Nell Smith - New single and video "Billions Of People" released from upcoming posthumous debut solo album "Anxious" out 11th April via Bella Union

Today, following the album’s title track and “Boy in a Bubble”, Bella Union are releasing “Billions Of People”, the latest single from Nell Smith’s posthumous debut solo album Anxious due out 11th April. In a recent 4 star review MOJO magazine describe Anxious as being “as dreamy and swirling as Clouds Taste Metallic-era Flaming Lips.” New psyche-pop single “Billions Of People” was written in September 2022 with the Canadian band Shred Kelly in Fernie BC and reflects on her visit to the UK on tour with The Flaming Lips earlier that year. It was a time of huge excitement and change for Nell as she navigated the exciting opportunities while trying to balance teenage life in a small town and friendships far away. Watch the video HERE.

Shred Kelly shares: “We met every week to work on songwriting together and, if I remember correctly, Nell brought the chorus of “Billions of People” to the session. About 30 minutes in, she got a message from someone who she had a connection with who was leaving town and she said she was going to bike down to the bridge to say goodbye and be back in a few minutes. She wasn’t sure when she’d see them again. That fuelled the inspiration for the verses of the song that we wrote that day, and the rest of the song came together pretty effortlessly.”

In other news, the Nell Smith Memorial Fund set up by Nell’s family to honour her legacy and support emerging musicians has now reached $35,000. The fund aims to raise $100,000 and award $10,000 every year for ten years with profits from the release going directly into the fund’s corpus. More info on the fund can be found at Nell’s official website here.

Posthumous record releases will always be charged with emotion but when the release comes from a 17 year-old artist that was just getting started it is devastatingly heartbreaking. Anxious is a mesmerizing selection of songs that explore the highs, lows and uncertainty of teenage life through the eyes of Nell and is the follow-up to Where The Viaduct Looms, her debut collaboration with The Flaming Lips that explored the works of Nick Cave.

Guided by the talented Jack and Lily Wolter of Penelope Isles, who helped shape Nell’s songs, some of which had been in the works since she was twelve years old, the result is an album brimming with emotion, playful melodies and a depth that hints at what Nell’s future may have held.

Nell’s record includes three songs which were written in partnership with Canadian folk band Shred Kelly with whom she spent winter evenings writing in her hometown of Fernie, British Columbia, huddled round the fire in 2022. Jack and Lily Wolter subsequently completed these songs and the rest of the works in Brighton in 2023.

Nell’s first and only studio recording session at Bella Union’s studio in Brighton at the tender age of 15 was an intense mix of long days with Jack and Lily expertly teasing out what was really going on in Smith’s mind with the help of Doritos, Fizzy sweets, Coca Cola and inspiration gained by sneaking her into venues to see local bands play.

A lot of Nell’s creative drive was rooted in raw teenage emotions; apprehension; love; travel; gratefulness; ambition; and grief. These moods are visited throughout the tracks on the album with an instrumental approach that brings joy into even the darkest of songs.

“Anxious”, the album’s title track, opens and sets the tone with a welcome, whimsical look at teenage angst, Smith laying bare the challenges she faced via the anxiety which was amplified as a young person navigating life in a pandemic that consistently shut the doors she was used to bursting through.

“Bubba” explores a joyous approach to dealing with grief and was written as a tribute to an old friend and mentor, Troy Cook, who sadly died of cancer in December 2022 at the age of 53. Troy had written a song about considering jumping into the River and letting it take his soul away. This concept is revisited with an upbeat melody that juxtaposes with the lyrical content resulting in something that sounds part festival celebration and part sorrowful ballad.

Jumping forward to Boy in a Bubble, a psychedelic celebration and thank you note to Wayne Coyne, who opened the doors for Nell’s first work. Synth riffs, psychedelic guitar and Lips-esque production accompany whimsical lyrics describing the journey and relationship that the young singer had with The Flaming Lips on this expansive, meandering track that would fit right in with the Lips’ own catalogue.

“Split in the Sky”, the album’s heartfelt closing track, is a song inspired by Nell’s first tattoo, inked backstage at Kentish Town Forum after the final show of The Flaming Lips tour across the UK that provided Nell with her first on-stage experiences. “It is still very painful when I realize Nell is gone”, says Wayne Coyne. “I keep thinking I’ll check my text messages from her. I’m sure she has a new drawing or new piece of a song or a new photo of her cat… and then I remember she is gone. Now when I’m listening to her singing these songs there is a brief fantastical joy. Her voice hits the ear, the ear tells brain this is the sound of love, the brain lets the mind fly through the billions of connections it has with Nell’s life... but as it flies it also flies to her death... there is something holy that happens now.”

Anxious artwork and tracklist:

1. Anxious

2. Daisy Fields

3. Bubba

4. The Worst Best Drug

5. Service Song

6. Boy in a Bubble

7. Splash

8. I Know Nothing

9. Billions Of People

10. Split In The Sky