Canadian teenage music prodigy Nell Smith, best known for collaborating with The Flaming Lips, has died at 17 years old.
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne paid tribute to Smith on stage during the band’s concert in Portland on Sunday night, revealing that she had died in a car accident.
Cocteau Twins’ Simon Raymonde further confirmed the news via Instagram on Monday. In a statement, Raymonde shared that Smith had been set to release her debut solo album on his label Bella Union next year. “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,” he continued. “Her first release was an album of covers of Nick Cave songs recorded with fellow Bella Union artistes The Flaming Lips back in 2021 entitled, Where the Viaduct Looms.”
A longtime Flaming Lips fan, Smith met frontman Wayne Coyne after the band’s 2018 headlining show in Calgary. They stayed in touch as Smith began learning guitar and writing songs, eventually collaborating on the nine-song Nick Cave covers album, Where the Viaduct Looms, featuring lead single “Girl in Amber” and “The Ship Song.”
“I think Nell and I just wanted to start to make some music and see what would happen,” Coyne told Consequence in advance of the album’s release. “Doing cover songs is a fun way, in the very beginning, to get things rolling along. I picked Nick Cave, ’cause I love his music and lyrics, and I thought, ‘Nell probably doesn’t know very much of his [Cave’s] music, and she might (because she has NO pre-conceived notions) just do something very simple, heartfelt and original.’ And… SHE DID!!”
