INTERVIEW: Clayton Mitchell – Songs and Smiles

Mark: ‘Songs For Smiles’ is an absolutely massive undertaking – you cover a song a day for a year to raise money for a great charity. Take it a little way back for us though first what were you doing immediately before you came upon the idea?

Clayton: Well Reaper’s Riddle was my band and I’d done that for ten years in the Perth Metal scene and I left that and went back to Kalgoorlie to spend time with some family and friends and to just clear my head because after doing something that was doing good things but had stopped really benefiting me, and I felt kind of selfish still pushing it and I thought that maybe is time had come? I needed to take a step back.

Mark: Now most people when they take a bit of a break might choose something a bit different to do, but they don’t always choose something on such a grand scale as you’ve chosen to do. It’s a huge undertaking, what made you put that sort of commitment into the project?

Clayton: (laughs) ‘Cos I’m insane Mark! (laughs) No, well basically where it all started was when my Dad passed away. He had tongue cancer then he got cancer of his throat and the he got cancer of his lung and then he died of heart disease. So whenever me and my sister went around to visit him he would always say “Don’t worry about me” what we should be focusing on was helping the kids. And that’s where it all started from when I did a month dry and raised $2500 for cancer just by not drinking for a month. And that’s where it started, I thought if I could raise that much money by just not doing anything pretty much (laughs) even though me not drinking was a challenge!  But that was just the start, maybe I could do more?  After all those years of Reapers and talking to people and learning how to use social media and video-editing and all that stuff, I thought maybe I can use these skills to actually do some good stuff, and so that’s pretty much where it all stemmed from.

Mark: Just so that people realise the extent of the undertaking you’re basically doing one song per day for a year and I guess you’re three quarters of the way through?

Clayton: Yes we’ve basically got three months to go.

Mark: Has it gotten easier or harder as it’s gone along?

Clayton: Honestly it’s got harder because there’s a lot more at stake now. As it goes further and further along you’ve got your goal and that’s OK if we don’t reach the goal, we’re still raising good money, but as it goes along you’re constantly trying to outdo yourself. When you’ve got 365 songs, and one per day, the videos could get a bit boring if it was just me singing so you try to come up with creative ways of making it more interesting and you have guests in, but all that stuff takes organisation so it gets harder. Plus sometimes it’s the day itself and you have two hours to go and you know you need to do a song so you choose something easy and you do that so many times till you run out of easy songs. So it adds to that pressure to have you pre-rehearsing or pre-meditating what song you’re going to do.

Mark: So do you keep strictly to that or do you have a stockpile so that if you’re having a busy day or the voice goes you still have something to put out there?

Clayton: The only times I use that is when I know I have something to do or know I’m going away, then I’ll pre-load the songs and get them ready in advance and upload them because you still have all the artwork and effects and pre-promotion to do. But at the moment because there was a stage where, and I’m not sure if you saw it when my computer died, and so I was still recording the songs every single day but I couldn’t edit them so what happened is that now I’ve got this huge backlog of songs that I’m pretty much putting out two or three sometimes a day.

Mark: I’m still amazed by it all. What have been some of your favourite moments so far?

Clayton: I love doing the songs with my daughter because she’s lots of fun and I’m so serious but also I just think it’s that general feeling that it’s helping people and it’s moments like when I got a message about three months in from a family and they told me that every single day they watched the song as a family together and their kids loved it but for them it really captures that spirit. And I really appreciated that, its things like that that make it all worthwhile.

Mark: I myself helped set up a cancer charity four years ago now to help people in the north of Perth but I found it incredibly challenging and frustrating engaging with people even though I knew it was such a great cause.

Clayton: it is hard, sometimes you do feel like you’re milking people and asking them to contribute but I think the beauty of ‘Songs and Smiles’ is that it’s not just about that, it’s also about sharing and music, and I know you love music too, so it’s about the nostalgia, and just giving everyone a smile on a daily basis plus it’s about community, by sharing a song they can become involved. Every time someone donates it’s such a great thing, it’s about people who can and who want to make a difference uniting together on a common platform.

