Since 2015, Paul Deiss Smith II has been a freelance guitarist in the Orange County and Los Angeles area, performing in venues such as The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, The Wray Theatre, The Fox Performing Arts Center, The Newport Film Festival, Grand Annex Theatre and more. He graduated in 2019 from California State University, Long Beach with two Bachelor of Music degrees in Jazz Studies and Music Composition.

Paul’s music reaches beyond the Los Angeles area—in 2017, his arrangement of 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman was premiered by Malburn High School’s orchestra in Darjeeling, India. In 2019 he co-founded and wrote for a jazz combo called The New Gnus. The same year they toured California and were featured artists in the 2019 San Joaquin Valley Jazz Festival. He also partnered with WorldPride NYC to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots by editing the music for QUILT, A Musical Celebration. Currently, Paul is writing for and performing with his own folk ensemble comprised of string quartet, acoustic guitar and vocal trio, and trumpet; he released his debut full-length album with this group in 2021 called “The Pious Harp for The Weary Soul”.