Stephan Said
Encyclopedia
Stephan Othman Said (May 30, 1968) aka Stephan Smith is an American
singer-songwriter
, rapper, writer
, and global activist of Iraqi and Austrian descent.
His musical style bridges pop
, hip-hop
, rock
and world folk music in a border-breaking sound of unity. His lyrics advocate global equality, social justice
and reconciliation and he is often cited for having reinvented music for social change for the internet generation. Stephan is fluent in English, French and German and also sings in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Hungarian and other languages. He is also the founder of difrent: the one-stop platform for music for social change.
, Ohio
to Mohammad Said, a Muslim
Iraqi
physicist and Monika Smith, a Christian
pianist and women's rights organizer from Vienna
, Austria
. His name literally means Stephan: German for voice/Greek Honor/Crown, Othman: Arabic for Chosen One, and Said Arabic: happy or enlightened. He has three older siblings: Leila, Rob and Nadja. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the Appalachian country of Western Pennsylvania
. When Stephan was two years old, his parents divorced; his mother married Frank Gutowski, a former Jesuit priest, and Stephan grew up as Steve Gutowski. The children all studied music from early age; Stephan took up the piano
at the age of three and the violin
at the age of four. The family home was a meeting ground for people of all religions, ethnic, economic, and political backgrounds.
The family moved to Richmond
, Virginia
where he attended St. Christopher's School and also became an Eagle Scout. The summer of his junior year, he attended the Governor's School for the Gifted and received an invitation for early entry into the Jazz
Program at Virginia Commonwealth University
, where he briefly joined a quintet under the direction of Ellis Marsalis
at age 17. After less than one semester he left to tour with punk bands Always August and The Office Ladies of SST Records, and played with groups including Firehose
, Sonic Youth
, Dinosaur Jr., The Meat Puppets and other punk
bands.
In 1993 at the invitation of the legendary Fugs, Stephan performed several Appalachian folk songs at the Naropa Institute in Boulder
, Colorado
where he came to the notice of beat poet Allen Ginsberg
and producer Hal Wilner. Ginsberg urged Stephan to move to New York City
, where he became his mentor.
, Rufus Wainwright
, played the fiddler in a video for Leonard Cohen's "Dance me to the end of love," and became a fixture at demonstrations for human rights, independent media, housing rights, and environmental issues, scoring underground hits with songs like “It Rose From The Dead” for the squatter and community garden movements. Allen Ginsberg
and folk legend Pete Seeger
became Stephan’s mentors and The Village Voice
called him “the heir apparent to Woody Guthrie
." As major label interest in his career grew, Stephan was told repeatedly by industry executives that he could “never have a career in the United States with an Arabic name.” With great difficulty, and much to the dismay of colleagues like Jeff Buckley, he stopped performing under his given name around 1997, and, started using his mother’s maiden name and performed as “Stephan Smith.”
on background vocals. With less than 100 copies printed, the ballad charted in the CMJ Music charts, aired on the Howard Stern Show, and thrust Stephan into the folk music limelight. In a New York Times full-length feature article folk legend Pete Seeger
compared the rapid spread of Stephan’s song, accomplished without the backing of any label, to that of the civil rights anthem "We shall overcome."
, Paul Simon
, and fellow Virginian Dave Matthews
. Though the album draws equally on folk, rap, r&b and rock, the music industry received it mainly as folk, often with specific reference to Woody Guthrie
.
