Jesse S. Smith is the driving force behind small press publishing imprints Tomis Press and Basementia, as well as indie alt-rock electronica band Flumergex, and the comic short film Curb Thy Vanity directed by Anna Gillock. Under his own name and pen names including Titus Naso, Smith is the author of a score of books: including self-help book Start Today and the satirical heist thriller The Battle of Hillsboro.
In addition to “Curb Thy Vanity,” Smith has worked behind the scenes on the film crews for movie production projects “LifeCycle 63” directed by Phillip Wade and the “Hell’D” pilot/teaser directed by Matthew D. May.
How Can I Help You?
I’m interested in helping writers publish; helping musicians produce recordings; and helping filmmakers make awesome movies.
Thematic electronica by Flumergex is available for sync licensing for advertisements, video games, or film productions, with a growing catalog of catchy songs in a variety of styles.
If any of that sounds at all interesting or relevant to you, please get in touch!
And if you’d like to learn more, read on, and we shall ponder the past, the future, and everything in between.
An Extended Introduction
You see, like many of us, there’s this question I sometimes ask myself:
How Did I Get Here?
Way back in the early 1990s, it was a poorly kept secret at my high school that my friends and I were involved in the circulation of an underground newspaper that criticized the school, the government, and society at large.
Over the next fifteen years or so, I performed and recorded with a variety of folk-rock, funk-rock, alternative rock, blues-rock, prog-rock, and metal bands: including (among others) T. Ray and the Shades featuring Matt Murray, Motasm featuring Jon Thiele (and Laura Applegate on drums!), The Plushies with Steve Hovey and Jeff Dickie, Operation J with Tom Morgan, The Burners, The Mushtones; JUT with Tom Kay and Ulysses Martinez; and Sweet Dreams featuring Daergan Guy. Somewhere in there I taught overseas for a year as a music instructor at a private school in Cairo; and I recently enjoyed an opportunity to work as a local music instructor again locally.
Having dreamed since the mid-1990s of someday owning my own record label, I started a media production business from a rented bedroom in 2003.
Meanwhile, I wrote my first novel at the age of 20 (later shortened and published as The Overlords of Tlegryth). In college I majored in English and studied overseas for a year in Scotland. After school, my interest in publishing led to an early career in local print shops: including a greeting card company and a label manufacturer. This B2B industry experience led in turn to an interest in marketing, graphic design, and website design.
I taught myself to code, sometimes reading computer programming textbooks while I was riding the bus to my day job. (I even used to sometimes write code longhand in notebooks when I was away from the computer.) Eventually I built up a proficiency in several programming languages and frameworks.
In 2007 I took on primary parenting so my wife could pursue an advanced career; and since then I’ve been running a home-based publishing and design business. It’s like my whole life was based on the old comic strip, “Adam,” later rebranded to “Adam@home,” you remember that guy? That’s basically me.
And then for three years in there I was also going back to school for my MBA in Marketing from City University of Seattle.
So for fifteen years or so all told I was primarily working in marketing and website development, under brand names including Mardesco and Cascadia Branding Co. I reckon I worked on well over a hundred professional website development, graphic design, marketing, and content authoring projects for a variety of clients over the years. It’s not huge; but it’s something.
In the past few years I’ve changed my primary focus to other forms of media: including books, music, and video content. And, you know, this revised direction feels well aligned with my self-image, so I’m going to keep rocking it, and I hope you’ll join me for the party!
Oh, and then in 2022 (and 2023) I was a candidate for local office(s). I didn’t win the election(s) (or else I’d have mentioned this earlier); but it was a life-changing experience nonetheless.
Also in the past few years, motivated and accompanied by my sister I’ve run two half-marathons (in Portland and Boring) as well as the (rather grueling!) full marathon at Silver Falls State Park.
Before I moved to Silverton, live performances by Flumergex used to often feature my friends Andy Hoke and Jon Rigby; and both of those gentlemen (as well as the most excellent drummer Tom “The Count” Morgan) made appearances on early Flumergex recording projects; but the “band” has been essentially a solo project since 2013. That said, modern sampler/looper/sequencer technology allows a solo performer to make some pretty interesting sounds these days, so maybe I’ll see you around for some live music again someday eventually. In the meantime, be sure to search up the latest Flumergex musical releases on your favorite streaming service or digital download platform!
And as always, I hope you’ll enjoy the books.
As you can see, I don’t post to the blog all that often, friends, but I do appreciate you stopping by.
Cheers, all! I hope you have a most excellent day.
