Just over two months ago, Rett Smith introduced Tin Lung with something close to a manifesto: no side project, no tentative experiment, but a fully formed artist starting again on his own terms. Today, that declaration materialises with EP 1, released via Lavoir Records through AWAL. Across four tracks, Smith moves decisively into electronic and experimental territory, presenting a new identity that might seem like a radical departure but, according to him, has been developing internally for decades.
The timing puts that transformation in perspective. When we spoke with Smith in March, around the release of Let You Fall, he was seemingly opening another chapter in a career shaped by distorted guitars and emotionally exposed songwriting, with the track presented as the first glimpse of a forthcoming album. Six months later, Tin Lung redraws that trajectory entirely, proving that what appeared to be the beginning of one chapter was taking place alongside the construction of another.
Central to this new project is not only what Smith creates, but how he creates it. According to Smith, every sound on EP 1 comes from outboard gear and hardware instruments; no software instruments or AI were involved. The entire signal chain, including synthesis, drums, reverbs and delays, is analogue hardware. Everything was recorded at Smith’s own Tularosa Sound in Los Angeles, then mastered by frequent collaborator Stefan Brown at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Those parameters shape Want 2 Lose, See ME -if u want 2-, LOVERS and Fall Back 2 The Times, turning the production process into an essential part of Tin Lung’s identity. Smith’s connection with electronic music also predates the project, having contributed guitar to Hudson Mohawke’s Cry Sugar. With Tin Lung, however, machines and analogue processes move from the edges of his creative universe to the centre, becoming the foundation for a different form of expression.
“Tin Lung is my music in its purest form. I’ve been creating nonstop in sonic seclusion — a creative rebirth, and the most free I’ve ever felt as an artist. This music isn’t new to me — I’ve lived inside it for decades; it’s only new as my output,” Smith explains. Conceived as the opening transmission, EP 1 will be followed almost immediately by EP 2, while a debut full-length is already planned for early next year. Tin Lung is only getting started.