Boston psychedelic folk-rock band takes a moment to let the music breathe with a fluid new single out Friday, January 23
Smith’s 80th song release in eight years follows a pair of 2025 EPs in ‘Temporary Circus’ acts 1 and 2 and late-’24 album ‘Opus’
We’re still in the early days of 2026, and the year is already overwhelming and overstimulating. Our social media feeds are filled with bitter anger, unsolicited advice, and a deafening chorus of both strangers and familiars telling us how to be, how to act, and how to respond to the daily chaos that surrounds us. The voices from afar, brought intimately close simply by the presence of a screen, are too much to ignore. And yet what we often hear, as personal boundaries are crossed, are simply voices without words.
When Derek Smith picks up his guitar, those voices echo inside his head, ricocheting from one end to the other. He hears those around him giving advice on how he should carry himself as a musician, what type of music he should create, and what style or sound he should either abandon or retain. Some are well meaning, others less so.
The sentiments he fields swirl into a cacophony of emptiness, leaving the Massachusetts musician to himself and his unwavering drive for pure artistic expression. The latest result from the prolific songwriter, a silky and fluid new single called “Hollow Choir,” set to hit the streams on Friday, January 23, is a sterling new psychedelic folk-rock composition that continues to position Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures as a band that powers through on their own terms.
“This song sums up the feelings I have had towards my music career for the last few years,” Smith reveals. “I am always being told what I should do or what I should write. The voices have turned into an empty choir for me, or a ‘Hollow Choir’, if you will. The most important thing I have discovered is that I have to be me.”
And that’s what Smith has done since arriving on the Boston music scene a decade ago. “Hollow Choir” marks the songwriter’s 80th song release over the past eight years, combining his more folk-leaning solo material with the grand psych- and funk-rock majesty of the Cosmic Vultures, emerging boldly in the present day with a sound that blends the two.
Along the way, Smith has left an eclectic trail of music, a meandering romp through various genre lanes, where traces of pop-rock, alternative, Americana, indie, post-glam, British Invasion, Yacht Rock, and AM ‘70s gold run wild, channeling a decade spanning sound with Smith as the connective tissue. In the end, writing songs is not merely something he wants to do; it’s something he has to do.
“There may be a lot of people who write music because they really have something to say or if the world around them forces them to be creative,” he adds. “I write because I must… it’s just who I am. It’s almost like eating or breathing. I must write and compose. I do think it’s important to write down your thoughts and find a way to express yourself when you are feeling a certain way. It doesn’t have to be a song or a poem… it can just be a diary of sorts. It’s healing.”
That healing path has led Smith to this moment after a bounteous past year or so, one that saw him release the ambitious and resplendent full-length rock and roll album Opus in late 2024, and a pair of genre-bending EPs in last year’s Temporary Circus: Act 1 and Temporary Circus: Act 2.
While the third Temporary Circus EP, the final in a planned trilogy, is still in the works, Smith wanted to release “Hollow Choir” as a stand-alone single, allowing it to breathe and align with music audiences’ dwindling attention spans. That it marks the 80th release in his blossoming discography solidified the approach, placing the spotlight on a single track as he saunters into 2026.
“‘Hollow Choir’ deserved to have its own showcase, if that makes sense,” he notes. “Some songs on albums get lost and some of them never truly get heard. This song is very honest for me and I felt it needed the proper platform to be heard.”
And with all Cosmic Vultures material, the intrepid team Smith surrounds himself with helps augment the track into its unique position, combining a grandiose, all-encompassing emotion with a stripped-back, deeply personal intimacy.
With Smith penning the music and lyrics, “Hollow Choir” was mixed and mastered at Berlin Audio Productions in Massachusetts, with engineering and mixing by Erik von Geldern, Don Schweihofer, and Todd Harris. Smith performs lead vocal and rhythm guitar on the track, rounded out in the Cosmic Vultures by Michael Strakus on lead and rhythm guitar (offering another decisive and hypnotic guitar solo in the process); Jonathan Chesbro on rhythm guitar (as well as software production and pre-planning); Justin Lopes on Rhodes electric piano; von Geldern on bass and organ; and Schweihofer on drums.
