ABOUt

Smith and Tegio is the musical project of long time friends and songwriting partners, Austin Smith and Mark Tegio.

Austin and Mark met through a mutual friend in their late teens in San Diego, CA. Their friend owned a skate shop where they would skateboard out back during the day and play music and share songs at night. These years were filled with musical exploration for the two. By introducing each other to singer-songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley and Tom Waits, among many others, they laid the groundwork for what was to come. And although these years were formative, it wasn’t until years later that the two truly started to mesh musically and find their own voices as guitar players and lyricists. 

In his early 20’s Austin moved up to San Francisco to pursue music and played with several local bands. Mark soon made his way up there as well, but to pursue academics. However most of Mark’s time was spent avoiding study and instead playing music and writing songs with Austin. It was in these “woodshed years” that the two started to truly develop their fingerpicking guitar and singing styles. The fact that they developed these skills simultaneously, with help and encouragement of each other, lent itself to the ease and fluidity with which they play and sing together today.  

Shortly after Mark graduated the two started pursuing music more seriously, releasing their first album and touring the western United States. Though they initially started as a duo the two have recently been accompanied by a band composed of pedal steel and stand-up bass giving a country tone to their acoustic guitar and lyrically focused folk songs.

Despite the two now living in different states, Mark in Portland, OR and Austin in Santa Cruz, CA it hasn’t stopped their love of touring and playing music together. They just released their sophomore album, “Can’t Stay Here,” in December of 2024.