SLP-The Writ Smith
Music Forged from Consequence, Accountability, and the Fight to Change
SLP – The Writ Smith is a Humboldt County-based songwriter and the creator of Writ & Rust, an independent music and storytelling project shaped by incarceration, accountability, legal conflict, and the difficult work of rebuilding a life.
After spending more than nineteen years confined—and the overwhelming majority of his adult life behind bars—SLP returned to a world transformed by technologies, platforms, and industries that had barely existed when he entered prison.
Working entirely on his own, he built Writ & Rust from the ground up. He writes the lyrics and stories, develops every concept, directs the production of the music, builds and maintains the website, prepares the artwork and written materials, and manages the project’s public and social-media presence.
Writ & Rust is more than a collection of songs. It is both an examination of consequence and accountability and evidence of what one person can learn, create, and build after spending most of his life behind walls.
BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP
Writ & Rust was not created by a record label, entertainment company, publicist, web developer, or conventional production team.
SLP – The Writ Smith built the project independently after spending more than nineteen years confined and the overwhelming majority of his adult life behind bars. Upon returning to society, he faced not only the challenge of rebuilding an ordinary life, but an unfamiliar technological and cultural world that had changed dramatically during his incarceration.
Working entirely on his own, he learned the tools needed to write and develop songs, direct their production, build and maintain a website, create visual and promotional materials, publish the stories behind the music, manage social media, and present the project to listeners and the press.
The songs, lyrics, stories, concepts, creative direction, revisions, website, written materials, public presence, and final decisions all come from one person.
That achievement is part of the story of Writ & Rust.
Someone who spent most of his adult life behind walls emerged into a radically changed world, taught himself how to navigate it, and built an interconnected music and storytelling project from the ground up.
Writ & Rust is not merely a catalog of songs. It is evidence of adaptation, persistence, self-education, and what one person can build when given the opportunity to begin again.
Featured Release
“The Empty Chair”
“The Empty Chair” is a song about freedom, accountability, and choosing not to occupy every space you have the legal right to enter.
After learning that someone he had harmed might attend a local motorcycle rally, SLP-The Writ Smith faced a choice. He was legally free to attend. No court order prohibited it, and no one had the authority to keep him away.
But his presence could have taken away that person’s ability to feel safe and free inside the same space.
He stayed home.
That decision became “The Empty Chair”—a song examining the difference between having a right and deciding how that right should be exercised.
The song does not ask for forgiveness or present remorse as something that must be rewarded. Instead, it asks a harder question:
What does accountability look like when nobody is forcing you to choose it?