black and white bed linen

A Signal in the Static is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Steven Smith. A Signal in the Static fuses the shadowed edges of post-punk with the sprawling atmospherics of post-rock and the hazy textures of shoegaze. Smith crafts a towering wall of sound, layered guitars drenched in distortion, bass that rumbles like distant thunder, and rhythms that pulse between ritualistic drive and cinematic restraint. His approach bends noise into melody, pairing shimmering reverb with blurred distortion to create soundscapes that feel both intimate and vast.

Before A Signal in the Static, Smith was a founding member of Cleveland’s post-rock/tribal band Mabou with guitarist Steve Copley, the shoegaze/post-rock project Spiricom with guitarist Marc Cody, and the acclaimed dark ambient project Dolmen with Baltimore sound artist Jason Sloan. Across more than 20 albums of solo and collaborative work, he has honed not only his voice as a composer and instrumentalist but also as a producer and engineer for other artists.

Now based on a farm outside Kent, Ohio—surrounded by his wife and a menagerie of animals—Smith channels the tension of isolation and the static of modern life into music that resonates with raw emotion and atmospheric weight. A Signal in the Static is less a band name than a mission: to carve meaning and beauty from the haze.

News: Fall 2025

The new album is currently being mastered and is scheduled for release in early 2026.

white and black cassette tape
white and black cassette tape
The World I Was Born Into Now Longer Exists (2026)

A Signal in the Static’s new album The World I Was Born Into No Longer Exists (2026) is a loud meditation on vanished places and people, born from a disconnect with modern life and a longing for the stability of the past. Blending post-punk grit, post-rock expansiveness, and shoegaze haze, the record turns personal absence into resonant soundscapes that feel both haunting and timeless. Recorded on a quiet Ohio farm yet resonating far beyond, The World I Was Born Into No Longer Exists captures the collapse of old worlds and the fragile beauty of what emerges in their wake.

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