Caroline Smith talks rebirth, reinvention, and authenticity as Your Smith returns after five transformative years away from the spotlight, ushering in a new chapter with singles “Change of Heart” and “Peaches” – and a long-awaited debut album on the way.
Stream: “Change of Heart” – Your Smith
I hope someone can hear these songs like I hear them, and not so chained to a social media persona or an elusive viral moment.
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What first attracted me to Your Smith’s music, some six-plus years ago now, was her wholehearted embrace of big, bold melodies together with unflinching, confessional lyricism.
Tracks like “Bad Habit” and “In Between Plans” hit hard and left a lasting mark not just because of their insanely catchy hooks, but because they had depth and color; you could sing them out loud with the car top down, while feeling something deep down inside.
Picking a fight again
Isn’t it wearin’ thin
It’s getting hard to tell
It’s getting hard to call
Maybe the reason
We’re falling apart
Why we’re falling apart
– “Change of Heart,” Your Smith
The same can easily be said of “Change of Heart” and “Peaches,” the two songs that herald Your Smith’s ‘return’ to the music world after a prolonged hiatus – one that saw her move from LA back home to Minnesota, go back to school, get married, have a baby, and open a bar on her hometown’s main street. From the lows of pandemic-era 2020 to the highs 2025, the past five years have been a true rollercoaster for Caroline Smith, and her new music breathes with the electric energy of her ongoing ride.
Both songs offer a glimpse at what Smith calls a reinvention of her career, on her terms.
“To me, it feels more like a de-invention because I decided to strip back any kind of image that was put-on or wrought with effort,” she admits.
“Your Smith was pure invention. I created a character, I picked out a uniform she wore, I wrote songs that I felt were cool. I needed armor after a particularly sensitive time in my life and in my career, and Your Smith offered me that protection and distance from the industry and listenership.”
“But these days I feel much more comfortable, like I’m ready to reconnect my personal self with the work I make again. I don’t need a uniform or an airtight sound. I feel most myself being a little underdressed, a teeny bit sloppy, the production a little looser, realer, and human.”
Hey, you must be tired
from years of just surviving
So lay your head back
I’d say as I turned up the radio
and I ripped open a fresh pack
Old tables of produce and tobacco leaves
Scorched farmland and peaches
turn to evergreen
The road rolls out endless over all the sand
The wind blows the embers back into my hand
– “Peaches,” Your Smith
A three-time Atwood Editor’s Pick (and one of our 2020 Artists to Watch), Your Smith has long stood out for her effortless blend of infectious pop melodies, lyrical candor, and undeniable charisma. Introduced in 2018 following a decade’s worth of releases as Caroline Smith and Caroline Smith & The Good Night Sleeps, the Your Smith project spawned two EPs within its first two years of existence – 2018’s Bad Habit and 2019’s Wild Wild Woman – both of which showcased a knack for bold, genre-blurring songwriting and a magnetic, larger-than-life persona. Songs like “The Spot,” “In Between Plans,” and “Man of Weakness” quickly became fan favorites, balancing confidence and vulnerability in equal measure.
With her latest releases, Smith peels back the layers to reveal something even more personal and raw, signaling a striking evolution that still retains the heart and soul fans have always connected with.
The indie pop artist’s first two singles since 2019 offer a sweet, deep exhale – one of a relationship, the other of her family and the past. They’re also the first look at her upcoming, long-awaited debut album as Your Smith, set to release later this year.
“I suppose I ended up leading with ‘Change of Heart’ because of how unapologetic it feels to me, production and vibe wise but also lyrically,” she reflects. “It felt like a good foot forward when giving folks a taste of what the album as a whole is going to be like.”
Released on January 3rd via Nettwerk Music Group, “Change of Heart” proves the perfect reintroduction to Your Smith as an intimate and groovy, enchanting and assertive track that is as captivating as it is cathartic and comforting.
“This song is about the loss of love rather than the loss of a relationship,” Smith shares. “Sometimes relationships crash and burn, they leave you spun out for years, writing songs about heartbreak and picking up the pieces. But as you age, sometimes relationships just turn to lukewarm bath water, and the scariest part isn’t heart break, it’s disentangling yourself from comfort and habit.”
“I also liked writing from an air of indifference, like ‘I’ve had a change of heart, it’s really not that deep.’ I feel putting space between the emotion and the action has been wildly transformative for me in life, so it kind of honors that if that makes sense!”
Isn’t my sister
Or you crashing my car
It’s change of heart
It’s a whiff of a feeling that grows in your sleep
Keeping you up til the dawn
How many phones can you throw at a wall?
It’s a change, it’s a change of heart
– “Change of Heart,” Your Smith
Smith sings hot on the mic, her voice front and center as glistening piano chords and buoyant bass guitar lines fill the air with ease and wonder. It’s a soft, yet stirring ‘hello’ to fans new and old, even as she cuts ties in the lyrics.
You keep the sofa
Just keep it all
And start walking it off
Why do we keep on
Making it hard
It’s a change of heart
It’s a shift of some weight
that builds on your back
Catching your balance off guard
How many feelings can you throw to the dogs
It’s a change, it’s a change of heart
– “Change of Heart,” Your Smith
Atwood Magazine recently caught up with Caroline Smith to discuss her long-awaited return to music, personal transformation, and the stories behind her exhilarating new songs.
