences put into one album,” Smith said. “I know I still have a lot of life to live, but a lot of the songs I've just wrote and held on to.”
She wrote “Change of Heart” in 2010, but it hits her the same today.
“I know that people say: When you first write songs, they're not always the best. But I love that one so much,” Smith said. “For me, it marked a turning point in my mind of, ‘I want to do this. I want to pursue it even when other people are trying to tell me something else.’”
The final song on the album, “Hers,” is an ode to her 9-year-old self who wrote her first song on the piano.
“It's basically that composition mixed with who I am today,” Smith said. “It's kind of like, ‘I didn’t give up on you. We’re here. I'm still pursuing it.’”
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Yes, things are falling into place for Smith. That’s why the album is named “Time Meets Destiny.”
Much of its creation felt like destiny — for instance, when Smith only had a keyboard but wanted to pose in front of a grand piano for the album cover.
“I remember looking up places and theaters I could go to for the exact photos that I wanted, and I called the Mattie Kelly Arts Center,” Smith said. “I was fully prepared to pay to rent the room. I wasn't sure what all I had to do in order to do that. She was like, ‘Oh, you just want to do an album cover? Yeah, we can do that for free. You're good.’ It just worked out.”
It was there where she learned about the auditions for Northwest Florida State College’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
“I had no idea it was even there before researching for my album cover, so I kind of feel like it was fate,” Smith said.
She not only portrayed Jude, an apostle in the ensemble, for the rock opera, but also became a scholarship recipient of the Fine & Performing Arts Scholarships Program for Voice at Northwest Florida State College.
“I'm in a play, like my first-ever play as an adult,” Smith said. “It’s all really cool. It almost feels magical.”
Having people hear her music is exciting and nerve-wracking wrapped into one. It’s scary, she said.
“These are all based on my own feelings and experiences in life,” Smith said. “Part of the reason why I love music is because of how it always made me feel. There was always a song that related to the emotion that I had, and there was always something that could touch and impact me. I want that opportunity to touch someone else and let them know they're not alone or make them just feel or even escape whatever moment that they're in.”
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The only stranger to have a taste of her new music is a termite inspector who visited her house for an inspection this past week, she said.
“He went into my office, and he saw the instruments and he saw my vision board, and he was like, ‘Oh, do you like music?’” Smith said. “I was like, ‘I love music.’ And he was like, ‘Do you have any out?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe.’”
She played her latest single, “Love Found Me,” for him before its midnight release.
“The whole time he was listening, I was sweating, because I wasn't sure,” Smith said. “Usually you put it out into the world and hope that everything works out, but you don't see people responding to it, so it was a little nerve-wracking. But seeing him bob his head and say that he really liked it, he really liked my voice and to keep going, it really meant a lot.”
Learn more about Crystal Smith's music career on CrystalSmithMusic.com, or follow her on social media on Facebook.com/CrystalSmith, Instagram.com/CrystalSmithOfficial or Youtube.com/user/CrystalVSmith.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Happy birthday, Crystal Smith: Crestview singer turns 35, releases debut album