Biography
Elliott Smith was born on August 6, 1969, in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised primarily in Texas after his parents divorced when he was an infant.[1] At fourteen he moved to Portland, Oregon, to live with his father, a psychiatrist, and it was there that he began building the songwriting identity that would define his career.[1]
While studying philosophy at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, Smith formed the rock band Heatmiser with classmate Neil Gust, releasing albums including Dead Air (1993) and Cop and Speeder (1994) before the group disbanded around 1996.[1] Even while fronting Heatmiser's louder, more conventional alternative rock, Smith was quietly recording hushed, intimate solo material on the side, the sound that would eventually become his primary artistic voice.[1]
His 1997 album Either/Or was recorded across a string of Portland houses and home studios.[2] It drew the attention of filmmaker Gus Van Sant, who used three of its songs in Good Will Hunting and commissioned an original track, "Miss Misery," for the film. The song earned Smith an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1998, and he performed at the ceremony in a white suit, later describing the experience as surreal.[1][2]
The song was among the first tracks recorded at the studio Smith built that year with producer Larry Crane, a space that became his primary recording base for years afterward.[3] Danny Elfman, who scored the film, arranged an orchestral version of "Miss Misery" for the Oscar broadcast and later called the collaboration one of the only times in his career he felt he was truly creating alongside another artist rather than working alone.[5] Smith later dismissed the whole episode as "a freakish accident," and the sudden mainstream exposure, arriving just as he began recording his major-label debut XO, cost him much of the anonymity he had relied on to work quietly and undisturbed.[4]
After the Either/Or tour, Smith relocated from Portland to Jersey City and Brooklyn, and by 1999 he had settled in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, signing to a major label for the albums XO and Figure 8.[1] Throughout his career he struggled with heavy drinking and drug use, and was diagnosed with ADHD and depression. Between 2001 and 2002 he battled heroin addiction and endured periods of severe physical and psychological decline, attempting rehab multiple times and finding little success with traditional twelve-step programs.[1]
Smith died on October 21, 2003, at his Echo Park home in Los Angeles, from two stab wounds to the chest, during an argument with his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. An autopsy found prescribed medications in his system but no illegal substances or alcohol, and the official investigation left open the question of suicide versus homicide, a case that remains unresolved.[1]
References
- Elliott Smith - Wikipedia — Biographical details including birth and death dates, upbringing, Heatmiser, Hampshire College, moves to New York and Los Angeles, addiction struggles, and the circumstances of Smith's death.
- Either/Or (album) - Wikipedia — Recording history and the Good Will Hunting soundtrack connection.
- Miss Misery by Elliott Smith - Songfacts — Details on the home studio Smith built with producer Larry Crane in 1997.
- Elliott Smith's Oscar nomination changed everything - Slate — How the Oscar nomination and sudden fame affected Smith's life and privacy during the recording of XO.
- Good Will Hunting - Wikipedia — Danny Elfman's account of collaborating with Smith on the film's music.