Paul Smith aka
Smithmonger hails from Tasmania Australia, but has since relocated to South London, where he is churning out tunes from his Brixton studio
After studying in Tasmania, he moved to Sydney and became a professional trumpet player. Years of playing in bands eventually resulted in a lucky string of high paying gigs which financed his switch to dance music in 1998. Now living in London as an accomplished DJ, producer and engineer, he is concentrating on breaks and house with some impressive results.
2002 saw
Smithmonger release a big 12" on Hooj's new sub label Safety in Numbers (5 weeks in
Judge Jules' Top 10 on Radio 1), two 12" releases on Bushwacka's Oblong (one of these is featured on
James Lavelle's `Barcelona' Global Underground mix) two 12" releases on Suburbia, and one on Special Needs. A class breaks release on TCR in December `02 was hammered but the likes of the Plump DJ's, and Boy George. It was
Hybrid's tune of the year with wicked reviews in most Dj magazines.
2003 saw a huge release called `Sky High' on Loaded records with massive support on UK radio. TCR recently released a nasty follow up called `Nobody Gonna Stop Us' which was cained by everyone from
FreQ Nasty to
Fergie and
Zane Lowe on Radio1.
Annie Nightingale dropped it and wasted no time in extending an invite to DJ on her show on Radio1. The Flip side saw
Smithmonger team up with fellow Aussie Friendly, swapping remixes for their 10" releases.
Smithmonger's awesome remix of Friendly' `Fetish' tune sees the light of day in July this year.
2004 was a good year: A massive Breaks release on Boombox in January called `Hey' was cained by the likes of
Lee Coombs and
Atomic Hooligan , followed by a stormer on 10kilo called `Seen it all Before' which went in with a bullet at No. 1 in DJ Mag's Breaks chart and No. 18 on the UK Cool Cuts Chart. Oblong release `Get it On' in May to huge reactions and Paul has just signed another Tech-House project to Visitor in Belgium. Ministry of Sound will release a wicked breaks 12" in August coinciding with a tour to Tokyo and Australia – travelling to Amsterdam and Hungry and Croatia in between!
2005 has the seen the Monger take up a residency at Liverpool's rave jamboree
Superfly, where his house breaks
Hybrid sold
The Lemon Lounge out on his first visit back in February. Scheduled for three gigs a year, he's still due one more appearance in 2005 and if the raucous shenanigans of his last two are anything to go by, this will be one special night.