Singing for the moment

While playing at a house party some time ago, Samantha Smith messed up. She lost the lyric, missed the melody, did something wrong. There had been so many different versions of a particular song, that sometimes she forgot and stumbled. She was forced to improvise.

But that is what she loves about music.

Instead of getting nervous, or stopping and trying to correct the mistake, Samantha, Sam to some, inserted a new bridge to the song at that moment and continued forward.

“It ended up being the best part of the song,” she said.

Samantha likes the fluid openness that music brings. She isn’t heavy on lyrics, but instead is more about the sound, the melody she can create and then applies whatever lyrics she can think of, often just finding the word that best fits the sound she makes while singing to a tune.

“It’s my music, and I play music for the fun of it,” she said. “I say, ‘Let’s write about teen love because that is easy and because everything rhymes with it.’ ”

Samantha, 15, is regularly asked to play at Alta Coffee House and has begun to make a name for herself. At her young age, she has been asked to perform Saturday at the Rock Open House at the Key Club in Los Angeles for up-and-coming artists.

There she will reach audiences who had never heard of her before as well as meet record label producers who could propel her career.

“I like performing,” Samantha said. “Singing for myself doesn’t get me anywhere. It’s fun for me, the more places I can play.”

But Samantha isn’t getting ahead of herself. Despite being young, she keeps a level head about her singing ability and talent. While she wants to play for larger audiences and do more with her music, she isn’t beyond giving herself a reality check or poking fun at her success.

“I’m 15, I want the attention, right?” she said, slyly, of why she performs.

Her parents say she has always been three or four years ahead of others in her age group in terms of her ability, and they credit that to the way she has grown up.

Samantha lived in France for half a year and attended school there for two months. The experience helped her to learn the language, but being immersed in a foreign culture has done much for her character and her desire to challenge herself, her father said.

“She has always been used to mixing with different people,” Peter Smith said.

With her singing career starting to make headway and her ability to excel in academics, she recently decided to leave Newport Harbor High School, where she is a sophomore, and start at Orange Coast Middle College High School next year to get ahead in college. She was also looking for a school where she could learn Chinese.

“At [Newport Harbor High School] there are 2,400 kids, and I kind of got lost,” Samantha said.

She has always been somewhat outside the mainstream, her parents said. She doesn’t cave to peer pressure, she is independent, articulate and has somewhat outgrown her age group and the typical high school lifestyle, according to her parents.

She began singing at 8 years old right after she started learning the piano. At 10, she incorporated some guitar skills and now plays mostly acoustic folk rock.

“For me it’s the music thing,” she said. “I just like singing, I don’t care what I sing.”

But her parents say their honors student daughter with a 4.2 grade-point average is destined for more.

Despite Samantha’s disdain for writing music, her mother Holly said mirrors are filled with scribbles of lyrics, and her father said she has been impressing people with her voice from public squares in France to singing the National Anthem at many Newport Beach events.

“Music is probably the only thing I feel comfortable doing,” Samantha said.

To hear Samantha Smith’s music, click here.

GET TO KNOW SAMANTHA

AGE: 15

MUSIC SHE PLAYS: folk rock

ALBUM NAME: “Just Me”

FAVORITE BAND: Avenged Sevenfold

CAREER GOAL: professional musician or music therapist

MUSICAL QUOTE: “I like every genre of music. I don’t think there has ever been a song I utterly hated. Someone must’ve really loved the song to put their heart and soul into it.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Los Angeles Best Up and Coming Independent Artists of 2008

WHEN: Doors open at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Hollywood Key Club, 9039 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles

ADMISSION: Presale tickets are $15, $20 at the door.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.