Description

Elliott Smith started out as the leader of Portland-based alt-rock band Heatmiser, who made three mid-1990s albums achieving good reviews but disappointing sales. Eventually Smith reinvented himself as a solo singer-songwriter, and his first couple of albums were spare, acoustic, Nick Drake-like affairs full of exquisitely sad, melodic songs. The soundtrack to the 1997 film GOOD WILL HUNTING rocketed Smith to stardom in a dizzying flash, as the formerly unknown indie-rocker quickly found himself performing at the Oscars. With a bigger budget, Smith indulged his '60s jones, churning out Beatlesque albums of Baroque pop. His musical flame was sadly extinguished when the reportedly heroin-addicted songwriter committed suicide in 2003.

Biography

b. Steven Paul Smith, 6 August 1969 Omaha, Nebraska, USA, d. 21 October 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA. Raised in a musical family, acclaimed singer-songwriter Smith first recorded with Portland, Oregon-based alternative rockers Heatmiser. Despite achieving a modicum of success with this band's generic Fugazi-inspired hard rock, Smith felt happier recording acoustic material on his home four-track set-up. His solo career began after he mailed a tape to local independent label Cavity Search. His debut set, Roman Candle, appeared in 1994. The album introduced Smith's sparse folky style and introspective lyricism, redolent of the work of English singer Nick Drake. Later releases appeared on the Olympia, Washington-based independent label Kill Rock Stars, as Smith balanced his solo career with his continuing involvement in Heatmiser.
By 1997's Either/Or, Heatmiser had split and Smith relocated to Brooklyn. His big break came about when cult film director and long-time fan Gus Van Sant used six of Smith's songs on the soundtrack to his acclaimed Good Will Hunting. The stand-out track "Miss Misery' was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, leading to the memorable sight of a dour Smith performing at March 1998"s Academy Award ceremony. Smith had already taken the plunge earlier in the year and signed to the DreamWorks label. Any worries that a major label would choke his independent spirit and songwriting skills were dispelled when the superb XO was released in August. Produced (like Either/Or) by Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf of Bong Load, the album confirmed that Smith had developed into one of the finest songwriters of the 90s. The 2000 release Figure 8 was also impressive, although this time around the layered production work veered occasionally towards the soporific.
Smith's solo albums had openly documented his fractured personal life, taking in a history of child abuse, depression, drug addiction and suicide attempts. After a fractured couple of years, he was close to completing work on a new album when he was found dead at his Los Angeles home in October 2003 from suspected suicide. It was alleged that he stabbed himself in the chest with a knife. The coroner's report was inconclusive. From A Basement On The Hill was released posthumously the following year.
DISCOGRAPHY: Roman Candle (Cavity Search 1994)***, Elliott Smith (Kill Rock Stars 1995)***, Either/Or (Kill Rock Stars 1997)****, XO (DreamWorks 1998)****, Figure 8 (DreamWorks 2000)***, From A Basement On The Hill (Anti/Domino 2004)***.
VIDEOGRAPHY Strange Parallel (DreamWorks 1998).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Elliott Smith And The Big Nothing, Benjamin Nugent.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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