‘I’m just along for the ride’

On Feb. 1, an influencer stepped onto the red carpet at the 68th annual Grammy Awards. Dressed to the nines, this man smiled for the cameras and celebrated his role in a Grammy-nominated album. Living the creative’s dream in Los Angeles that night, this man was once a boy in Creston, striving to learn and be more every single day.

Looking at Andy Arthur Smith’s social media, one is likely to find videos of Smith covering various songs a cappella or creating comedic skits utilizing his voice. With more than 5 million TikTok followers, 1 million Instagram followers and now the Grammys under his belt, Smith is living a life many young people dream of. However, this wasn’t the path he expected his life to take.

The beginning

A 2014 Creston graduate, Smith grew up surrounded by music.

“I grew up in a very musical family. My parents are musicians; my uncle Jason Smith was the head of the music department at [Southwestern Community College],” Smith said. “My brothers were musicians. I grew up in a family of musicians and it just grew from that.”

Smith remembers in fifth grade when his class sat down to try out various instruments. He was immediately drawn to the drums, something he continued into high school with drumline and pep band. However, his voice was always his favorite instrument.

Creston High School Band Director Michael Peters remembers having Smith in class.

“He never was short on talent. He played percussion for me; he was in my drumline for competitive indoor drumline competitions. He, though, was a butterfly, he would go from one thing to another,” Peters said. “He would do something, get really good at it, get bored with it, and then move on to something else. He was incredibly talented. I don’t know if he even realized how talented he was at the time when he was in high school.”

Despite this talent, it was film Smith decided to pursue in college.

“After high school, I actually went to film school because I’ve always been obsessed with movies and TV shows as well as music,” Smith said. “The way I looked at it, since my entire family are musicians, I felt I’d always have music in my life, so I’m good there.”

Finding his place

Smith attended Columbia College Hollywood in Los Angeles, now known as California College of ASU, pursuing acting. However, it didn’t take long after graduating for Smith to realize the grind of life for a traditional actor was not for him.

“I kind of realized, I guess I’m not passionate enough about acting to go through the ruthless grind that some actors are going through and have to go through in order to make a living doing it,” Smith said. “Props to any actors who are doing that because it’s really hard. I just like to act in stuff I like to act in, and as an aspiring actor, you have to take any role that you can get. That’s not very fulfilling to me.”

However, Smith was able to continue using his acting skills in a different way. In 2019, Smith published his first video on TikTok. Though originally done just for fun, Smith’s skill with the vocal technique of scatting helped him standout.

Scatting is a form of vocal improvisation often found in jazz where the artist creates music with emotive or nonsense syllables. Scatting is often also found in a cappella, used to mimic the sound of various instruments.

“Once a few of them went viral, I kind of tried to replicate the formula, which was to sing things in a very goofy way,” Smith said. “I know that the things that I do that make people laugh are because it’s so weird and original, the twist of really fast scatting and hitting really precise notes while scatting but not taking myself seriously in the videos.”

Not long after going viral, COVID took the world by storm. It was during the pandemic that Smith decided a move to Austin, Texas, would be a good change.

“I moved to Austin because I wanted a change and I wanted to spread my wings a little bit. I was living in a dingy little one-bedroom apartment and I didn’t have any space to create music or videos really,” Smith said. It’s the live music capitol of the world, so that’s a plus. Moving here allowed me to be able to have my own room for my home studio, which was a huge help.”

Music

With more room to create, Smith started connecting with other musicians. These collaborations came to a head in 2025, with “Tokyo Daylight” coming out in July and “Merengue alla Turca” releasing in October.

“Tokyo Daylight” is a collaboration with The 8-Bit Big Band, a jazz and pops orchestra that specializes in video game music. Originally from the video game Persona 5, the new version of “Tokyo Daylight” features the scatting talents of Smith alongside the jazz band. This song is one of 13 tracks on the album “Orchestrator Emulator,” which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category.

“Unfortunately it didn’t win, but that’s OK. I’m just honored to be able to say I was a participant in a Grammy-nominated project. It was my first time ever going to the Grammys, so that was sweet,” Smith said. “It was also my first time ever doing a red carpet event, so I was kind of starting off with a bang. It was very surreal and really fun. I hope I get to do that again in the future.”

Smith said a collaboration with The 8-Bit Big Band was long in the works, but the way “Merengue alla Turca” came into being was a little quicker.

“I did a video where I sang [a Mozart song] in a really goofy way and I rearranged it to make the rhythms really complex and interesting, and [Vulfmon] saw my video and said, hey, let’s make this into a full track,” Smith said.“We did that and put it on his most recent album ‘Deg.’”

While both of these collaborations were exciting, Smith has also had the opportunity to work on some of his own music, releasing an EP titled “Shortcut” in April 2025. An EP is a musical release with multiple songs but not enough songs to be considered an full album. Smith said “Shortcut” features seven songs, but the genres vary.

“It’s a little bit of a mixed bag of genres. There’s a Bossa Nova song, there’s a jazz-forward song, there’s a song that’s more pop influenced, there’s a song that’s very heavy metal influenced,” Smith said. “The EP itself is a little experimental too, but I think the through line is very me and my voice. I like to listen to a lot and I like to sing a lot.”

Musical influences for Smith include Thundcat, Jack Black, Earth, Wind and Fire and Steely Dan, though he said this list is not extensive.

While the past year has been a big one for him, Smith said he has more to come.

“I’m just really glad that I’m able to create for a living. I’m working on new original music right now to release another album, hopefully within the next year,” Smith said. “I’m going to continue making content because it’s fun and it comes pretty easily to me. Whatever other opportunities this all leads to, I’m just along for the ride.”

Those interested in following Smith can find him at @andyarthursmith on TikTok and Instagram.

“Wherever you listen to music, you can listen to my music,” Smith said. “I have a website, AndyArthurSmith.com, where I have merch available, so if people like my music, they can buy a vinyl of my EP, they can buy shirts if they want to. Those are the best ways to be supportive."