Earning Keep, the sophomore set from local solo artist Christopher Smith, is one of the gentlest albums to come out of the city in recent memory. Despite featuring more full-band action than its predecessor, 2010’s The Beckon Call, the bulk of the record’s nimble six-string, brushed-drum, and muted-brass arrangements are dialled several notches below 10, while the tender piano vignettes placed in between most numbers bring it down even further.

Considering the precious vibe of Earning Keep, Smith sure set up a hell of a juxtaposition in the video clip for first single “Pillars and Pyre”. The musician opted to hang out behind the camera’s lens to play director, and instead made the focus of the clip a bearded, flaxen-haired metalhead who’s sporting potentially eye-gouging gauntlets while hammering out some heavy-handed rhythms. While the corpse-painted figure, former Bogus Tokus drummer Joel Loewen, might not seem an appropriate match for the bittersweet sonics, watching his stringy locks snap back in slow motion as he mangles his kit is oddly beautiful. But outside of the visuals, Smith sees ties between his song and the ethos of the black-metal scene.

“There are some parallels, thematically, with the black-metal message and ‘Pillars and Pyre’,” Smith states while sipping a frothy espresso outside of the homey, off-Main coffee haunt Le Marché St. George, noting how he relates to the genre’s disdain for organized religion.

“The whole idea was to discuss establishment and class through the subject of religion; you can pick up on some of that in there,” he continues of the tune, which homes in on religious iconography. While on the one hand, the track marvels at the beauty of a bright, burning funeral pyre, it takes aim at questionable religious leaders, coming to a head mid-song as Smith sings in a hushed falsetto, “He will let us down.”

“I think the album tackles some heavier subjects,” the songwriter explains of Earning Keep as a whole, “but they’re tucked away in love-song metaphors. I feel like you can discuss heavier shit that way.”

Tracks like the piano-plunking “Young Curmudgeon” and the wish-you-were-here “Bitch and Moan Beautiful English” are relatively direct heartbreakers, but Smith lays out an epic tale on opener “Settling Pitch”. In it, he presents a love-and-poverty-stricken couple dealing with life the best they can in a ramshackle home. Though it has romantic lyrics about making love ’neath the moon and the stars, the track’s emotional zenith may be trumpeter JP Carter’s (Inhabitants, Fond of Tigers) slow-burning and reverb-slathered jazz work.

“If it wasn’t for his deconstructed playing, and his amazing sense, it could’ve sounded cheesy,” Smith notes of Carter’s work. “People hear that song and on several occasions they say it sounds like the soundtrack for Twin Peaks—I thought that was so weird. We’ve joked around and used the term dark lounge [for it].”

While generally playing a supporting role on Earning Keep, Carter takes centre stage on instrumental track “New West”, a completely improvised solo piece. Smith wanted the horn player to inject the album with a high-concept soundscape of ambient, loop-pedal-indebted trumpet drones. “I’ll initiate something like that and realize how unconventional it is after the fact,” Smith says of adding a track he didn’t perform on to his album.

Despite the solo billing, the singer gives credit where it’s due. He’s especially fond of the work producer Todd Simko put into the set, which was partially recorded at Simko’s home studio in New Westminster. It’s a bittersweet bit of praise considering the producer passed away earlier this spring, shortly after Earning Keep was completed.

“I had texted Todd [the day he died]. I was second-guessing some of the sounds on the master—a real tool thing—and got no reply,” Smith remembers. “Then I got a phone call from [Boompa Records owner] Rob Calder saying he was dead. It was just days after getting the masters.”

Of Simko, Smith remembers his playfully creative nature, from miking the sound of an amp being kicked over to an aborted attempt at adding thudding timpani to the set. Simko also helped rearrange the album closer “No Light Could Pass Through Me So I Could Have A Shadow”, which started off as an acoustic piece but morphed into a dark and dancey number full of Kid A–grade drum programming, swirling new-age synths, and nervously clicky ticks. It’s a high-water mark on Earning Keep, and maybe even Smith’s still-young career.

“The parts weren’t all there to begin with, so there was a lot of collaboration,” Smith says, crediting the sinisterly funky bass line that drives the song to his fallen friend. “I’d like to think that being one of the last projects he worked on, it was one that he was pumped about and felt like he was part of.”