BIO :
I, Oliver Smith, got into music in 1985, my parents bought me a keyboard for Christmas and I quickly began teaching myself songwriting.
My first band, Delarvoid, was a collaboration with 2 friends from school, David Hodgson and Mark Reed, we wrote lyrics together on the school bus and had jamming sessions on keyboards at the weekend. This lasted between 1985 and 1987.
After this I started college and began working with Angus Thomas under the name The Outland. The songwriting continued until I branched out on my own in 1988.
Between 1988 and 1990 I finished a compilation called Lewes Road To London which included all the solo tracks and collaborations from that era.
In 1990 I finished an instrumental album of music for restaurants entitled Food For Thought.
In 1991 Outland began. Firstly with Graham Wren, Mark Paylor and Mark Hoare, it then continued in a duet with Chris Rutter in 1992, and then onto another band with Neil Richardson, Trevor Barras and Fraser Vincent in 1993. During this period I still wrote and co-wrote extensively and gigged a lot around the North East of England.
In 1995 I took a 5 year break from music and bands, still working on and collecting ideas in my mind.
In 2000 I decided to pick up songwriting again and wrote extensively until 2007, I worked with Marion Blakesley as Essence in 2003, also for a while in 2004 I worked with Chris Rutter again as Outland, and with Nikk Hope in 2005 as North And South.
In 2008 I met Marcin Repec and Roman Hajduk, we formed a band with Anita Bainbridge and Jacek Kazmierski, the band was called Oxygen. We wrote together and gigged until 2013.
In 2013 the band disbanded but Anita and I carried on working together in 2015 under the name Spiritual Dawn.
In 2017 I worked with Chris Rutter and Roman Hajduk as Into The Outland.
In 2019 Roman Hajduk and I began working together as a duo under the name Into The Outland still.
I took a break in 2021 and then in 2023 I started working again with Anita Bainbridge as Spiritual Dawn.