“These guys know their stuff, bottom line,” Smith says. “They are my teammates and guys that I trust. I always know I will get great results when working with these musicians.”.
“Hollow Choir” is a family affair as well. Smith’s wife Gia provides backing vocals (after debuting her seraphic voice on Temporary Circus: Act 2 EP), and his father, accomplished painter Robert J. Smith, supplies the single artwork. It depicts a stormy bloom of blues and golds as a portal into a creative mind, where deliberate drips of paint on the canvas illuminate a gritty notion that sometimes what exists in the center cannot be contained.
“My father is a very eclectic painter and there is always a plethora of pieces to admire,” he adds. “This specific painting sort of mimicked my brain and the way I was feeling really well. When I first saw it, I knew I had to use it. Sometimes things just feel right. This was one of them.”
Where 2026 takes Smith is anyone’s guess, but from here he’s grateful to bring “Hollow Choir” out into the world, and empty his head a bit when it comes to songwriting and the expectations placed on him because of it.
Following “Hollow Choir” may be more singles, possibly the third and final Temporary Circus EP, or even a new full-length album. Even Smith does not know, and while that may disappoint those around him who come with good-natured intentions, particularly in how his expression should sound, it’s simply how he must proceed as a songwriter.
“I wish my songwriting universe had a proper linear vision. It doesn’t,” he concludes. “And that’s why it’s so important for the people who try to tell me what I should be doing to understand that I compose what comes out of me. I am not going to write a rock song just because someone thinks I should write a rock song. I write what makes sense in my head. I am not one of those high-level songwriters who sits around all day trying to come up with a song for Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran. On my end, I am not writing for fame and money… I write because I have to.”
The choir be damned.
‘Hollow Choir’ Production Credits:
Music and lyrics written by Derek Smith
Mixed and Mastered at Berlin Audio Productions
Engineering and mixing by Erik von Geldern, Don Schweihofer and Todd Harris
Artwork by Robert J. Smith
Lead Vocal and Rhythm Guitar by Derek Smith
Lead and Rhythm Guitar by Michael Strakus
Rhythm Guitar by Jonathan Chesbro
Rhodes Electric Piano by Justin Lopes
Bass and Organ by Erik von Geldern
Drums by Don Schweihofer
Backing Vocals by Gia Smith
Special thanks to Jonathan Chesbro for software production and pre-planning.
Connect with Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures:
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Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures bio:
Based out of Boston and born out of the North Shore of Massachusetts, Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures epitomize a nuanced blend of alternative, psychedelic, funk and indie rock vibes, encapsulated within an introspective musical narrative.
The band is composed of frontman and rhythm guitarist Derek Smith, bassist Steve Constantino, rhythm and lead guitarist Michael Strakus, and drummer Dalton DeLima.
Smith’s songwriting process stems from an immersion into particular moods, channeling these emotions into evocative musical pieces. He eschews conventional song structures, opting instead to tell intricate stories through song fragments, ultimately creating a cohesive tapestry that fills the gaps of his intricate mental landscape.
With two back to back nominations at the New England Music Awards for “Artist of the Year” and “Rock Act of the Year” in 2022 and 2023 respectfully, Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures remain a mainstay in the New England music scene with their dynamic and eclectic music and energetic live shows.
In late 2023, Derek Smith merged his acclaimed solo efforts (two self-released albums and recent single “Black Angel”) with the band’s extensive catalog, marking a new era for both entities. A new single, titled “Waiting” and produced by Dave Minehan at Waltham’s Wooly Mammoth Sound, arrived in January, with singles like “White Spade Symphony” and “Tomorrow Morning” highlighting 2024. The latest Derek Smith and the Cosmic Vultures album, Opus, arrived in November 2024, followed the next year by a pair of EPs in Temporary Circus: Act 1 and Temporary Circus: Act 2. He enters 2026 with new single “Hollow Choir”, his 80th released song. Come along for the ride.
