Robert smith
Robert James Smith (Blackpool, England, April 21, 1959), better known as Robert Smith, is an English guitarist, vocalist and composer, co-founder and leader by the alternative rock band The Cure. In his musical career, he has played 6- and 12-string guitars, 4- and 6-string basses, and keyboards, among other instruments. The rock magazine NY Rock describes him as "pop culture's neglected iconoclastic child of doom and gloom", further stating that his songs are "somber introspective and riddled with melancholic guitars".
Smith created a school in his guitar playing in the use of staccato and in the use of guitar effects such as the flanger, the >chorus effect and the phaser, which put him at the forefront of post-punk music. He played guitar with another famous post-punk group, Siouxsie And The Banshees between 1982 and 1984. In 1983, he formed the supergroup The Glove with Banshees bassist Steven Severin. Smith is also a music producer and multi-instrumentalist: he plays guitar, bass, cello, double recorder, harmonica, and keyboards. He is known for his signature stage appearance with her combed hair, her red-smeared lipstick, her dark eye makeup, and her peculiar timbre of voice. This is the image that has made him a benchmark for mass culture.
He has appeared as an animated character in series such as South Park or in various sitcoms. In addition, the iconic image of Robert Smith has inspired famous comic characters such as Eric Draven, the protagonist from the saga The Raven, Morpheus, the main character of the comic series The Sandman, as well as the main character of the movie Edward Scissorhands, played by actor Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton, a declared admirer of the band led by Smith. Director Paolo Sorrentino was also inspired by the figure of Robert Smith for the character of Cheyenne played by actor Sean Penn in the film This must be the place.
He won two Brit Awards for Disintegration and was twice nominated for a Grammy with his group The Cure for the albums Wish and Bloodflowers, respectively. In 2005, he received the Ivor Novello Award, and in 2009 he received the Godlike Genius for his entire musical career.On March 29, 2019, Smith received the recognition by inducting The Cure into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Biography
School Bands
Robert Smith was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, on April 21, 1959. Raised in a working-class Catholic family that rose to the middle class, his family left Blackpool to settle in Sussex. He studied at Notre Dame Middle School and St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive School in Crawley. At the age of 14 he formed his first group with his brother Richard and his sister Janet, his name was The Crawley Goat Band. He received his first electric guitar as a Christmas present and attended classes, skipping some of them, to rehearse covers of hits of the time with some of his friends: Laurence Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey among them. Smith along with Dempsey, Tolhurst, Marc Ceccagno and Alan Hill formed the one performance group, The Obelisk.
During 1972, Smith, Dempsey, Ceccagno and Tolhurst attended St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School where they continued to play together in a formation called The Group. "It was called The Group, because it was the only one in the school," Smith explained.
Malice and Easy Cure
In October 1976, Smith formed a group called Malice, which already included Porl Thompson, and began rehearsing hybrid songs by David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Alex Harvey. "When I started I had no special reason other than not having to work," Smith said when he started out in music. With Malice he played several concerts at St. Wilfred's, until they ended up expelling him from the school for being an "undesirable influence".
In January 1977, the band took the name Easy Cure and entered a demo contest which they recorded in Robert's bedroom. Days later they received a telegram where they were summoned to an audition in London. They signed with Hansa Records, which ultimately turned down the Cure's future single, "Killing an Arab". In August 1978 they reunited with Polydor, now called The Cure, and recorded their first album: Three Imaginary Boys on Chris Parry's new label, Fiction Records.
First stint with The Cure: 1978 to 2000
Robert Smith has been the leader of The Cure since its inception in 1978, having gone through multiple formations. He had artistic differences with the band's first bassist, Michael Dempsey who was replaced shortly by Simon Gallup. With the Smith/Tolhurst/Gallup formation, The Cure released three albums considered icons of gothic rock: Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982). After Pornography, Robert Smith decided to give The Cure a new orientation, progressively leaving the gothic rock that popularized it during the early 80s to embrace a much more pop with which he would reach a great level of popularity on albums such as The Head on the Door (1985) or Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) and with songs from hit like "Close to Me" or "Just Like Heaven".
