From Palos Hills, IL (a southwest suburb of Chicago), Jarvis Smith started his career in live entertainment, working as a freelance staff member in the Box Office of Lollapalooza in 2008 (making only $10/hr at the time). From there, he would begin to learn how the Ticketing sector of music festivals operate in relation to the larger music industry. As he learned the ropes, he was able to build relationships within the box office with other Ticketing professionals, which landed him an opportunity to work at Coachella and Stagecoach in 2013.

Unbeknownst to Jarvis, this would be the moment his freelance career would gain momentum, and opportunities to work at music festivals such as: Firefly, FYF Fest, Rock in Rio (USA), Electric Forest and more would arise in the two-years after that experience in the desert. However, the big opportunity came in the fall/winter of 2015 when he was offered to join the Los Angeles based music promoter, Goldenvoice (GV) full-time as the Festival Ticketing Coordinator.

After accepting the role with Goldenvoice, and moving to Southern California, it would be the start of even more career highlights. In particular, over the next four-years, Jarvis would be directly a part of building the box office operations for festivals such as: Hangout, Camp Flog Gnaw, Desert Trip, Day N Vegas, Arroyo Seco Weekend, and more festivals (in addition to working closer on Coachella and Stagecoach). In mid-2019, he became Festival Ticketing & Staffing Manager, overseeing day-of-show box office operations and festival box office staffing for Goldenvoice’s Festival Ticketing department.

In 2020, he would use the time the pandemic created for the music industry, and evolved his day-to-day by leading the production of an internal department podcast called, “I Work @Goldenvoice” (later renamed The Goldenvoice Podcast in 2021), which highlighted the careers and personal stories of his fellow co-workers. The most notable episode of the series would be with the Black collective, GV BLACK, which would help spark deeper actions about diversity, equity and inclusion within GV.

At the start of 2021, Jarvis became an honoree in Billboard’s “Change Agents” issue for his work on GV BLACK.

Outside of his tenure in live entertainment, Jarvis self-produces his own podcast (Candle of Knowledge), which tells a personal story of his deceased parents. In addition, he has worked with audio since 2000 - recording, editing, and mixing his own content.