Read our interview below, and listen to “Change of Heart” and “Peaches” wherever you stream music. Stay tuned for more to come from Your Smith as she gears up to release her debut album and enters an exciting new chapter in her artistic evolution!
Your Smith’s third single of 2025, entitled “Hey There’s My Girl,” is set to release Friday, March 28!
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:: connect with Your Smith here ::
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Stream: “Change of Heart” – Your Smith
A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR SMITH
Atwood Magazine: Welcome “back,” Caroline! It's great to hear new Your Smith music; I feel like “Peaches” and “Change of Heart” are a perfect reintroduction and reminder of who you are and what your music is all about. Why did you opt to come back into the fold with these two tracks?
Your Smith: I’ll be honest, choosing singles from this upcoming album was very tough. All of the songs feel like my babies. I suppose I ended up leading with “Change of Heart” because of how unapologetic it feels to me, production and vibe wise but also lyrically. It felt like a good foot forward when giving folks a taste of what the album as a whole is going to be like.
What's the story behind “Change of Heart,” and does this song have any special, personal significance for you?
Your Smith: This song is about the loss of love rather than the loss of a relationship. Sometimes relationships crash and burn, they leave you spun out for years, writing songs about heartbreak and picking up the pieces. But as you age, sometimes relationships just turn to lukewarm bath water, and the scariest part isn’t heart break, it’s disentangling yourself from comfort and habit.
I also liked writing from an air of indifference, like “I’ve had a change of heart, it’s really not that deep.” I feel putting space between the emotion and the action has been wildly transformative for me in life so it kind of honors that if that makes sense!
You've called “Peaches” a deeply personal song, both about your brother, and in many ways about yourself. What is it about this story, about getting away and planting new roots elsewhere, that resonates so much for you?
Your Smith: When my brother and I were young, we were so stuck. We were stuck in a lot of dark family stuff where our roles often felt like we looked after our parents more than they looked after us. Of course that manifests in strange ways as we’ve aged and had kids of our own. So this song was me kind of fantasizing about leaving everything behind and escaping the pressure we’ve felt ever since we were “two kids in daycare,” all the people we look out for who don’t look out for us, and just getting to have this sense of freedom maybe neither of us have ever felt before. Maybe looking out for each other when we don’t know how to look after ourselves.
It’s pure fantasy, so it offered a bit of escapism when I wrote it, and I was hoping it would offer him a bit of escapism when he listened to it. I am happy to report that he loves the song – not sure about the rest, he’s not a big feelings guy! [laughs]
You've also shared how this return is “not just a continuation of your career, but a reinvention on your terms.” Can we dive deeper into that, and talk more about this reinvention and what it means to you?
Your Smith: Sure, so I think “reinvention” might apply to someone who is familiar with my previous releases as Your Smith (and those who even go as far back as my Caroline Smith days). It feels a bit more, erm, reinventive (not a word) in that my hair is long, I’m not in a suit, the production isn’t shiny and airtight. But to me, it feels more like a de-invention (again not a word) because I decided to strip back any kind of image that was put-on or wrought with effort.
Your Smith was pure invention. I created a character, I picked out a uniform she wore, I wrote songs that I felt were cool. I needed armor after a particularly sensitive time in my life and in my career, and Your Smith offered me that protection and distance from the industry and listenership. But these days I feel much more comfortable, like I’m ready to reconnect my personal self with the work I make again. I don’t need a uniform or an airtight sound. I feel most myself being a little underdressed, a teeny bit sloppy, the production a little looser, realer, and human.
They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. We've all done a lot of growing up since 2019; how do you feel you yourself have changed, and how have you stayed the same?
Your Smith: Life has taken a true 180 for me since 2019. 2019 I was flying high, I was selling out rooms I had only dreamed to sell out and that I worked so hard my entire career to get to, white knuckling every tiny accomplishment and win along the way. When the pandemic hit, and the boulder I had been pushing inch by f*in’ inch up an extremely steep hill went soaring back down the hill, landing at the very bottom of it with a sickening thud. My whole body just felt so tired from pushing that damn boulder that I couldn’t imagine getting back under it again.
So my partner and I moved back to Minnesota, where things are a bit easier than LA. I went back to school. I got married, we had a baby. We achieved one of our dreams by opening a bar. The bar sits on a Main St in a small Minnesota town by the river. These were things I always wanted but couldn’t get to as a middle-class artist stuck under a boulder. And now there’s no boulder, there’s just music I choose to make and shows I choose to play. When I catch myself white knuckling or crawling to the wrong side of the boulder, I stop and reassess. It’s nice.
Lastly, what do you hope listeners take away from “Change of Heart” and “Peaches,” and what have you taken away from making and releasing these first two new songs?
Your Smith: Since these last two releases I have learned that I hate social media, man. Haha. You pour your heart into songs, create them in a vibrant community of like minded writers and musicians, you feel full of excitement to show the world what you’ve created, counting down the days, restless in bed the night before the release.
And then you…. Post about them on Instagram and judge their success based on how many likes they get? I know, I know, poor me, right? But truly, I hope artists can see a new dawn soon. I hope someone can hear these songs like I hear them, and not so chained to a social media persona or an elusive viral moment.
Ok, rant finished.
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“Change of Heart” – Your Smith
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© Erica Hernandez
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