Mark: Have you had any feedback from any of the bands you’ve covered?

Clayton: Have you heard of the band Trooper? They actually liked the song and shared it, wrote a post and donated as well. That was amazing, and ‘Tears For Fears’ they liked and shared a song that I did. Then there was ‘Violent Femmes’ hey did a post about it that ended up with their fans giving it a good number of lies. It’s good when people get involved: ‘Shannon Noll’ was another one. So it’s pretty cool, I’d love it if more got involved, but it just doesn’t happen like that.

Mark: Hopefully we can give you just a little extra push too. What have you learned about yourself and other people about the whole exercise?

Clayton: One of the things I did notice was a lot of the people I thought would be behind it are a bit ‘Woo’… but a lot of people that I’ve never talked to before have kind of come out of the rafters – my Facebook account was pretty high because of the band but there were a lot of people that I’d never engaged or really talked to that are coming out. Some people don’t even comment they just send me a personal message and say “look you’re really helping” and its stuff like that that really keeps me going. As far as myself I learned that I get frustrated pretty easily! (laughs)

Mark: (laughs)

Clayton: No, when my computer was crashing the video editing and all that stuff…it can get pretty hard sometimes. But I’ve also I’ve learned a lot about my voice and where I can take it as I was doing Metal and Rock for so long. So there are some places I thought I can go that I definitely can’t and there are some places I didn’t think I could go that  I can which is good.

Mark: I admire your stamina! So what’s next? Are there any other big moments planned>More guests?

Clayton: Yeah, I’m constantly trying to organise stuff across Perth obviously. We’ve done songs across the world already – with a guy in France, a girl in Russia, I’m working on a violin song with a girl from New Zealand and all that takes organisation and can be pretty hard when you’re on such a deadline and you’ve still got to promote and do all the graphic design.  Plus sending out all the e-mails and contacting the press and all that stuff.  It’s a one man job but in saying that it’s not a one man job because it relies on people getting involved. So it’s really a Community of people doing all that work.

Mark: So how can people help you now trying to reach that goal?

Clayton: If they can make a donation, but more importantly sharing it, talking to friends, sharing page, possibly just contacting me. It seems so self-gratifying trying to promote yourself, but that’s not what it’s about, I want this to be organics, for people to see the cause. Enough people think I’m doing this for self-gain as it is but anyone that knows me will see that it’s hard and at times I’m struggling. For me it’s about using what I can, what I’ve learnt over the years in order to try and benefit some people that are doing it tough. I’ve always wanted to support a cause and I did a lot for mental illness with Reapers, but this is my wish, my Dad’s wish

Mark: I think one of my personal favourites is one of the more recent one’s you did I loved the Joe Walsh cover.

Clayton: You know that was one of my favourites as well but it didn’t get that many views. I don’t think a lot of people know who Joe Walsh is, I was thinking of an Eagles version but I wanted to do an Eagles song later in the year so I’m saving The Eagles but I don’t think a lot of people know the Joe Walsh version.

Mark: We’ll have to get it shared on some sites over in the States, they certainly know who Mr. Walsh is. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today, it’s such a great cause and such a huge undertaking we’re just happy to be able to tell people all about it.

Clayton: Thank you man. Remember it’s all about giving people a smile even if I look like an idiot!

ABOUT SONGS AND SMILES: “Songs and Smiles is a charity challenge for 2017 to help raise $100,000 for children in need and also to bring you a smile everyday for 365 days. We can’t repeat the same band/project in the year so every day is a new song by a new artist. Be sure to subscribe and click the little bell icon to see what new song pops up every day 😀 We are raising money for 4 charities, all to receive a quarter of the total money raised. Beyondblue (Mental Illness), Save The Children (Poverty and Homelessness), Cancer Council (Cancer and Support) and the last charity will be voted by all of you. So let us know in the comments if you think there is a great charity deserving of a helping hand. Songs and Smiles is 100% non-for-profit and relies on you as a community to help us reach more people every day of the year. So please get involved, share the video and give someone a smile as we help those less fortunate. Be a vital part of the cause as we grow over the year and put the FUN in Fundraising.