Battling Fiction and Reality, Thinking “We’re All Gonna Die”

AJ Smith’s latest track, “We’re All Gonna Die,” bears a jarring title but offers a triumphant look at all the battles many have overcome in the last few years. The song comments on facing a global pandemic, political tensions, recession, and the rapid development of integrated technology, and how they all played a pivotal role in shaping the current existential dread many are dealing with today.

Located in Nashville, Smith’s path to becoming a pop artist is reflected throughout his music, which has the uncanny ability to evoke a nostalgic desire for dramatic pop of decades past while sounding modern and fresh. His songwriting and performance abilities have earned multiple awards, including the prestigious Abe Olman Scholarship from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a semi-finalist ranking in the 2020 International Songwriting Contest. Other recent highlights include a live performance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, being featured on Billboard’s “10 Cool New Pop Songs to Get You Through the Week,” and much more.

It’s a common thought that many of us today are ‘surviving’ and not ‘living.’ Here, Smith introduces this idea in its full brutality, both in a catchy tune and outstandingly portrayed music video. Being alive yet wanting more has the potential to be incredibly unsatisfying, and “We’re All Gonna Die” vocalizes just how upsetting it can make an individual in their day to day. “It’s like 9-to-5 is 5-to-9,” as the song states, accompanied by a quick and heavy electronic beat with 80’s stadium rock-style verses, all together mixed in such a way that you can practically hear the desperation in just the background instrumental alone. Easily, the main goal of “We’re All Gonna Die” is to be a cathartic release, for both Smith and his audiences, and overall make us think on our complicated relationships with technology, and the internalized issues that comes with constantly having access.

AJ Smith is also found on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.