Sad news from British Columbia in Canada. Nell Smith, the teenage prodigy who has worked with the Flaming Lips and was set to release her debut album on Bella Union in the New Year, has died. She was just 17.
The news was first announced by Bella Union label boss Simon Raymonde, on an Instagram post: “We are all shocked and devastated to hear of the sudden and tragic passing of our artist and dear friend Nell Smith, over the weekend in British Columbia,” Raymonde wrote.
“Nell was just 17 and was preparing for the release of her first solo record in early 2025 on Bella Union, made in Brighton with Penelope Isles’ Jack and Lily Wolter.”
More details came via Wayne Coyne who said that Smith had been killed in a car crash on Sunday night.
Addressing the audience at a Flaming Lips show in Portland, Oregon, Coyne said: ‘We have a very sad announcement to make tonight. We have a Canadian friend, her name is Nell. We recorded an amazing album with her three years ago, an album full of songs by Nick Cave.”
“We have some very sad messages today – she was killed in a car accident last night (October 6). We are reminded once again of the power of music and how encouraging it can be to be around people that you love.”
Smith first worked with the Lips when she was just 14 in 2019. She would attend the band’s gigs in a parrot costume and eventually struck up a friendship with them. A keen musician, she recorded an album of Nick Cave covers, showed it to the band who then added their own instrumental parts. The results were released as Where The Viaduct Looms in 2021.
Cave himself was impressed by the album. Speaking of her version of the song Girl In Amber he said: “I was going to say Nell Smith inhabits the song, but that’s wrong, rather she vacates the song, in a way that I could never do. Nell shows a remarkable understanding of the song, a sense of dispassion that is both beautiful and chilling. I just love it. I’m a fan.”
Undoubtedly Smith had a big future ahead of her, which makes the news even more cruel. Writing on social media, her parents said: “She had so much more to experience and to give this world but we are grateful that she got to experience so very much in her 17 years. She has left an indelible mark on the word and an unfillable chasm in our hearts.”
There’s no news yet on whether Smith’s debut album – which was pencilled in for early in 2025 – will now be released posthumously.
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