Fresh off new album, Smokey Brights brings ‘personal skin’ to Spokane; some proceeds support youth music effort

Coming off the heels of a new album, Seattle-based pop-rock band Smokey Brights is headed to the Chameleon to give locals a taste of the “sonic exploration” the band has been cooking up over the years.

Fronted by husband-and-wife duo Kim West (keys and vocals) and Ryan Devlin (guitar and vocals), Smokey Brights’ lore can be traced back to when four friends working at the same South Seattle pizza restaurant decided to take a stab at a demo.

“We were all in undergrad or freshly out of it. The genesis of the band was like, ‘we’re just buddies,’ ” Devlin said.

Audiences connected with the group from the get-go, and in 2016 when Luke Ragnar filled in at bass/vocals, the band started to come into their own.

“Very slowly, organically, we have grown to a place where this is really central to our lives,” Devlin said as he spoke on the band’s weekly meetup for the past 12 years.

With the countless hours of rehearsals and gig preps being the building blocks of this organic progression, the band’s latest album, “Dashboard Heat” only proves why West said Smokey Brights is “a 50-year band and we’re only 10 years in.”

For an album that seemingly blends a soulful groove with undertones of dance-punk, it’s the earnest lyricism that makes it impossible to even glance at that skip track button when going through the 11-track record.

When creating the album, the band cautiously decided to delve deep and explore themes such as childhood, home and grief.

“Well, we didn’t want do it,” Devlin said with a laugh.

Personal storytelling has always been part of Smokey Bright’s DNA, but “Dashboard Heat” took it to another level. But taking that extra step wasn’t without fear.

“You’re like, ‘Is this even going to resonate with anybody?’ But it feels like the more and more kind of personal skin we put into the lyric process, the more people respond and resonate,” Devlin said.

Ragnar agreed.

“We didn’t hold back and we didn’t, you know, we didn’t sort of self-edit ourselves,” he said. “It was an exploration for us and now the listener gets to go on that exploration with us.”

As the group is on the road for its album tour, Spokane audiences will get a chance to get comfortable in the passenger seat as the band returns to the Lilac City on Sunday.

Upcoming music acts in the Pacific Northwest are typically drawn to the hustle and bustle of the side of the state, but for Smokey Brights, they can’t get enough of what the Spokane music scene has to offer.

“There’s a scrappiness in Spokane that I love,” West said, “It’s hard everywhere in the Northwest to get connected with other musicians because everything’s far apart. It’s just amazing to see these this music scene continue to grow and sustain in an area that’s tougher than in other parts of the country.”

The band not only loves to witness emerging artists stretch their legs in their respective spaces but also advocates to give young artists an opportunity to show what they got. A portion of the band’s music sales goes toward the Vera Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to using collaborative and youth-driven engagement in music and art to encourage personal and community transformation.

“If you support Smokey Brights, you’re also supporting the future of Seattle music and the kids,” Devlin said.

If the band does in fact have the longevity West suggests, then the next 40 years of Smokey Brights tunes will be welcomed with open arms by fans and future artists alike.