After that pop period, Robert Smith decided to return to his dark roots in 1989 with the album Disintegration, which became one of his most representative works. It was during this time that Smith and the Fiction Records record company had a legal process against Laurence Tolhurst, a founding member of the band who was expelled due to his bad habits and his lack of involvement with the band. Smith and Fiction won the case favorably. His next effort in 1992, Wish, had an enormous impact: it became #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. After that, the commercial decline of The Cure began and Smith wanted to give a new reorientation to the band's sound with Wild Mood Swings, an album that was generally very poorly received. After such results, Smith decided to return once more to the dark beginnings of the band to compose Bloodflowers, the album with which Robert Smith thought to put an end to The Cure. Although this was not the case, Bloodflowers marked the end with the Fiction Records record label, their company since their musical beginnings in 1978.
Bowie's 50th Anniversary Concert
In 1997, Robert Smith received a call from David Bowie, one of his most admired artists from his childhood. Bowie invited Smith to play two songs at his 50th anniversary party on January 9, 1997 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. At first Smith did not believe that it was Bowie himself who had left the message on his answering machine, but Smith returned the call, perplexed. He then found out it was true and agreed to play that show.Smith joined other artists including Lou Reed, The Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan, Foo Fighters and Sonic Youth to sing a duet with Bowie. Songs Smith and Bowie performed together included "The Last Thing You Should Do" from the 1997 album, Earthling—played alongside future Cure member Reeves Gabrels—and "Quicksand" from the album Hunky Dory.
Second stint with The Cure: 2004 to present
At my age, I'm still sad and sinister. —Robert Smith in an interview in 2019. |
During 2004, The Cure signed with Geffen Records and released their self-titled album The Cure. The person responsible for the return of The Cure was Ross Robinson, a famous nu metal music producer who publicly stated that recording with The Cure was his greatest dream. Smith agreed to reunite his band and to go on a world tour, despite his fear of airplanes. During his concerts he could be seen very thick but still with the energy and vocal range of his best times.
In October 2004, Robert Smith was one of three presenters invited by John Peel on BBC Radio 1 a week before the DJ's death. In 2008, Robert Smith released the last studio album to date with his band The Cure titled 4:13 Dream, produced together with Keith Uddin, in which he continued to harden the group's sound to its limits. close to hard rock. Smith announced in 2019 that he plans to release what he has billed as the "new Cure album" with the working title Live From The Moon.
In December 2020, Robert Smith, in the context of a global pandemic (Covid), collaborates by presenting himself through virtual platforms, supporting the initiative: Nine Lessons and Carols for Socially Distanced People 24 Hour Show (Hosted by Robin Ince. Broadcasted live on 12/12/2020). On the occasion, Smith presented from his studio: & # 39; In your house & # 39; and 'Play for today'. As a curious fact, there is the fact of the private circumstances of the presentation and that, perhaps, this is one of the few opportunities in which Robert has appeared solo, playing songs by The Cure. (Another previous opportunity had been at a concert by the band, at the Bilbao BBK Live Festival —Spain, 2012—, in which a technical malfunction had occurred, Smith remained on stage with the rest of the members absent, waiting After a couple of songs, seeing that no solution was found, Smith circumstantially withdrew from the stage, arguing that the concert was by The Cure and not by Robert Smith).
Other musical projects
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Smith has mostly been involved in other musical projects outside of his band. In 1983 he joined Siouxsie And The Banshees and played guitar on the live album Nocturne and in 1984 on the album Hyæna , also with the Banshees. Smith acknowledged his lack of connection to the Siouxsie Sioux character: "My stay in the group was basically because of my friendship with Steve Severin," Smith said. Smith's relationship with the Banshees began in 1979, when The Cure played as the opening act for the Banshees. John McKay, guitarist for the Banshees left the band along with drummer Kenny Morris. Smith then agreed to replace McKay on guitar on the condition that The Cure would open for each show on the tour. According to Banshees bassist Steven Severin, "Robert used that to learn from Siouxsie how to sing in front of an audience."
The Glove
In 1983 the only work released with the supergroup The Glove came to light, Blue Sunshine, a musical project formed together with Steve Severin, bassist of the Banshees and Jeanette Landray as vocalist. The Glove's success was modest and relative; its first single, "Like an animal", reached number 52 on the UK charts and the album peaked at number 35. The Glove's second and final single was "Punish me with kisses"..
COGASM
In 1998 he was part of the musical project COGASM together with drummer Jason Cooper and guitarist Reeves Gabrels. The only resulting work was the single "A Sing From God" included in the soundtrack of the film Orgazmo directed by and starring Trey Parker. This same formation: Cooper/Gabrels/Smith, also recorded during the same recording session "Wrong Number" which is credited to The Cure.