, Dave Matthews
, John Mayer
and Jason Mraz
, Proclaiming Jubilee was a genre-crossing pop album aimed at bringing an urgent call for a more just and equal global economy directly to a wide audience on the new millennium. The album met with opposition at record labels for its lyrics about social change, and was never released. In response, on April 16, 2000, the date of the Washington A16 protests against the IMF and World Bank, Stephan released A16, a 2 -song EP from the album with artwork by friend, award winning graphic artist Eric Drooker, as free mp3’s on his web site and on the Independent Media Center; the label responded by dropping his contract. The album Proclaiming Jubilee is scheduled to be released at last in May 2011.
on spoken vocals.Accompanied by a video from filmmaker Kurt St. Thomas featuring live footage of anti-war demonstrations around the world, it was released publicly as an mp3 on Stephan’s web site on September 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The song rapidly went viral on the pre-YouTube web. At home, the New York Times called it “one of the first major songs to oppose the war in Iraq.” Guerilla News Network called it the “anti-war anthem of our generation. The song enhanced Smith’s reputation as one of the most outspoken American musicians. Re-released in February 2003 as an EP with liner notes by historian Howard Zinn
and cover versions of the song by DJ Spooky and others, it was covered by Dave Matthews
during his 2003 solo tour and topped the NPR All Songs Considered
list of songs on the war. Following a performance at Joe's Pub in New York City, Billboard Magazine wrote “With his rough-hewn good looks and mythic songwriting, Smith is the closest thing to this generation’s Woody Guthie.”
surrounding their anti-war stance artists and managers could not afford the risk of having Stephan, outspoken Iraqi/Arab American with the biggest antiwar hit, open for them. Nearly impossible to get gigs and or retain a booking agent, Stephan started the non-profit Universal Hobo Touring, with the help of non-profit education professional Amy Hufnagel. Universal Hobo Touring organized tours of performances at benefits and conferences for peace and justice groups and student organizations helping to build the global justice movement.
and Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine
to launch Protest Records
, a web archive of contemporary protest songs, for which one of the album’s songs, Business, was released on opening day.
(2004) merged pop, rock, country, and rap, combining love songs with political poetry, which garnered critical acclaim. Several songs, such as the singles “Taking Aim,” and “In The Air” criticize not only war and inequality but the role of the music industry in censoring protest and playing culprit to global inequality. The single “You Ain’t A Cowboy,” a send up of President Bush, was released to with TrueMajority as an MP3. Billboard Magazine called it the first MP3
ever released for a political action committee - resulting in hundreds of thousands of downloads in the first two weeks. The album also includes a ballad in the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and organizer who died at the 2003 World Trade Organization demonstrations in Cancun. Mexico. The lyrics to this song were used as the prologue to the Peter Rosset book Food Is Different: Why the WTO Should Get out of Agriculture.
During this time, Smith earned his Masters in International Affairs at The New School
and began publishing opinion articles in the media on globalization, social change, protest music, and censorship. When Neil Young
said that he felt compelled to release his 2006 album Living with War
because young protest singers weren’t picking up the torch, Smith published articles on the censorship of socially engaged music in mainstream music in the San Francisco Chronicle
and in The Progressive
, stating “Where’s the voice of protest? It’s in MTV’s trash can. Where are today’s protest singers? They’re on the “don’t add” list at corporate radio stations, where they’ve increasingly been placed since FCC deregulation paved the way for the monopolization of the industry.” He also became a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
, and Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, and attended the Third Freemuse Conference in Istanbul in 2008.
In 2007 Stephan returned to the studio to begin work on a new album, and social change initiative, difrent. Produced by Grammy winner Hal Willner
, the album brings together an all-star cast of musicians in support of Stephan’s message of global equality and peace,including jazz horn legends Lenny Pickett, Howard Johnson, Art Baron and Earl Gardner as well as Cindy Blackman, Rob Clores, Jane Scarpantoni, Kevin Hunter, George Mitchell, and Yousif Sheronick, He formally announced his plans to release the album under his given name, Stephan Said.
difrent: the organization
difrent is a “broadcast platform and network for music for social change,” which “brings numerous organizations working for equality, peace, and environmental sustainability together with artists for releases that support initiatives having a direct impact on communities worldwide.” difrent: launched in September 2010 at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Awards.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, rapper, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and global activist of Iraqi and Austrian descent.
