Meet the HTM: Brad Smith

We certainly have some talented Home Team Members at Epicure. One of our warehouse operations team members, Brad Smith, is well known around the office for serenading us during our monthly Home Team lunches. Aren’t we lucky?!

With a Dave Matthews meets Jon and Roy feel, Brad’s self-taught guitar talent could be the next big thing in BC’s local music venues. Brad plays a Norman-Steel string guitar and is also a talented vocalist. Originally from Salt Spring Island, he spent some time in the interior before moving to Victoria in 2001. He loves west coast life, and most of his work experience has been outdoors. No wonder he jumped on the opportunity to move from Operations to work out in the Vineyard this summer!

How did you get started with your music? Have you always been interested in playing the guitar?
I actually started playing the guitar much later in life. In 2002, I had the winter off, so I moved to Cranbrook to stay with a friend to spend the winter snowboarding. If I wasn’t on the mountain, I was inside, often looking for things to do. So, one day, I picked up a guitar. Because I am a lefty, I had to start playing it upside down, but soon began to teach myself some chords and loving my new-found hobby.

You play with another guitarist and call yourselves Ozer and Squirrel. How, exactly, did you come up with your band name?
Our band name is actually our nicknames. Ozer is derived from O’Ryan Markiano’s first name, but mine… is a bit of a longer story. Let’s just say that I acquired it from my soccer team. We put on an “orphan at Thanksgiving” dinner one year and my name tag had a bear on it apparently easily mistaken for a squirrel, so it stuck.

How would you describe your sound, and who are your influences?
We both play acoustic guitars with no other instruments in the background. Our sound is its own and is unique; we just hope that people like it. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds (when they play together) definitely have a great influence on us, and we are also Jon and Roy’s biggest fans. I have had the opportunity to jam with Jon a couple of times and we try to support them as much as we can.

What is the inspiration behind your songs?
I mostly write about life experiences, good and bad. However, we do have a song called “Nonsense.” I wrote it by taking all of the random lyrics that I wrote down over time as they came to me.

Ozer and Squirrel performing at our April Home Team lunch.