Career
Influences
Among the influences received during his youth, Smith took as models artists such as David Bowie, Thin Lizzy and The Beatles, favorite group of his sister, Margaret. His influence, in terms of music and image, has gone beyond British borders, such as Soda Stereo (Argentina), Caifanes (Mexico), L'Arc~en~Ciel (Japan) or Héroes del Silencio (Spain). Robert Smith is recognized for his image, which deliberately includes red lipstick, bouffant hair, and baggy clothing. Said aesthetic finds its feminine equivalent in Siouxsie Sioux, both being post-punk musicians bearers of this same aesthetic that is influential in the gothic subculture. Robert Smith's image has contributed to The Cure's frequent classification as a gothic band, something Smith rejects even though the band has contributed since the late '70s and early '80s. Smith is also known for his distinctive style of singing and his wide vocal range, since he can easily reach high notes.
Style
The style of Robert Smith, sometimes dark and depressive on albums like Pornography, Faith, Seventeen Seconds, on others more joyful and pop as Japanese Whispers or Wild Mood Swings, has made him known as one of the most representative musicians of British new wave. Always interested in a style of alternative music, Smith composed one of his first works in the same vein at just 26 years old. It was titled The Top , an album with avant-garde tendencies that did not obtain a good first reception among his followers.
In 1992, Robert Smith would once again put his eye on the new alternative music that was playing at that time in England. Wish was marked by a new genre called shoegaze, which emerged in the early 90's on the English scene. The Irish group My Bloody Valentine were the pioneers of this new sound. Robert Smith, a declared admirer of the Irish, even declared in relation to the album Loveless: «My Bloody Valentine was the first band I heard that clearly pissed on us, and their album Loveless is in my top three all-time favorites. It's the sound of someone being so impulsive they're insane. And the fact that they spent so much time and money on this is excellent."
As a composer
Smith's lyrics are often poetic and inscrutable. Smith has stated that they are frequently the result of some altered state of consciousness such as alcohol or sleep.[citation needed] Many of them are also inspired by literature, such as «The Drowning Man» (Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake), «Killing an Arab» (The Stranger by Albert Camus) or «At Night» (based on a short story of the same name, written by Franz Kafka).
"Just Like Heaven" is Smith's favorite pop song that The Cure have written. This song is also one of their most popular with audiences, and the 1987 compilation album, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, has been mentioned by Robert Smith during an interview in 2013 in a Peruvian publication, as his favorite album among all those published by The Cure.
Robert Smith and the cinema
The first contact of the musician and interpreter of The Cure with the cinema dates back to 1994 for the film adaptation of El cuervo. Its creator, James O'Barr, acknowledges having had a direct influence from early The Cure albums such as Seventeen Seconds and Faith in the creation of his series. In fact, one of the comics reproduces the lyrics of the song "The Hanging Garden" from their album Pornography. For the film, Smith and his team composed the song "Burn" as the main theme of the soundtrack of the film directed by Álex Proyas.
In 1995, Smith composed, also with The Cure, a song for the soundtrack of the film Judge Dredd entitled "Dredd Song".
In 1998, again with The Cure, Robert Smith composed a song for the first film version of the The X-Files series entitled "More Than This". These three songs mentioned above were compiled on The Cure's B-sides compilation Join the Dots. During that same year, he formed the musical project COGASM with drummer Jason Cooper and guitarist Reeves Gabrels and they made a song titled "A Sing from God" for the soundtrack of the film Orgazmo .
Robert Smith, performing again with The Cure, recorded the 2004 theme song "The Dragon Hunters" for the Chinese-French animated series Chasseurs de Dragons.
On his own, Robert Smith would record a song for the film Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton, Smith's personal admirer, entitled "Very Good Advice".
Equipment and instruments
The main instrument used by Robert Smith is the electric guitar, although he also often uses the acoustic guitar and, occasionally, the electric bass. He has also played violin live, harmonica on tracks like "The Caterpillar" and "Subway Song" respectively, and rarely keyboards. Other atypical instruments that Smith has played throughout his discography have been the cello —in the song Cold from the album Pornography— or the double-edged flute —in the intro of the song Burn.