His musical style bridges pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and world folk music in a border-breaking sound of unity. His lyrics advocate global equality, social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
and reconciliation and he is often cited for having reinvented music for social change for the internet generation. Stephan is fluent in English, French and German and also sings in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Hungarian and other languages. He is also the founder of difrent: the one-stop platform for music for social change.
Beginnings
Stephan Said was born in ClevelandCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
to Mohammad Said, a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Iraqi
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
physicist and Monika Smith, a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
pianist and women's rights organizer from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. His name literally means Stephan: German for voice/Greek Honor/Crown, Othman: Arabic for Chosen One, and Said Arabic: happy or enlightened. He has three older siblings: Leila, Rob and Nadja. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the Appalachian country of Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania consists of the western third of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. Pittsburgh is the largest city in the region, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic and cultural center. Erie, Altoona, and Johnstown are its...
. When Stephan was two years old, his parents divorced; his mother married Frank Gutowski, a former Jesuit priest, and Stephan grew up as Steve Gutowski. The children all studied music from early age; Stephan took up the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
at the age of three and the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
at the age of four. The family home was a meeting ground for people of all religions, ethnic, economic, and political backgrounds.
The family moved to Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
where he attended St. Christopher's School and also became an Eagle Scout. The summer of his junior year, he attended the Governor's School for the Gifted and received an invitation for early entry into the Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
Program at Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
, where he briefly joined a quintet under the direction of Ellis Marsalis
Ellis Marsalis
Ellis Marsalis is the name of two people, father and son:*Ellis Marsalis, Sr., New Orleans, Louisiana businessman*Ellis Marsalis, Jr., jazz pianist...
at age 17. After less than one semester he left to tour with punk bands Always August and The Office Ladies of SST Records, and played with groups including Firehose
Firehose
A fire hose is a high-pressure hose used to carry water or other fire retardant to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it is attached either to a fire engine or a fire hydrant. Indoors, it can be permanently attached to a building's standpipe or plumbing system...
, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Dinosaur Jr., The Meat Puppets and other punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands.
In 1993 at the invitation of the legendary Fugs, Stephan performed several Appalachian folk songs at the Naropa Institute in Boulder
Boulder
In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
where he came to the notice of beat poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and producer Hal Wilner. Ginsberg urged Stephan to move to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he became his mentor.
Early career (1994-1997)
Stephan moved to New York City’s Lower East Side where he built singing-songs of social change and helped start several old-time, bluegrass and Irish traditional music sessions. He recorded and appeared with the rock group WeenWeen
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...
, Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
, played the fiddler in a video for Leonard Cohen's "Dance me to the end of love," and became a fixture at demonstrations for human rights, independent media, housing rights, and environmental issues, scoring underground hits with songs like “It Rose From The Dead” for the squatter and community garden movements. Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and folk legend Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
became Stephan’s mentors and The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
called him “the heir apparent to Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
." As major label interest in his career grew, Stephan was told repeatedly by industry executives that he could “never have a career in the United States with an Arabic name.” With great difficulty, and much to the dismay of colleagues like Jeff Buckley, he stopped performing under his given name around 1997, and, started using his mother’s maiden name and performed as “Stephan Smith.”
The Ballad of Abner Louima (1997)
Stephan first broke into national press in 1997 with the anti-police brutality single "The Ballad of Abner Louima" with Patti SmithPatti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
on background vocals. With less than 100 copies printed, the ballad charted in the CMJ Music charts, aired on the Howard Stern Show, and thrust Stephan into the folk music limelight. In a New York Times full-length feature article folk legend Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
compared the rapid spread of Stephan’s song, accomplished without the backing of any label, to that of the civil rights anthem "We shall overcome."
