Bio

Timothy "SMU" McCarthy III, was born on 1/3/1977 in Palos Heights, IL. He is a Cuban/Irish mutt with an affinity towards music, grooves, and energy. His first guitar was a Christmas gift in 1982. In fourth grade he sang in the school choir, and started playing the Alto Saxophone in the school band in fifth grade. He took private lessons on the sax from 5th grade through 8th grade while performing in the district 118 Junior High Band, under the direction of Richard Daugherty. In Seventh grade he purchased an electric bass around his thirteenth birthday. This was 1990, at the end of the Glam rock era and he was very into bands such as Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, and Poison. Asked to leave the school band in 8th grade due to being a discipline problem, this opened up the door for him to play hair metal!! It was in his sophomore year of High school that Tim picked up the moniker Smu. He also played in many high school bands while discovering life and higher planes of reality. At the end of high school Smu joined his first major ensemble The Minataurz Ov P aka M.O.P. This was an art ensemble of late teens going through their psychedelic revolution. They released Two CD'S "the 573 Years" and "MOP". The band performed and recorded with Smu from 1995-1999, while performing in Chicago clubs Phyllis’s Musical Inn, Roby's, The Big Horse, and others. In 1999 the M.O.P. camp went there separate ways to attend higher education.

After high-school he attended Moraine Valley Community College (1995-1998) where he joined the Jazz Ensemble for two years. It was here that he first learned music theory, the modal system and how to read chord charts. He then went on to Columbia College as a Sound major, After two years of study Smu quickly realized he needed to seize his dream and changed majors to jazz performance. Smu studied Double Bass under Greg Sarchat (Chicago's Lyric Opera), and Dan Anderson (Chicago Jazz Ensemble). He also studied electric bass with Doug Loughstrum (composer-in-residence for the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra). While attending the Jazz school he studied under most of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble members including Scott Hall (trumpet), Frank Dawson (Guitar), Bobbi Wilsyn (jazz vocal), TS Galloway (trombone),and the legendary William Russo (conductor, composer, and trombonist from the Stan Kenton Orchestra).

During his studies, Smu joined the band Forty Piece Choir. In which he really cut his teeth and made a name for himself in the Chicago music scene. Smu graduated with jazz Performance degree in 2001 from Columbia College, and pursued music with the psychedelic Americana band Forty Piece Choir. He released three albums with Forty Piece Choir: Face Your Fear (2002 Blue Room), Tennessee (2004 Cooked County Records), and The Profound Nature of Life (2007 Cooked County Records).

Timothy "Smu" McCarthy has shared the stage with Umphrey's McGee, Ekoostik Hookah, The Big Wu, Stars, Gogol Bordello, Jackson Browne, Pat MacDonald, Waco Brothers, Robbie Fulks, Essex Green, Baldwin Brothers, Leona Naess, Sleeping At Last, Josh Rouse, Bo Deans, Dave Mason, Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band and an endless array of talented artists. While frequenting the Chicago club scene, Forty Piece Choir has appeared at House of Blues, Metro, Double Door, Schubas, The Kinetic Playground, Martyrs, Empty Bottle, Abbey Pub, The Note, The Hideout, Wise Fool's Pub, Park West, and everywhere in between. Including Toronto's North by Northeast Music Festival and Sturgeon Bay's Steel Bridge Song Fest.

He was also picked up in 2007 as an endorsing artist for the amp and cabinet company David Eden, which is highly praised as being the most sophisticated and best sounding gear for bass amplification and tone. In 2007 Smu also started the promotion company Smu Presents, through which he actively books and promotes events in the Chicago land area.

Fifth World came together in the summer of 2007. The band much like the concept of its name is moving towards a new age of music, where vintage instruments are interwoven with electronic instruments, computers, midi triggers, and sequencing. The over all sound is a musical blend of everything learned from past genres of sound mixed with new concepts, tones and textures. With lyrics posed in existentialism, and rhythms steeped in dance, and soul. The music is being made to create excitement, movement and to spark a deeper thought regarding our purpose here in this plane of reality. The band is really trying to jump start the evolution of a global consciousness through the use of vibrations, sacred geometry, ancient knowledge, psychedelic shamanistic experience and thought provoking lyrics

Skills and talents

musician, promoter, stage manager, father, husband

Interests

attending music festivals, boating, camping, hiking, skate boarding, snow boarding

What I'm Reading

Breaking Open the Head, 2012 the Return of Quetzalcoatl , Food of the Gods, Secret Societies of America's Elite, The Portable Jung

What I'm Listening To

Thievery Corporation, Phish, STS9, Pink Floyd, Disco Biscuits, Jane's Addiction, Ween, Grateful Dead, the Roots, the Talking Heads, Radiohead

Movies I've Seen Recently

What the Bleep do we Know?; the Dark Crystal;LABRYNTH, The Last Mimzy, 6 Ways Mushrooms can save the world, zeitgeist movie, End Games, The Legend of Atlantis, The Hangover, Mystery of the Hollow Earth

Websites I'm Into

Fusion Anomaly, Post Modern Times

Education

High school

Amos Alonzo Stagg

College

Columbia Collge

Additional study

Jazz performance degree