Nell Smith, the young and talented musician from Fernie, British Columbia, tragically died this past week at the age of 17.

In May 2023—a month before interviewing and photographing Nell for a Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine article—writer Jeff Pew was fascinated with a video of Nell as a 12-year-old kid at a Calgary Flaming Lips’ concert. Wayne Coyne, the Lips’ frontman, is inside a clear plastic bubble floating atop the audience. He’s singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” when he recognizes a young girl dressed in a parrot costume perched upon her dad’s shoulders. He smiles then kneels toward Nell, placing his hand on the bubble that separates his palm from hers, as if to anoint her as she ecstatically sings along with Coyne, “Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom, can you….?”

Following the show, Coyne, Nell, and her parents became close friends. Then something happened—dreamlike, ethereal, nothing short of an East Kootenay fairy tale.

Two years later, 14-year-old Nell appeared on that same Calgary stage alongside the Flaming Lips, singing songs from their album of Nick Cave cover songs, Where the Viaduct Looms. She and the band appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before touring the US and UK. They were featured in Rolling Stone, Spin, NME, and CBC News. Nick Cave was a great admirer of Nell, reflecting on her interpretation of his song “Girl in Amber”:  “Nell shows a remarkable understanding of the song,” he wrote in 2021 on his website The Red Hand Files.  “A sense of dispassion that is both beautiful and chilling. I just love it. I’m a fan.”

Nell was preparing for the release of her debut solo album in 2025. Simon Raymonde, the head of her Bella Union record label, shared his grief on Instagram: “We are all shocked and devastated to hear of the sudden and tragic passing of our artist and dear friend Nell Smith.”

During a Flaming Lips concert on October 6, Wayne Coyne shared the sad news with fans that Nell had been killed in a car accident the previous night. “We are reminded once again of the power of music,” he told the audience, “and how encouraging it can be to be around people that you love.”

At Kootenay Mountain Culture Productions, we, like many who knew Nell and her music, are heartbroken by the news and send our love to Nell’s family and friends. We are honoured to have shared her incredible story both in our magazine’s pages and in our podcast. To us, she embodied the beauty and inspiration of living big dreams from a small place. In many ways, that’s what growing up in the Kootenays is all about. She will be greatly missed.

For more on Nell:

https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-8-young-dreamers/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nell-smith-flaming-lips-1.5848102

https://www.nellsmithmusic.com/

Jeff Pew’s Article on Nell Smith – Published in the Winter 2023/24 Issue of Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine.

“I’m just living in the moment, trying to figure everything out,” says Fernie, British Columbia’s Nell Smith,15, with an awareness rarely found in teens. In the last two years, she hasn’t been preoccupied with high-school dances or math tests because she’s been living the rock-star dream: in 2021, she recorded an album of Nick Cave cover songs, titled Where the Viaduct Looms, with Oklahoma’s Grammy Award-winning psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips, a group famous for its live shows.

A few months after the album’s release, they appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Nell and the Flaming Lips and then toured the United States and the United Kingdom. Smith has been featured in Rolling Stone, Spin, and British-based NME. She met Miley Cyrus, and she got to hang out with comedian-musician Reggie Watts and Radiohead’s drummer, Phillip Selway. “Since I was a kid, Dad played a lot of music around the house and on car rides,” she explains, tracing the genesis of her recent success. “I loved the Flaming Lips, so I learned all their lyrics.” At age 10, she cried when her dad, Jude Smith, told her he was taking her to one of their concerts in Spokane, Washington, unaware that four years later, she would perform with them on the same stage. “I loved [that first concert] so much that my dad decided to take me to a few more.”

Before a 2018 Calgary show, the band’s frontman, Wayne Coyne, 62, was at a soundcheck when he recognized a 12-year-old girl dressed in a parrot costume he’d seen in the audience at previous shows. Ecstatic, Smith approached him and explained she’d written him a letter full of weird stuff and given it to a roadie. Struck by a passion for his band that was uncharacteristic of her demographic, Coyne exchanged numbers with Smith’s father. Ten minutes later, they received a text message and a picture from Coyne that read, “I got the note!” and a friendship ensued.

“I would send him clips of me learning guitar,” she says. “He loved my voice and suggested I come to Oklahoma to record some songs in their studio. But when COVID hit, that wasn’t possible.” Coyne instead encouraged her to learn and record the haunting Nick Cave song “Into My Arms” and then other Cave songs, to which the Lips added instrumentals and vocals. Within five weeks, they’d recorded nine songs, and to the surprise of the Smith family, it became the album that started it all.

Smith is now collaborating on an album of original material with the English band Penelope Isles and local band Shred Kelly. She’s formed a band with local musicians to tour the album, all while completing grade 10 through home-schooling. “Nell’s done an excellent job of keeping her feet on the ground,” says Jude, when asked if he worries about her recent fame. “As well, living in rural BC, we’re a bit under the radar.”