Blue Smiley

Brian Nowell (vocals and guitar) and John Slavin (bass) met at the Boyer College of Music in 2009. Towards the end of 2013, Blue Smiley began in Slavin and Nowell’s North Philadelphia apartment. During these early months of late 2013 through mid-2014, they were joined by drummers Gracie Clements, Tim McMonigle, and Joe Veltri. They performed in studio on The Kane Konundrum and released two short recordings, “fishhh” and “happyyy.”

In 2015, they began working with Matt McGraw on drums. They developed a defining sound with deep grooves and aggressive tempo changes. They then released “ok,” and began touring outside Philly. It was in the middle of one of these tours, in the summer of 2016, that the group released their second album, “return.” By this time, Slavin had moved on and Michael Corso took over on bass. Josh Lesser, a friend of Brian’s, added guitar features on the tracks “glass” & “coma” and Abi Reimold (vocal) provided a sweet balance on the track “idk.” Lesser and Kieran Ferris became defining parts of the touring group’s sound.

Throughout multiple tours, several new songs were introduced to the setlist which Nowell planned to bring to the studio for a third LP. Sadly, the morning of October 8, 2017, Brian was found unresponsive in his room, a victim of fentanyl poisoning.

In the fall of 2022, an unexpected surge in interest in Blue Smiley motivated his parents, Slavin, McGraw and Corso to pursue efforts to honor the life of Brian and Blue Smiley.