Now's the Time (Rounder, 1999)
Stephan’s solo acoustic debut album, Now's The Time was released on Rounder records in June 1999, and Stephan intended it as a call to action for the 1999 Seattle's demonstrations against the WTO, which he helped organize, and where he performed, appearing in Deep Dish TV’s documentary Showdown in Seattle. Stephan toured extensively in support of “Now’s the Time,” opening for Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, and fellow Virginian Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
. Though the album draws equally on folk, rap, r&b and rock, the music industry received it mainly as folk, often with specific reference to Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
.
Proclaiming Jubilee, Universal Hobo (2000-2001)
Produced by Grammy winning producer John AlagiaJohn Alagía
John Alagía is an accomplished music producer. He is best known for his work with the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer. Alagia is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and a graduate of Georgetown University...
, Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
, John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
and Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...
, Proclaiming Jubilee was a genre-crossing pop album aimed at bringing an urgent call for a more just and equal global economy directly to a wide audience on the new millennium. The album met with opposition at record labels for its lyrics about social change, and was never released. In response, on April 16, 2000, the date of the Washington A16 protests against the IMF and World Bank, Stephan released A16, a 2 -song EP from the album with artwork by friend, award winning graphic artist Eric Drooker, as free mp3’s on his web site and on the Independent Media Center; the label responded by dropping his contract. The album Proclaiming Jubilee is scheduled to be released at last in May 2011.
The Bell (2002)
With the support of friends, Stephan founded his own record label, Universal Hobo, in 2002 and had another major hit: The Bell. An update of the old folk ballad The False Knight Upon the Road,” it was recorded with members of Spearhead and Ween, and Pete SeegerPete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
on spoken vocals.Accompanied by a video from filmmaker Kurt St. Thomas featuring live footage of anti-war demonstrations around the world, it was released publicly as an mp3 on Stephan’s web site on September 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The song rapidly went viral on the pre-YouTube web. At home, the New York Times called it “one of the first major songs to oppose the war in Iraq.” Guerilla News Network called it the “anti-war anthem of our generation. The song enhanced Smith’s reputation as one of the most outspoken American musicians. Re-released in February 2003 as an EP with liner notes by historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
and cover versions of the song by DJ Spooky and others, it was covered by Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
during his 2003 solo tour and topped the NPR All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's All Things Considered director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on All Things Considered. The program has turned into a source of...
list of songs on the war. Following a performance at Joe's Pub in New York City, Billboard Magazine wrote “With his rough-hewn good looks and mythic songwriting, Smith is the closest thing to this generation’s Woody Guthie.”
Touring to build global movement
The Bell pioneered the use of mp3’s and online music videos for social change. But, in the context of the war on terror and following the infamous radio ban and CD burning of the Dixie ChicksDixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
surrounding their anti-war stance artists and managers could not afford the risk of having Stephan, outspoken Iraqi/Arab American with the biggest antiwar hit, open for them. Nearly impossible to get gigs and or retain a booking agent, Stephan started the non-profit Universal Hobo Touring, with the help of non-profit education professional Amy Hufnagel. Universal Hobo Touring organized tours of performances at benefits and conferences for peace and justice groups and student organizations helping to build the global justice movement.
New World Worder, Protest Records (2003)
In April 2003 Stephan released a full length solo album, New World Worder. He also collaborated with Thurston Moore of Sonic YouthSonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
to launch Protest Records
Protest Records
Protest Records is a subversive, online record label that creates mp3 compilation albums, which are released for free download. The label was founded by Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth with Stephan Said...
, a web archive of contemporary protest songs, for which one of the album’s songs, Business, was released on opening day.
