In 2012, Leith Fleming-Smith was a second-year student at Dalhousie University and was giving a new tour to first-year students when he proposed to them.
R&B funk band The Mellotones were going to play an all-ages show at a campus bar as part of a fresh event, so an electrical engineering student recommended they go.
“It’s going to be a party,” he told them.
Fleming-Smith's passion had always been music, but the then 19-year-old saw it as a hobby rather than something he could do for a living.
But something happened on the show that changed Fleming-Smith's life forever.
Mellotones moment
Today he is one of Halifax's busiest musicians, touring with the likes of Matt Mays and the Crash Test Dummies as a keyboard player, as well as an in-demand session musician and fill-in for live performances. He is also bad at playing keyboards.
“It’s crazy how certain moments can change your whole life,” Fleming-Smith said.
The Mellotones' concert in Dalhousie was not particularly well attended, with probably as many people watching as there were in the eight-piece band on stage. But Fleming-Smith was in front and dancing, captivated by the performance.
Sean Weber, who plays alto saxophone and synthesizer in The Mellotones, recognized Fleming-Smith from his former job at a music store in Halifax. Fleming-Smith played keyboards in the store before a jazz band rehearsal.
Weber said that while working at a record store, he paid attention to the people who came in. He said Fleming-Smith's play stood out despite his youth.
So Weber talked to his bandmates.
“I thought, ‘Man, we need to get this guy up. This guy really knows how to play. I’ve seen it in the store before and you just have to pick it up,” Weber said.
When Fleming-Smith walked up to the stage to join the band at a Maceo Parker concert Shake everything you've gothe realized what this opportunity could mean.
“It was the single most important moment in my life and I really felt that if I gave it everything I had, something might happen because I had already accepted the fact that music was never going to be my life,” he said.
“And then suddenly there’s an opportunity to play an organ solo with the coolest band in town.”
The group liked what they heard. Fleming-Smith began being present with the band during weekly gigs, and they took him under their wing, introducing him to people in the local music scene, which gave Fleming-Smith more opportunities to play.
Writing term papers in travel vans
Pretty soon, Fleming-Smith changed his major to economics. After that he moved into history.
He continued his studies while playing in several bands and touring. He even wrote articles on his cell phone while stuck between stacks of amplifiers in camper vans.
When Fleming-Smith graduated in 2016, he wasn't looking for a traditional job. He was quite busy with music.
“Nothing has really changed except that I hung my diploma on the wall,” he said. “I’m proud to say I got it, but I haven’t needed it yet.”
On stage, Fleming-Smith is known for wearing Hawaiian shirts. He is also known for his infectious enthusiasm, reminiscent of Elton John's 1970s theatrics.
Matt Mays describes Fleming-Smith as a “bright, shining light” who brightens everyone's day.
“He's a surreal person because he's such a great musician and good at so many other things, and at the same time so humble and kind and caring and nice and selfless,” Mays said.
He said that while Fleming-Smith's movements may resemble a peacock ruffling its feathers on stage, it is not acting. Fleming-Smith loves to dance and it's just music flowing through him.
Mays said there are nights when they will perform in front of crowds of 10,000 people. When Fleming-Smith solos, everyone in the building smiles, he said.
Mays said the goal of a lead singer is to convey what you're feeling. He said that he sometimes has trouble playing lead guitar because he can't take what he's feeling and put it into his hand.
“But with Leith, he knows his instrument so well that it just flows through him,” Mays said. “It’s like Bluetooth from his brain to the keyboard or his soul to the keyboard.”
Who did he play with?
Over the years, other artists Fleming-Smith has toured with include Adam Baldwin, Christina Martin and Roxy & The Underground Soul Sound, and he has played on recordings by artists such as Joel Plaskett, David Miles and Sean McCann.
On any given evening in downtown Halifax, you might run into Fleming-Smith.
He could perform on stage with the band Six Star Revue, which plays ininstrumental funk, soul and jazz, or he may be there because the band suddenly has no members left on the day of the show. He was even called out for the night while he was in bed, but he still came on the show.
Fleming-Smith attributes the variety of music he can play to his musical background. He began studying classical music with a neighbor who was a piano teacher, but soon switched to jazz and blues, which he found helped them improvise and play by ear.
Fleming-Smith grew up listening to a wide range of artists such as Deep Purple, The Kinks, T. Rex and Huey Lewis and the News.
IP at work
Although he is known as a member of the group, Fleming-Smith is working on an EP, which he hopes to release before the end of next year. Given his eclectic tastes, he said it's not easy to determine what it will sound like.
“I love music that people can dance to. I love seeing a crowd dance… even if I put out something really heavy and hard rock, it will still have elements that you can move and move to,” he said, noting that he plans to sing along to the song and play guitar and keyboards.
Fleming-Smith says music has allowed him to see parts of the world that he might not have easily seen otherwise. In the last year alone he has toured Europe, Australia and New Zealand with Crash Test Dummies.
“Wherever you go, you get something out of being there,” Fleming-Smith said. “But as an artist, when you come out, you also have something to give to people, so it’s kind of an energy exchange.”
How Fleming-Smith was able to join the supposedly Winnipeg-based band goes back to a 2018 performance in Halifax, where Fleming-Smith played a one-off show supporting the band's Brad Roberts.
Fleming-Smith made such an impression that when the band needed a keyboard player in 2022, they called Fleming-Smith and offered him the position.
“In this business, you never know what will lead to something in the future, so you always have to keep your mind open,” he said.
Earlier this week, Fleming-Smith played a gig with the Six Star Revue and the band played Shake everything you've got taking him back more than a decade to the beginning of his career.
“It's been a career that I thought would never happen, and that's my favorite thing in the world… it just amazes me how grateful I am for my career,” he said.
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