“He came over to us and said, ‘I recognise you because of your costume!’” Nell recalls. As the band’s frontman Wayne Coyne took to the stage for the soundcheck this particular night, however, the girl in the parrot costume happened to catch his eye. Usually, she’d find her way down to the front row and sing every word. This wasn’t Nell’s first time watching The Flaming Lips: she had been attending their shows with her parents regularly since the age of ten and had worn this particular parrot costume once or twice before. As the 14-year-old prepared to go to see The Flaming Lips, one of her favourite bands, play in Calgary, she’d just wanted to be part of the regular explosion of colour and mayhem that the Oklahoma band bring to every performance. Nell Smith could never have known how important picking out a parrot costume would turn out to be. I’m a fan.The teenager reflects on the remarkable turn of events that led her to record an album remotely with the iconic rock bad during the pandemic. Nell shows a remarkable understanding of the song, a sense of dispassion that is both beautiful and chilling.
“I always found it difficult to step away from this particular song and sing it with its necessary remove, just got so twisted up in the words, I guess. “This version of ‘Girl in Amber’ is just lovely, I was going to say Nell Smith inhabits the song, but that’s wrong, rather she vacates the song, in a way that I could never do,” said Cave. Alerted to the cover by a fan, Nick Cave took to his website The Red Hand Files to write: In a pleasing addition to the tale, the great man himself has given his seal of approval to the collaboration. I’m super happy to be working with Bella Union and really looking forward to everyone hearing the album.” Nell adds: “I’m so excited to see this turn into a real record release. It was cool to listen and learn about Nick Cave and pick the songs we wanted to record.” I hadn’t heard of Nick Cave but Wayne suggested that we should start with an album of his cover versions, and then look at recording some of my own songs later. It was a really steep learning curve but Wayne was so encouraging when I was struggling with a few of the songs that I kept going. When asked about the experience, Nell comments: It was a great way to connect with her and help harness her cool attitude to making music.” With Nell we could see she is on a journey and thought it would be fun to join her for a while and see if we could get things going. “It’s always great to meet excited, young creative people. Speaking about the collaboration, Coyne comments: The first track they recorded was a cover of “Girl In Amber,” the video of which Nell shared late last year.
NELL AND THE FLAMING LIPS RED RIGHT HAND HOW TO
When a planned trip to record with the band in Oklahoma had to be cancelled due to Covid Coyne suggested Nell record some Nick Cave songs and email them to Oklahoma to be backed by the band.Ĭoyne chose Nick Cave because Nell didn’t know him and wouldn’t have preconceived notions as to how to sing the songs. Nell started to learn guitar and as their creative relationship began to flourish, Nell began to write her own songs. Nell had already attended several Lips shows and was a regular at the front of the stage, dressed in a parrot costume and screaming out the band’s songs.Ĭoyne soon began to notice the kid in the parrot suit and sang a David Bowie cover directly to her at the show in Calgary, with Nell singing every word back.Ī musical bond formed as Coyne stayed in contact with Nell and her father, Jude. This inspiring and heartwarming story begin when Nell Smith, originally from Leeds (UK), moved to Canada and first met Wayne Coyne at the age of 12 at The Flaming Lips’ headline show at the Sled Island Festival in Calgary (2018) with her family.
To mark the announcement, Nell and the Lips yesterday shared a video of their cover of “ The Ship Song,” which Consequence of Sound premiered. The album was mastered by Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios. The LP is comprised of nine Nick Cave cover versions with vocals and instrumentation by 14-year-old Nell Smith and instrumentation and production by The Flaming Lips. Today, Nell & The Flaming Lips announce the release of Where the Viaduct Looms, out November 26th via Bella Union /. NELL & THE FLAMING LIPS: new album + singleĭue Out November 26 via Bella Union /
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