Plain Mister Smith Unleashes Loudest Single Yet: ‘Andy Warhol’ Out Now

(Plain Mister Smith / Image Credit: Sandra Lockwood)

December 2nd saw the release of ‘Andy Warhol’, the latest single from Plain Mister Smith on Amelia Recordings/Symphonic and the third taste of an album slated for spring 2026. Anyone who followed Canadian darkwave in the late ’80s and ’90s already knows him as the guitarist from Moev, one of the country’s crucial electronic acts. These days he holds down a chair as cellist in the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, but the solo work under his Plain Mister Smith name is where the real shape-shifting happens. NPR Music, CLASH, Wonderland, Under The Radar, Earmilk, NOTION, METAL, and a growing list of others have all backed the project hard, drawn to the way he flips between introspective folk and full-on psych-rock without ever sounding forced.

The new track is pure electric charge. Leeroy Stagger delivers the lead vocal with a rasp that makes every line feel like a barstool confession, while Krystle Dos Santos answers back with soul-drenched harmonies that float above the fray. Hooky guitar riffs slice through a rhythm section that locks in and pushes forward, nodding at the open-road shimmer of War on Drugs and the loose genius of Pavement while staying unmistakably his own. The lyrics dissect that gap between projected cool and inner wreckage, classic Plain Mister Smith territory, only this time wrapped in amps turned to eight.

Plain Mister Smith revealed: “I met Andy Warhol many years ago at the New Music Seminar in New York. He was pretty chill and serene or seemed that way. He was quoted to have said “So What this, So What that”? which is about the most Zen thing you could ever say. ‘Andy Warhol’ the song, is about trying to be super Soto Zen, trying to be cool and so nothing phases you but really, you’re just a chaotic mess of a human, no matter what you do…….”

Stream ‘Andy Warhol‘ feat Leeroy Stagger: