Elliott Smith

At 34 years old, Elliott Smith has this physical status:

Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (September 6, 1969-2003) was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, was raised mainly in Texas, and spent a large part of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained notoriety.

Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, but he also used piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica.

Smith's distinctive vocal style was characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin performance," and he used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies. Smith began his solo career in 1994 after being in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, with the introduction of Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars, respectively. (KRS).

In 1997, he signed DreamWorks Records, for which he produced two albums.

Smith, who was featured on the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting (191997), was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category, and he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and major depressive disorder.

His heroin use and mental illness influenced his life and work, and he appeared in his lyrics often.

He died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 34, from two stab wounds to the chest.

The autopsy results were inconclusive as to whether the wounds were self-inflicted or as a result of homicide.

Smith was recording From a Basement on the Hill, his sixth studio album, which was posthumously completed and released in 2004.

Early life

Steven Paul Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 6th, 1969, the only child of Gary Smith, a student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Bunny Kay Berryman, an elementary school music teacher. Smith and his mother moved to Duncanville, Texas, when he was six months old. Smith later got a tattoo of a map of Texas drawn on his upper arm, saying, "I didn't get it because I like Texas, which is sort of the opposite." However, I won't forget about it, though I'm tempted to because I don't like it there."

Smith had a difficult childhood and a tense friendship with his stepfather Charlie Welch. Smith suggested he was sexually assaulted by Welch at a young age, an allegation that Welch has denied. In "Some Song," he spoke about this period of his life. "Charlie" appears in songs "Flowers for Charlie" and "No Confidence Man"; Smith's difficult childhood led to his need to sedate himself with drugs as an adult, according to Jennifer Chiba, Smith's partner at the time of his death: "He was recalling painful stuff from his childhood," she said in a 2004 interview. It's not my place to say what" says the author.

Smith's family was a member of the Community of Christ for a large portion of his childhood, but his family began attending services at a local Methodist church. Smith said that going to church did nothing for him except make him "very afraid of hell." "I don't necessarily buy into any officially organised version of spirituality," he said in 2001. But I have my own spin on it.

Smith learned piano at age nine, and at ten, he began learning guitar on a small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father. He created "Fantasy," his first piano work, which gained him a prize at an arts festival. Many of the people on his mother's side of the family were non-professional musicians; his grandfather was a Dixieland drummer, and his grandmother performed in a glee club.

Smith, a boy who was then working as a psychiatrist, left his Texas mother's home and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he and his father were reunited. Smith began using alcohol, including alcohol, with family members about this time. Since borrowing a four-track recorder, he began recording for the first time. Smith played clarinet in the school band and played guitar and piano; he also performed in the bands Stranger Than Fiction and A Murder of Crows, who were also named Steven Smith or "Johnny Panic." He graduated from Lincoln High School as a National Merit Scholar.

Smith began speaking out about "Elliott" after graduation, saying that "Steve" sounded too much like a "jock" name and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish." During his time in A Murder of Crows, he had also used the pseudonym "Elliott Stillwater-Rotter" according to friends. S. R. Shutt, a Portland photographer, believes the name was either inspired by Elliott Avenue, a street that Smith had lived on, or that his then-girlfriend suggested it. Smith's junior high acquaintance of Smith suggests that he changed his name so as not to be confused with Steve Smith, the Journey's drummer.

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Career

Smith earned a degree in philosophy and political science from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1991. He told Under the Radar in 2003, "went straight through in four years." "I guess it was to myself that I could do something I didn't want to do for four years." Except that I did not like what I was learning. "This is your one and only chance to go to college, and you should do it well because on some day you might wish that you did." In addition, the primary reason I applied in the first place was because of my girlfriend, and I had been accepted right away, even though we hadn't broken up before the first day. "He worked in a bakery back in Portland with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and legal theory," after he graduated.

Smith formed the band Heatmiser with classmate Neil Gust while at Hampshire. After Smith came from Hampshire, the band recruited drummer Tony Lash and bassist Brandt Peterson, who appeared around Portland in 1992. The group also produced the Yellow No. 3 and Cop and Speeder (1993) as well as the Yellow No. 94. Frontier Records, 5 EP (1994). They were then signed to Virgin Records to bring out Mic City Sons, their final album (1996).

Smith and Gust performed a variety of odd jobs around Portland, including installing drywall, spreading gravel, transplanting bamboo trees, and painting the roof of a warehouse with heat reflective paint. For some time, the two were also on unemployment insurance, which they described as a "artist grant."

Smith began his solo career while still in Heatmiser, and his first two albums established distance and dissatisfaction with his band. Heatmiser was disbanded prior to the unveiling of Mic City Sons, causing Virgin to debut the album inauspiciously through its own arm, Caroline Records. Smith was still committed to it as an individual under a provision in Heatmiser's lengthy deal with Virgin. DreamWorks later bought the job out ahead of the release of his fourth album, XO.

Smith's mother at the time persuaded him to give a tape of songs he had recently recorded on a borrowed four-track to Cavity Search Records. Chris Cooper, the owner of Cavity, requested that the entire album of songs be released, which shocked Smith, who was expecting only a deal for a seven-inch record. Roman Candle (1994), Smith's album, was released.

"I thought my head would be chopped off straight when it came out because at the time it was so different from the grunge thing that was popular," Smith said. The thing is that the album was really well-received, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser], unfortunately." Smith said that his solo performances were not representative of Heathoney's music: "It't occured to me" because it was the Northwest—Mudhoney and Nirvana—and going out to perform an acoustic show was like crawling out on a limb and begging for it to be seened off."

On September 17, 1994, one of Smith's first solo appearances at the now-defunct Umbra Penumbra in Portland. Only three songs from Roman Candle were performed, with the majority of the ten-song set being B-sides, Heatmiser tunes, and unreleased tracks. Smith also contributed to the album "No Confidence Man" in the same year. Pete Krebs released a split 7-inch record with him via Slo-Mo Records.

Smith's self-titled album was released in 1995 on Kill Rock Stars; the album featured a style of recording similar to Roman Candle, but with hints of growth and experimentation. Although the majority of the album was recorded by Smith alone, colleague and The Spinanes vocalist Rebecca Gates performed harmony vocals on "St. Ides Heaven," and Heatmiser guitarist Neil Gust performed guitar on "Single File." Several songs related to drugs, but Smith explained that rather than the songs being about drugs specifically, he used the theme of drugs as a tool for expressing dependence rather than the songs being about opioids specifically. Smith said that the album's pervasive mood gave him "a reputation for being a really dark, depressed person" and that he later made a conscious attempt to shift toward more diverse moods in his music.

In 1996, filmmaker Jem Cohen captured Smith playing acoustic songs for the short film Lucky Three: An Elliott Smith Portrait. Both of these songs will appear on his forthcoming album, Either/Order, which was another Kill Rock Stars album. Either/Or came out in 1997 to swarms of praise. Smith's album brought him further into full instrumentation, with several songs featuring bass guitar, drums, keys, and electric guitars, all played by Smith. The album's name was derived from Sren Kierkegaard's two-volume book, whose works often deal with topics such as existential fear, apprehension, death, and God.

Smith's already-heavy drinkers were being enhanced by antidepressants by this time. Some of his close friends staged an intervention in Chicago, but it was ineffective. Smith was moved from Portland, New Jersey, to Jersey City, New Jersey, and then Brooklyn, New York, just short of.

Smith was selected by director and fellow Portland resident Gus Van Sant in 1997 to appear on the soundtrack to his film, Good Will Hunting. Smith co-produced an orchestral version of "Between the Bars" with composer Danny Elfman. Smith performed "Miss Misery" and three previously announced songs ("No Name #3" from Roman Candle and "Angeles" and "Yes" from Either/Or), as well as "Say Yes" from Either/Or). The film was a commercial and critical hit, and Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for "Miss Misery." He agreed to perform the song at the ceremony only after the producers informed him that if he was unable to perform, they would select someone else to play it.

Smith made his network television debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing "Miss Misery" solo on acoustic guitar on March 5, 1998. He appeared in an abridged version of the song at the Academy of Music a few days later, wearing a white suit. With "My Heart Will Go On" (sung by Celine Dion) from the film Titanic, James Horner and Will Jennings received the award that night for best song. Smith expressed surprise at not being recognized for the award.

Smith spoke out about the Oscars' surrections: "That's just what it was, surreal... I love performing as much as I enjoy writing up songs in the first place. The Oscars were a strange display, with just one song cut down to less than two minutes, and there were a number of people who didn't come to see me perform. I didn't want to live in that world, but walking around on the moon for a day was thrilling."

Smith signed to DreamWorks Records in 1998, following the success of Either/Or and "Miss Misery." Smith fell into depression, spoke openly of suicide, and on at least one occasion attempted to end his own life. He became inebriated while running off a cliff in North Carolina. He landed on a tree, which stunned him but ended his fall. "Yes, I jumped off a cliff, but let's talk about something else," he told an interviewer.

"I talked him out of deciding that he wanted to kill himself several times when he was in Portland," Christopher Cooper, the owner of Cavity Search Records (which published Roman Candles). I kept telling him that he was a brilliant guy, and that life was worth living, and that people loved him." "We got the brunt of Elliott's initial depressedness in Portland," Pete Krebs said. "Many people have tales of their own experiences of staying up with Elliott 'til five in the morning, holding his hand, telling him not to kill himself."

DreamWorks was Smith's first release in the year. It was conceived and produced before Smith wrote it out during the winter of 1997-1998, a night after night seated at the bar in Luna Lounge. It was created by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock's team. Some instrumentation from Los Angeles singer Joey Waronker and Jon Brion was also included in the XO. On the album "Independence Day" there was more full-sounding, baroque pop sound than any of his previous efforts, with tracks featuring a horn section, Chamberlins, intricate string arrangements, and even a drum loop. Despite his somewhat personal lyrical style, his signature double-tracked vocal and acoustic guitar style remained unchanged. The album debuted at number 104 on the Billboard 200 and 123 on the UK Album Charts, while selling 400,000 copies (more than double that of each of his two Kill Rock Stars releases) in his career's best-selling release. During the majority of this time, Smith's backing band consisted of former bandmate Sam Coomes on bass guitar and Coomes' ex-wife Janet Weiss on drums. Quasi has appeared at several shows on the tour, with Smith often playing bass guitar, guitar, or backing vocals. Smith performed "Waltz No. 1" on Saturday Night Live on October 17, 1998. "XO")" is a verb that means "push" in the movie. John Moen, Jon Brion, Rob Schnapf, and Sam Coomes were among his backing bands for this appearance.

Smith said in response to whether the change to a larger record brand would influence his creative control, "I think, despite the fact that people think of major brands as simply money-making machines, they're actually made of people who are real people, and a part of their job is to provide good music." Smith also stated in another interview that he never read his papers out of fear that they might influence his songwriting. It was during this time that Smith appeared on Dutch television in 1998 and gave an open interview in which he discussed his music career up to that point.

Smith appeared on "Waltz No. 2" as part of the Dutch television series "Waltz No. 1." (XO)"), "Miss Misery," and "I Didn't Understand"), the two songs were performed solely on piano, but Smith cut the first one short: "I had to stop it because it's... what's the point of playing a song badly?" It'd be more fun to play it and mean it rather than simply walking through it."

Smith went from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1999, renting a cabin in downtown Silver Lake's Silver Lake neighborhood, where he'll often perform intimate, acoustic shows at local venues such as Silverlake Lounge. In April of this year, he appeared in Toronto for the second time. His cover of the Beatles' "Because" was included in the end credits of DreamWorks' Oscar-winning drama American Beauty's fall collection and appeared on the film's soundtrack album.

Figure 8 was Smith's last album, and it was unveiled on April 18, 2000. It featured Rothrock, Schnapf, Brion, and Waronker, and Waronker, and was partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England with a strong Beatles influence on songwriting and recording. The album received rave reviews and debuted at number 99 on the Billboard 200 and 37 charts, with the album ranked at number 99.37 on the UK Album Charts. The album received accolades for its power pop style and complex arrangements, which have been described as "a kaleidoscope of layered instruments and sonic textures." However, some commentators thought Smith's trademark dark and melancholy songwriting had lost some of its nuances, with one reviewer comparing certain of the lyrics to "the self-pitying screams of an adolescent venting in his diary."

Smith's album art and promotional photographs from the time showed him looking organized and put together. An extensive tour of the record ensued, bookended by television appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Late Show with David Letterman. Smith's health began to decline as he had become addicted to heroin either before or right after the Figure 8 tour.

Smith began to show signs of anxiety early in his career, mainly because a white van followed him wherever he went. He'll have friends drop him off for recording sessions just over a mile away, and to reach the studio, he'll trudge through hundreds of yards of wood and cliffs. DreamWorks was out to get him: "Not long ago, my house was broken into, and songs were stolen from my computer," he says. Certain individuals who work at a particular company have remained in the custody of such people. For months at a time, I've been following my daughter around for months at a time. I don't even want to mention that it's the people from that brand who are following me around, but it was certainly they who broke into my house." Smith barely ate during this period, subsisting primarily on ice cream. He'll go without sleeping for several days and then sleep for a whole day.

We had intended to work with Rob Schnapf, but the sessions were cancelled. Smith began distancing himself from his boss Margaret Mittleman, who had been dealing with him since the Roman Candle days. He began recording a new album with only himself and Jon Brion as producers in 2001. When Brion stopped the sessions due to Smith's struggle with substance use disorder, the pair had produced a substantial amount of songs for the album. Smith and his coworkers' employment came to an end straight, and they'd halted all of their work until that point. "Because of a blossoming love with someone who made me so sad I didn't want to hear any of those songs," he said later. He was just helping me record the songs and stuff, and then the relationship kind of fell apart all in a single day. It just made it kind of awkward to be alone in the car listening to the songs."

When Brion sent a bill for the cancelled sessions to DreamWorks, Lenny Waronker and Luke Wood, executive, called a meeting with Smith to discuss what went wrong with the sessions. Smith referred to the fact that the Figure 8 album's poor sales. The meetings were fruitless, and Smith sent a note to the executives shortly after, advising that if they didn't fire him from their employment, he would commit suicide. Smith started to record the album in May 2001, but with some support from Goldenboy's David McConnell. McConnell told Spin that Smith would smoke over $1,500 worth of opium and crack per day, and that he would often discuss suicide, and that he has attempted to overdose on several occasions. Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips and Scott McPherson of Sense Field performed a few drum tracks, Sam Coomes contributed some bass guitar and backing vocals, but nearly every other instrument was recorded by Smith.

During a suicide attempt scene in Wes Anderson's 2001 dark comedy film The Royal Tenenbaums, Smith's "Needle in the Hay" was included. Smith had intended to contribute a cover of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" but Anderson had to use The Mutato Muzika Orchestra's version of the song instead. Smith was "in a bad shape" at the time, according to Anderson.

Smith's live performances in 2001 and 2002 were rare, primarily in the Pacific Northwest or Los Angeles. A analysis of his show at Crystal Ballroom on December 20, 2001: his hair was uncharacteristically greasy and long, his face was befangled, and gaunt, and he displayed hints of "memory-loss and butterfingers" during his performances. The audience started yelling out lyrics at another performance in San Francisco this month when Smith couldn't remember them.

Smith co-headlined Northwestern University's A&O Ball with Wilco in Chicago on May 2 in the first of only three concerts performed in 2002. He was onstage for almost an hour but he was unable to finish half of the songs. His poor show was due to his left hand falling asleep, and he told the audience, it was "like having stuff on your hand and you can't get it off." Smith's performance was described as "unquestionably one of the worst performances by a singer" and as a "excruciating [...] nightmare." Elliott Smith would not surprise me at all if he died within a year, according to a reporter for the online magazine Glorious Noise.

Smith was involved in a brawl with the Los Angeles Police Department at a concert in which The Flaming Lips and Beck were performing on November 25, 2002. Smith later said he was defending a man who was deemed harassing by the police. The cops allegedly beat and arrested him and his partner Jennifer Chiba. The two men were held in jail for the night. Smith's back was hurt in the shooting, causing him to cancel a number of shows. Wayne Coyne, lead singer of The Flaming Lips and a friend of Smith's, expressed dissatisfaction with Smith's appearance and behavior, saying he "saw a guy who had lost control of himself." He was terribly ill, he was gruesome, and he was all you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you imagine Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner.

Smith attempted to recover several times, but found that he was unable to relate to the common medications for people with a substance use disorder that were based on a twelve-step program structure for therapy. "I couldn't do the first step; I couldn't say what you were supposed to say and mean." Smith began using the Neurotransmitter Recovery Center in Beverly Hills in 2002 to begin a drug therapy program for substance use disorders. In one of his last interviews, he talked about the center, "What they do is an IV needle poke in your arm, and they're on a drip bag," he says, but the only thing in the drip bag is amino acids and saline solution. I was getting off a lot of psychiatric drugs and other stuff. And yes, I was on an antipsychotic, but I'm not psychotic."

Smith performed on January 31 and February 1, 2003, at two sold-out solo acoustic concerts at Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater, aiming to reestablish his celebrity as a live performer. Smith scrawled "Kali – The Destroyer" (the Hindu goddess associated with time and change) in large block letters with permanent ink on his left arm, which was visible to the audience during the performance. He was backed by a stripped-down drum kit from Robin Peringer (of the band 764-HERO), and members of Rilo Kiley's opening band contributed backing vocals to one song. The musician erupted for several minutes after a heckler yelled, "Get a backbone." Smith appeared at two more Los Angeles shows during 2003, including The Derby in May and the Los Angeles Weekly Music Awards in June.

He quit alcohol on August 6, 2003, on his 34th birthday. Director Mike Mills had been working with Smith during his senior years, and he recalled his days with him: "I gave the script to him, then he dropped off the face of the earth," Smith recalled, but By the time I finished with the film, he was still making music."

Smith began working with noise music and spent time on his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba's iMac with the intention of learning how to program with computers, noting that it was the only way with which he was still uncertain. Smith jokingly described his experimental way of recording "The California Frown" (a play on the Beach Boys' "California Sound"). "They're a little more bouncing with the pitch all distorted," he said of the songs. Some of them are more acoustic, but there aren't many like it. Lately, I've just been making up a lot of noise."

He was also recording songs for the Thumbsucker soundtrack, including Big Star's "Thirteen" and Cat Stevens' "Trouble." Suicide Squeeze Records released a limited-edition vinyl single for "Pretty (Ugly Before)" in August 2003, a song that Smith had been playing since the Figure 8 tour.

Smith's last performance appeared at Redfest at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on September 19, 2003. The Beatles' "Long, Long, Long" was his last song he performed live.

ANTI-Records (a subsidiary of Epitaph Records) announced a Basement on the Hill, a nearly four-years-in production, on October 19, 2004. With Smith's family in charge of his affairs, they decided to bring in Rob Schnapf and Smith's ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to sort through the files and mix the album. Although Smith had expressed his wish for it to be a double album or a special edition with a bonus track, it was not clear if it would have been possible for him to post it in the way he did. It was released as a 15-track single album, as well as Schnapf and Bolme. Many songs from the sessions (later leaked onto the internet) were not included, including "Reality Love," "Everything's Fine," "Stickman," and "Suicide Machine") (a reworking of the Figure 8-era unreleased instrumental "Tiny Time Machine"). Smith's family is believed to have made the decision not to include any songs on the record due to their lyrical content, but songs such as "King's Crossing" that deal with darker topics did not make the cut.

Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing, a Benjamin Nugent biography, was rushed to publication just after his first anniversary of his death. Smith's family, as well as Joanna Bolme, Jennifer Chiba, Sam Coomes, and Janet Weiss declined to be interviewed. It featured interviews with Rob Schnapf, David McConnell, and Pete Krebs. The book received mixed feedback, with Publishers Weekly noting that although "Nugent aims to stitch together the main beats of Smith's life, he cannot provide much useful insight."

A Tribute to Elliott Smith, a tribute album released in 2005, was released. Several bands were performing tributes to Smith.

Kill Rock Stars' New Moon, a posthumous two-disc compilation album, was released on May 8, 2007. During Smith's time with the label, there were 24 songs that were not included on albums, as well as a few early versions and rarely released B-sides. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 in the United States, selling around 24,000 copies in its first week. The album received rave reviews and was Metacritic's 15th best-reviewed album of 2007. Outside In, a social service agency for low-income adults and homeless youth in Portland, Oregon, will earn a share of the proceeds from album sales.

A book titled Elliott Smith was published by Autumn de Wilde on October 25, 2007, which includes photographs, handwritten poetry, and "revealing conversations with Smith's inner circle." De Wilde was behind the figure 8 sleeve art, creating a major and de facto Smith memorial of the Solutions Audio mural. Smith's debut on Largo, Los Angeles, was included on a five-song CD with previously unreleased live recordings of him performing acoustically.

Following Smith's death, his estate licensed his songs for use in films and television shows, such as One Tree Hill, The Girl Next Door, Georgia Rule, and Paranoid Park.

Larry Crane said in a March 2009 interview, Smith's estate was defunct and all rights that had been previously held by Smith are now in the custody of his parents. Crane continued to say that his parents owned the right to Smith's high school recordings, some of the Heatmiser's recordings, which were all solo performances before his 1998 recording contract with DreamWorks Records. DreamWorks Records was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2003, and Interscope Records now "owns every studio and live recording from Jan 1998 to his death, except for the ones on From a Basement on the Hill."

Kill Rock Stars reported in December 2009 that it had won the rights to re-release Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill, which were originally published by Cavity Search and ANTI- respectively. Larry Crane will remaster Roman Candles. Kill Rock Stars also released "Cecilia/Amanda," a previously unreleased track of Smith's "Cecilia/Amanda," as a free download alongside the press release. On April 6, 2010, Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill were re-released in the United States.

Domino Records (UK) and Kill Rock Stars (US) released An Introduction to Elliott Smith in November 2010 in a best hits compilation. (US)

In August 2013, there was a memorial service in Portland, Oregon, and three other towns. Several musicians Smith had performed with, colleagues, and Gus Van Sant's appearance at the Portland festival were among the attendees.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson released a video of the pilot episode of The Jon Brion Exhibition in 2014, which featured an acoustic set by Smith, as well as accompaniment by Brion and pianist Brad Mehldau.

Heaven Adores You, a documentary about Smith's life, was limited to a limited theatre debut on July 17, 2015. Several close friends and family members were enlisted in the film, as well as hours of audio interviews during Smith's short career. Nickolas Rossi produced the film, which was released by Eagle Rock Entertainment. Heaven Adores Your review from Consequence of Sound, The Guardian, and The Hollywood Reporter have all praised you.

UMe released digital deluxe editions of the two albums XO and Figure 8 on August 6, 2019, (what would have been Smith's 50th birthday). The new XO version features nine new tracks, including Smith's Oscar-nominated Good Will Hunting's "Miss Misery." Figure 8 now has seven tracks. "Figure 8" is included in the digital deluxe edition, Smith's "Schoolhouse Rock!" covers the "Schoolhouse Rock" film. The song was only on the Japanese version of the album and was only available on Japanese versions. Smith's interpretation of the Beatles' "Because" on the new Figure 8 edition is the final track on the new Figure 8 collection.

Smith's life and work were chronicled in BBC Radio 4's Great Lives in May 2021.

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