Exclusive Interview with Scott David Roberts

SMASH Magazine: How would you describe your work style?

Scott David Roberts: My work style I’m a perfectionist as far as songwriting. I almost always come up with some sort of a chord progression before I ever write a single lyric although, Ive considered other approaches such as trying to find a phrase or a lyric that means something to me as a chorus then creating the music behind it. 

SMASH Magazine: What is your process in composing your song?

Scott David Roberts: Traditionally my approach to writing music almost always starts with picking up my acoustic guitar noodling around until I find a cool chord progression or a certain sound, and then finding lyric that will go along with it. The music will tell me what the lyrics say. Is it going to be a sad song happy song rock song pop song I try to picture it with keyboard, drums, electric guitar, and think about what style of music it will be. I’ve heard a lot of songs with verses that contain lyrics that mean absolutely nothing. They just fit the cadence of the song and it’s kind of disappointing. However, I admit if I had to come up with the entire album worth of music by a certain deadline, my approach would change very quickly.

SMASH Magazine: What was the defining moment when you knew you were meant to create music?

Scott David Roberts: There never was a defining moment when I knew I was meant to create music. There was a period in my life when I realized I had a talent for composing music and that I enjoyed it the songwriting process that is always thought of composing music as my cigarette it’s what I do when I’m, nervous or in a good mood or in a bad mood, it always distracts me and gets my mind out of the squirrel cage , so to speak.

SMASH Magazine: What story behind the song "Ballad of Beelzebul”?

Scott David Roberts: Ballad of Beelzebul or “BoB” was inspired after watching world events unfold over the last six months or so, Ukraine war in the Middle East inflation so much crime and suffering most of it unnecessary I recently stated the lyrics were composed from a sense of anger due to those events But to be honest, maybe it’s fear. It seems like the world spinning out of control. I do feel a sense anger or fear because I feel helpless that I can’t stop it. It seems to me demonic forces, if one believes in that kind of thing, possessed people to become self-destructive, vengeful and self loathing we sometimes lose grasp of how blessed we are to live in a time with so much abundance, freedom, wealth and safety, unprecedented in the history of humanity. The normal condition of humanity is abject poverty. So the lyrics to BOB are from that perspective. Let’s say if Satan himself were to become a rockstar, what would he have to say? I would guess that he would sing about how he deceives people causes them to self-destruct and do evil things to each other. I came up with these really great cord progressions that I felt with sound great as in metal song or hard rock song this is before I had written any of the lyrics to BOB. It was one of those things that just fit together like it was meant to be sometimes creating music almost has a mystical feel to it like there’s some sort of force that runs through you this case it might’ve been a dark force, laughing out loud.

SMASH Magazine: How would you describe your new video to any potential new fan.

Scott David Roberts: I found a graphic artist on line by the name of Valentina Miglore she lives in Italy She has this ability to inject amazing color and life into her art that kind of reached out and grabbed me. I had written this song called My “Sweet Insanity” It’s about a girl who is living the rock star life but becomes addicted to drugs initially, having a great time, living it up, and then falling apart, some of the lyrics were influenced by my job working in health care. I live in Southern California, You unfortunately get to see a lot of bad stuff, long-term use of drugs and alcohol, especially drugs like meth combined with mental illness and homelessness its an awful combination so to make a long story short all of my videos were created by Valentina. So my intention when creating the video for ballad of billable I wanted to keep it simple enough, but not distracting to the song. I think some videos are so busy they distract from the song and the lyrics. I hope you’ll check it out.

SMASH Magazine: With every project comes a challenge, Can you tell us a time were you faces obstacles when creating this music video? How did you handle it?

Scott David Roberts: I grew up in Oklahoma, which influenced my songwriting, especially in the initial years. I travel to Nashville to record music, which of course sounded like Nashville. My early stuff is in the genre of country music, pop country, I guess, would be a better description. Living in Southern California, changed my songwriting considerably rather than watching crazy stuff happening on the West Coast from Oklahoma. I now live in the middle of it and experience it every time I go to work.

SMASH Magazine: Do you take the context of the song in consideration when creating the video? Why/Why not?

Scott David Roberts: When I’m creating a video, I don’t want the video to upstage the song or be distractive. I think the video needs to be minimal to the song as the video itself is never going to become a hit or make you money in normal circumstances. It’s also less expensive to be a minimalist. If the song is good you don’t want a busy video distracting from it anyway that’s my opinion. 

SMASH Magazine: What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

Scott David Roberts: Being a musician or a songwriter it’s very different than it used to be in the old days bands got together in rose organically developed a fan base and hopefully over the years getting a record deal nowadays it’s about personalities. It’s about image the Internet, social media, it’s a gift and a curse or a Catch-22, it allows people to connect with you to hear your music to see you communicate with you, but at the same time you’re lost in the sea of billions of others doing the same thing 

SMASH Magazine: Where can potential fans find out more about you?

Scott David Roberts: I would say if you want to be a professional musician you have to take an honest look at yourself if you have the talent if you have the determination go for it, integrate yourself in a part of the country that has a progressive contemporary music scene like Las Angeles, Austin Texas or Nashville.  network listen to people who care about you and their opinions, their observations and never give up  if you love music and you feel like it’s never gonna be a career but just a hobby that’s fine too. It’s a great thing to be able to write music videos play the guitar perform. You can add your life immensely even if it’s not your bread and butter so to speak  Anyway hope you’ll check out some of my other work Scott Roberts, any of the streaming platforms CD Baby and thanks for the opportunity to speak with you. I really appreciate it.

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