In the early 1980s, Smith's usual brand was Fender, more specifically, the Fender Jazzmaster model. He also played regularly with the Telecaster model starting in 1983. He also played repeatedly with Ovation, the models Ovation Breadwinner, Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic, and the Ovation Custom 6- and 12-string. Gibson was also a regular fixture at The Cure concerts. Smith played Gibson Chet Atkins CE, SG Custom, and more.. Philippe Dubreuille Custom Guitars dedicated their Dubreuille R.Smith Signature model to him in their Dubreuille Artist Signature series.
During the 1990s, Smith continued using the same brands and introduced some new ones such as the Gretsch playing the Tennessee Rose model and, already in the 2000s, the Silver Falcon model. The Schecter firm also developed a couple of guitar models inspired by his band called Schecter UltraCure , and Schecter UltraCure Baritone with which Robert Smith usually performs his concerts with The cure.
Discography
I didn't write "Homesick" and I didn't write the music either [... ] Disintegration He may have seen himself as a solo album, but it's not true the way we work in studio. - Robert Smith in an interview in 1989. |
Robert Smith's discography with The Cure comprises 13 albums and 41 singles, maxis, live albums, compilations, remixes and other sonic experiments.
For more than two decades Robert Smith has been hinting at a solo album which never materialized. It is often believed that most of his solo writing ends in The Cure with songs like "Homesick", "Untitled", "Treasure", "Bare", "Going nowhere", but Smith denied this by crediting these songs to other members.
In 2001, Smith said he was going to end The Cure and work on his solo album. But it was the producer Ross Robinson, a great fan of The Cure, who told Smith: "before I die I have to record an album with The Cure". Smith was seduced by that idea and in 2004 he released his self-titled album The Cure. "Making that album reminded me how much I enjoy The Cure and we'll put out another one in October 2006," Smith stated, referring to 4:13 Dream but this one was pushed back to October 2008.
Main collaborations
Robert Smith is, in addition to being a musician and vocalist, a music producer who has always been interested in new trends in alternative music and indie rock.
Smith has always been willing to collaborate with other formations of the indie music scene to his liking. In 1982, Robert Smith and Mike Hedges partially co-produced the group's second demo, And Also the Trees, a British post-punk group musically related to Joy Division or The Chameleons, and who had opened for the Cure themselves during the previous year..
During the nineties, more specifically in 1993, Smith participated in the recording of a remix of 12" for The Cure's opening band, Cranes on the song "Jewel".
In the new millennium, Smith's collaborations are numerous. In 2003 she worked in collaboration with the band Blink-182 on the song "All of this". In 2004, Blank & Jones released the remix of "A Forest" which featured Robert Smith on vocals. Smith himself appeared in the music video. That year he also provided his voice for Junior Jack on the song "Da Hype" and "A Perfect Blue Sky". In November he appeared alongside Placebo onstage at Wembley Arena to sing Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" and The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry." It was the second time that he sang with Brian Molko. The first time, it was during the month of October of that same year with which he sang a duet of The Cure's song, "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" from The Cure's album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me .
In 2005, in a duet with Billy Corgan, the former lead vocal of both The Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, Smith covered the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" on Corgan's first solo release.
In 2007, he collaborated with KoЯn for his unplugged playing a mix between "Make Me Bad" and "In Between Days" and in 2010, Smith participated in the single "Not In Love" with the Canadian group Crystal Castles. She also recorded solo, in March 2010, a song for the soundtrack for the film Alice in Wonderland directed by her declared admirer, the film director Tim Burton, titled "Very Good Advice ».
In 2011, Smith provided vocals for a song by 65daysofstatic from their album We Were Exploding Anyway titled "Come To Me". Also, during the same year she provided her voice for The Japanese Popstars' song, "Take Forever".
In 2015, Robert Smith would collaborate with the Scottish band The Twilight Sad covering one of the songs from their album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave entitled «There's A Girl In The Corner".
In 2020, Robert Smith would collaborate with Gorillaz for the song "Strange Timez" from the album 'Song Machine'.
In June 2021, Smith was featured on the CHVRCHES song "How Not To Drown " from their album Screen Violence.
Curiosa Festival
Curiosa is the name of the 2004 concert tour conducted by Robert Smith. The Cure frontman selected all eleven of the band's opening performances before him. It started with a concert in West Palm Beach Florida on July 24 and ended in Sacramento California on August 29.
