smartdumb is:

+ nick sylvester, a music producer, composer, and artist based in los angeles, california

+ he grew up in philadelphia, playing trumpet in wedding and bar mitzvah bands. at harvard he studied computer music, music concrete, and renaissance choral music, and also wrote for the harvard lampoon.

+ after a tempestuous stint as a music critic, nick fell in with lcd soundsystem's james murphy, who taught him how to produce, mix, and create an artist's signature sound.

+ in 2012, nick co-founded godmode, a vanity label for his punk band mr. dream that slowly but surely morphed into the artist development company behind cult left-of-pop acts like jpegmafia, channel tres, and yaeji.

+ in the summer of 2022, nick exited godmode to create a new kind of music company.

+ smartdumb is music that begins with a question mark and ends with an exclamation point. this feeling – “wait. what? wow!” – is the guiding principle of the company.

+ nick lives in los angeles, ca with his wife mina, their newborn son, and an emotionally complicated dog named lenny.

+ all inquiries contact nick at smartdumb dot info