Updated
Fernie music icon Nell Smith, who collaborated with Grammy award-winning rock band the Flaming Lips, has died suddenly.
Smith's family confirmed the 17-year-old's death in an Instagram post on Oct. 7.
"It pains us so much to say that our feisty, talented, unique, beautiful daughter was cruelly taken from us on Saturday night," said her father Jude.
"She had so much more to experience to give this world but we are grateful that she got to experience so very much in her 17 years. She has left an indelible mark on the word and an unfillable chasm in our hearts."
Alberta RCMP and Smith's family have confirmed that she was in a single vehicle collision on Highway 533 near Nanton, Alberta on Oct.5. Police, who arrived at the scene at 3:14 a.m. on Oct. 6, said the vehicle had been damaged in a roll-over type incident.
She was the lone occupant of the vehicle and was declared deceased on scene.
Smith collaborated with the Flaming Lips on her first album Where the Viaduct Looms after a chance meeting with band frontman Wayne Coyne. Coyne invited her backstage at a Flaming Lips show after she passed him a hand-written note from the audience. Their passion for music kept them in contact and he became her mentor on their global album tour, for which she received international recognition.
She was one of five teenagers to be featured in Telus documentary Out There, released earlier this year. The film documented her rising career in the digital age of connectivity.
At the time of her death, she was working on a second album to be released by Bella Union Records next year, about her youth growing up in a small city and navigating life in a spotlight.
In previous interviews with The Free Press, she expressed interest in pursuing a music education at Selkirk College’s music program in Nelson, and BIMM Institute in the U.K., and also talked of launching a Canadian tour.