The order of the gangs was The Cure, Interpol, The Rapture and Mogwai. The concert had two parts, with the main bands in the first part and the less popular ones in the other. The bands in the second part changed during the tour. The second stage included bands like Muse, Cursive, Head Automatica, Thursday, Scarling, The Cooper Temple Clause and Melissa Auf der Maur.
Private life
Relationship with Mary Poole
Smith met Mary Poole at school at the age of 14. Smith explains that in his class he was asked to choose a partner for an activity. He had the nerve to ask Mary and, as he says, he was in luck. They were married on August 13, 1988 at Worth Abbey, Crawley. The song "Lovesong", included on the album Disintegration, was written as a wedding present for Mary. The couple decided early on in their relationship that they would not have children.
Smith is considered by some to be a depressive person, however this quote discusses that sentiment: “At the time we wrote Disintegration... it was just how I was actually feeling. But I wasn't like this all the time. That's the difficulty of writing songs that are a bit depressing. People think I'm like this all the time but it's not true. I usually write when I'm depressed', said Robert Smith in an interview in 1989.
Political Ideas
During various interviews he has given in various media outlets, the guitarist for The Cure has always declared himself a socialist and anti-monarchist. Smith stated that if British royalty ever granted him any title or honor, he would "cut himself off." hands rather than accept it." During his 2012 tour, he recorded the following phrase on his electric guitar: "2012: Citizens, Not Subjects" (translated into Spanish: "2012: Citizens, not subjects"). He has never hidden in his statements his antipathy towards the British Royal Family, especially towards Prince William and his wife, Duchess Catherine. In 2012 he declared after a concert in Bilbao: "I find it amazing that, in our country, England or Great Britain is considered a modern democracy and we still have this stupid William and Catherine show, it's so discouraging for me...".
Robert Smith's appearances in popular culture
«From my apparition South Park I am famous for my nephews [...] Bastards. » -Robert Smith |
The eccentric and characteristic image of Robert Smith has become an icon and one of the best-known references in popular music. His numerous appearances on television and in the media such as specialized magazines, magazines, etc. have contributed to further increasing his fame.
Film director and avowed admirer of The Cure and of Robert Smith himself, Tim Burton, was inspired by the punk image worn by Robert Smith in his early albums to compose the image of Johnny Depp in the movie Edward Scissorhands (1990). In addition, the director offered Smith the composition of the soundtrack for the film Sleepy Hollow (1999) which the musician had to reject because he was already too involved in the production of Bloodflowers (2000).
Other characters inspired by the iconic image of Robert Smith have been, for example, Eric Draven, protagonist of the saga The Raven, created by James O'Barr, who himself recognizes the influence exercised by Smith and by The Cure in the creation of comics. The character Morpheus from the comic series created by Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, is also inspired by the iconic figure of Smith. Likewise, the character Cheyenne, played by Sean Penn in the film This Must Be The Place, bears a strong resemblance to the singer from The Cure, as stated by the film's director, Paolo Sorrentino.
He appeared as an animated character in the popular animated series South Park, in which he provided the voice for himself on several occasions. During one of the chapters, Kyle's character says to Robert Smith as he walks away over the mountains into the sunset: "Bye, Robert! Thank you so much! Disintegration is the best record ever!
Both The Cure and the figure of Robert Smith have been referenced on multiple occasions on television, mostly by the English channel BBC. In 1984, during an episode of the British sitcom The Young Ones (in Spain broadcast under the title Los jovenes), one of the characters, Neil, the hippy, while he is sick he tells Vyvyan, the punk psycho: "I hope Mike hurries back with the cure!" to the medicines, to which Vyvyan exclaims: "No Neil, it's Madness this week!" (in Spanish: "No Neil, son los Madness this week" During this sitcom, different English groups played in each episode, Vyvyan referred to the group Madness as a joke.
Also on the English channel BBC, in the series The Mighty Boosh, produced in 2004, in the chapter titled Nanageddon, one of the characters who wants to hook up with two Goth girls is forced to use what they call 'Goth Juice': the most potent hairspray known to man made from Robert Smith's tears.
In Spain, the figure of Robert Smith has also been parodied in the program broadcast by La 2, Muchachada Nui. Joaquín Reyes, his creator, imitated him in several programs.
Robert Smith publicly acknowledges that he carries the brand of "The Cure" with him, and does not force the rest of his band to attend interviews or press conferences.[citation needed]
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