Slash and Burn (Artemis, 2004)
Stephan then signed with industry legend Danny Goldberg at Artemis Records. His first album backed by a full band, Slash and BurnSlash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
(2004) merged pop, rock, country, and rap, combining love songs with political poetry, which garnered critical acclaim. Several songs, such as the singles “Taking Aim,” and “In The Air” criticize not only war and inequality but the role of the music industry in censoring protest and playing culprit to global inequality. The single “You Ain’t A Cowboy,” a send up of President Bush, was released to with TrueMajority as an MP3. Billboard Magazine called it the first MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
ever released for a political action committee - resulting in hundreds of thousands of downloads in the first two weeks. The album also includes a ballad in the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and organizer who died at the 2003 World Trade Organization demonstrations in Cancun. Mexico. The lyrics to this song were used as the prologue to the Peter Rosset book Food Is Different: Why the WTO Should Get out of Agriculture.
During this time, Smith earned his Masters in International Affairs at The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
and began publishing opinion articles in the media on globalization, social change, protest music, and censorship. When Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
said that he felt compelled to release his 2006 album Living with War
Living With War
Living with War is the twenty-ninth Grammy and Juno Award-nominated studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 2006. The album's lyrics, titles, and conceptual style are highly critical of the policies of the George W. Bush administration; the CTV website defined it as "a musical...
because young protest singers weren’t picking up the torch, Smith published articles on the censorship of socially engaged music in mainstream music in the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
and in The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, stating “Where’s the voice of protest? It’s in MTV’s trash can. Where are today’s protest singers? They’re on the “don’t add” list at corporate radio stations, where they’ve increasingly been placed since FCC deregulation paved the way for the monopolization of the industry.” He also became a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, and Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, and attended the Third Freemuse Conference in Istanbul in 2008.
difrent (2007-2010)
difrent the albumIn 2007 Stephan returned to the studio to begin work on a new album, and social change initiative, difrent. Produced by Grammy winner Hal Willner
Hal Willner
Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...
, the album brings together an all-star cast of musicians in support of Stephan’s message of global equality and peace,including jazz horn legends Lenny Pickett, Howard Johnson, Art Baron and Earl Gardner as well as Cindy Blackman, Rob Clores, Jane Scarpantoni, Kevin Hunter, George Mitchell, and Yousif Sheronick, He formally announced his plans to release the album under his given name, Stephan Said.
difrent: the organization
difrent is a “broadcast platform and network for music for social change,” which “brings numerous organizations working for equality, peace, and environmental sustainability together with artists for releases that support initiatives having a direct impact on communities worldwide.” difrent: launched in September 2010 at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Awards.
Albums
- September 2010 - difrent – Stephan Said (upcoming)
- June 2005 - Slash and Burn - Stephan Smith Band (Artemis Records)
- April 2003 - New World Worder - Stephan Smith (Universal Hobo/ Synchronic)
- September 2002 – The Bell single and video, internet release
- 2001- Proclaiming Jubilee, unreleased
- June 1999 - Now's the Time - Stephan Smith (Rounder)
EPs
- February 2003 - The Bellwith Pete Seeger, DJ Spooky, Tara Nevins (Universal Hobo/Synchronic)
- April 2000- A16- 2 song EP (Universal Hobo)
- 1998 The Blank EP- Stephan Smith, featuring Patti Smith
Singles
- 2004- World to Come - Stephan Smith
- 2005 Lee Kyung Hae - Stephan Smith
- 2003 - Business
- 2002 - The Bell - Stephan Smith, Pete Seeger, Dean Ween, Mary Harris
- 1997 - Ballad of Abner Louima - Stephan Smith, background vocals by Patti Smith
Various appearances
- 2004 - Wichita Vortex Sutra, Allen Ginsberg, Artemis Records
- 2002 - Cornerstone Sampler
- 1994 - Chocolate and Cheese, Ween
- 1997 - The Mollusk, Ween
Film/video
- 2010- difrent – Stephan Said
- 2006 - The Peace Patriots- Turning Tide Productions, with Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco, Saul Williams and others
- 2000 - Showdown in Seattle: 5 Days That Shook the WTO
- 1995 - Dance Me To The End of Love - Leonard Cohen, directed by Mark Pellington
External links
- Official website
- Official downloads - free mp3s