If you’ve been anywhere even remotely close to campus or Facebook within the past few weeks I’m 99% positive you’re aware Macklemore is coming to SDSU to perform at our annual Greenfest concert. Being from Seattle, similarly to Macklemore, I am incredibly proud of this fact, and encourage anyone who has heard any song other than Thrift Shop to attend the show. (Seriously he has other songs.) However this year SDSU added a brilliant twist! They invited student to submit their own musical talents to be considered as an opening act for the thrift king himself. They performed, and you chose.
You chose Brandon Pierce and Ryan Smith, and consequentially caused every girl on this campus to fall for this handsome and talented duo. They both sing and play instruments but during performances Pierce is the soft crooner belting out Bruno Mars-esque notes and Smith is strumming away on the guitar making his partner’s voice sound even better than should actually be physically possible. I sat down with Ryan Smith last week to talk about his newfound fame and because he honestly is the sweetest person. Good excuse for an interview with a handsome guy right? He is currently majoring in Communications with a minor in Marketing. Naturally however music is his end goal and dream, as Ryan explains aptly with an appropriate “YOLO.” After a random and confusing conversation about his new addiction to the app LuLu, on which girls rate the guys they’re Facebook friends with he explains his perfect girl comes down to someone funny, relaxed, independent, confident, and a little cocky if you have it in ya. His perfect date with said girl involves a simple dinner and a movie. That being said I got the impression that if you’re the kind of girl who could drive along the coast blasting country music and singing without a care in the world, you’d be perfectly set doing that on a date too. And he just keeps getting sweeter.
Right off the bat he starts talking about his involvement on campus in areas other than music, because his main involvement is where he lives, works, eats, sleeps, and does everything else a college male would. He is a member of Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity here on campus. Although if I’m honest the way he talks about his fraternity it makes it sound much more like a large family who just really likes going out for donuts on a regular basis, not the typical party, party, party one might normally associate with being a frat star. He’s a member of their Executive Board and a member of IFC or the Interfraternity Council Regularly involved with their events and general presence on campus. Which is probably why everyone knows and loves him.
Of course the main reason for his current bout of fame is his musical ability and upcoming performance opening for Macklemore on Thursday, March 21st. I ask how he first got into music and he (not surprisingly) tells me he taught himself. Ever so sweetly he launches into a story of never having a “thing” in high school while everyone around him played soccer, performed in plays, participated in student government etc. Deciding he needed his own “thing” and inspiration from a local rockstar-esque youth minister had him picking up the guitar and learning form Youtube videos at only fifteen. I’m still working on my “thing,” let alone teaching myself from online tutorials, and he only gets better.
Forming a band in high school with some local friends he honed his craft, recorded, and became kick-ass performer. Because that is apparently what you do with your spare time if you’re Ryan Smith… You professionally record records with your local band of high school Catholic kids by the age of eighteen. Of course. That being said, it was by luck and universal chance that he continued to play throughout college. A few Facebook conversations with Brandon Pierce about his love of music were the only connection he thought he would experience moving on to San Diego State. The world has a funny way of putting perfectly talented people in the same air space and they ended up on the same dorm hall. A few songs and common room jam sessions and they were literally on their way to stardom.
When it came to deciding to apply for the Greenfest opening artist spot it was actually a last-minute decision. Which even Smith openly recognizes as a little insane considering how far they’ve come. Two days before the competition deadline they submitted a rushed cover and were called back to perform in front of 500 or so students who would vote to decide Macklemore’s opening act. Obviously they made the cut, but recognized the talent of their close runner-up, Julianne Manalo, and have in fact invited her to perform with them during their set this upcoming Thursday. They will there perform two original songs and three covers, and will drop their upcoming single (one of their originals) that night after the concert wraps. It was at this point in the conversation that I realized I kind of was sitting with an actual celebrity. Or at least someone whose about to rocket to being one in a week or so. Naturally I gave myself away and began blushing like a thirteen-year-old meeting Robert Patterson.
Keep a look out for that single San Diego State, if you haven’t heard Pierce and Smith perform yet you’ll have your mind blown in just under a week I can promise you that. That he’s charming, attractive, and legitimately funny is only a plus for us ladies.