Soundsmith (Dave Smith, Deva) started off learning to play drums at a weekend music school when he was 16. He received tuition from the backing drummer of the Eurythmics which eventually led him to playing percussion for various university bands in Brighton. Along side this he accidentally found a group in the school playing around with Cubase, drum machines, DX and Juno synths and he was captivated. At 18, Dave was inducted into the hedonistic hurricane of Brighton club culture and lived to see the emergence of the new-wave Big Beat scene and the kindling Breaks and Tech-House genres. The seed of inspiration was sewn witnessing the Positive Soundsystem free-parties with the likes of Terry Francis.
Dave relocated to London and started DJing with the Inside Out/Syskonsalt crew in Farringdon and Shoreditch. Dave moved on to promoting his own parties with his friends under the Detour monkier in the burgeoing hipster scenes around Stoke Newington.