Robert Smith (musician)

Robert Smith
Robert Smith playing live with The Cure at The Singapore Indoor Stadium in August 2007
Background information
Birth name	Robert James Smith
Born	21 April 1959 (1959-04-21)
Origin	Blackpool, England
Genres	Alternative rock, post-punk, gothic rock, New Wave
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Glove, Easy Cure, Malice
Website	thecure.com
Notable instruments
Schecter UltraCure Signature Fender Jazzmaster Fender Telecaster Deluxe Fender Bass VI

Robert James Smith (born on 21 April 1959) is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976. NY Rock calls him "pop culture's unkempt poster child of doom and gloom", and describes his songs as "sombre introspection over lush, brooding guitars".

His intricate guitar playing and innovative use of flanging, chorusing and phasing effects has led him to be considered a pioneer guitarist in the goth and New Wave genres.^{[citation needed]} He also played in the band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Besides guitar, Smith plays the 6-string bass and keyboards.

He is also known for his appearance - teased hair, black clothes, pale skin, smudged red lipstick and black eyeliner - as well as his distinctive voice.^{[citation needed]}

Early years and personal life

Smith was born in Blackpool and is the third of four children born to Alex and Rita Smith. His siblings are Richard, Margaret and Janet. When he was three years old his family moved to Horley in Surrey, then finally to Crawley in Sussex four years later.^{[citation needed]} Smith was raised as a Catholic and went to Notre Dame Middle School and St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive School in Crawley. He was an accomplished student who maintained high marks^{[citation needed]}, but after he began playing guitar at the age of 11 his primary focus quickly became his music. He was influenced by The Beatles, Nick Drake, Jimi Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, The Stranglers, Wire, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Ink Spots, The Statler Brothers, Syd Barrett, Joy Division and David Bowie.^{[citation needed]}

Smith's sister Janet was married to Porl Thompson, the erstwhile "second" guitarist of The Cure. Smith has been married to his childhood sweetheart, Mary Poole, since 1988.

Role in The Cure

Main article: The Cure

When The Cure was first formed, Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist; he only began singing after the original singer left and the group could not find a suitable replacement.^{[citation needed]} From the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Smith composed some of The Cure's songs on a Hammond organ with a built-in tape recorder, including a complete demo of the song "10:15 Saturday Night".

Smith has written or co-written the bulk of the band's music and lyrics over its thirty-year lifespan. With Lol Tolhurst, Smith wrote such songs as "The Lovecats", "Let's Go to Bed", and "The Walk". He wrote the album The Top between stints as Siouxsie and the Banshees' guitarist. Smith has co-produced most of the band's material.

Stage persona and image

Smith began sporting his trademark style of smeared red lipstick, eye-liner, pale complexion, artfully dishevelled black hair, black clothes and trainers in the early 1980s, around the same time as the Goth subculture got its start. However, Smith denies any link and claims it is a coincidence that the styles are similar, stating that he has worn make-up since he was young and saying, "It's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure."

His songwriting for the band's early albums centered around themes of depression, loneliness, and isolation.^{[citation needed]} The sombre mood of these early albums, along with Smith's on-stage persona, cemented the band's "gothic" image.

The band's aesthetic went from gloomy to psychedelic beginning with the album The Top. In 1986, Smith further altered his image by appearing on-stage and in press photos sporting short spiky hair and polo shirts (this can be seen in The Cure in Orange, a concert in the south of France released on video in 1987). His new haircut made the headlines on MTV news.

Although Smith's public persona suggests a depressed image, he has said that his songs do not convey how he feels all, or even most, of the time:

"At the time we wrote Disintegration ... it's just about what I was doing really, how I felt. But I'm not like that all the time. That's the difficulty of writing songs that are a bit depressing. People think you're like that all the time, but I don't think that. I just usually write when I'm depressed."

Personal life

He now resides in Aldwick, West Sussex with his wife, Mary Poole.^{[citation needed]}

Vocal styles

In the band's earliest period, Smith used a soft vocal style on the demos of "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Boys Don't Cry", and a frenetic punk style on "I Just Need Myself". Both of those styles were left behind as a third emerged during the production of the band's debut album, Three Imaginary Boys.^{[citation needed]} This new sound, which can be heard on most of the final versions of songs from that period, became the signature Smith sound, which he generally employed until the 2000 album Bloodflowers. Around that time, Smith said he wanted to improve his singing, the opposite of his goal in 1984: he remarked in the documentary Ten Imaginary Years that he tried to sing badly on the album The Top.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the gothic "gloom and doom" image often tagged onto Smith, he has proven himself to be able to sing up-tempo songs. Examples include "Friday I'm in Love" and "Mint Car".

Songwriting styles

Smith in San Francisco, California in October 1985

Smith's songwriting has shown a range of styles and themes over the years. Some songs incorporate literary paraphrase, such as Camus' novel L'Etranger in "Killing an Arab" (1978)), and "How Beautiful You Are" (1987), based on a poem by Baudelaire. Others involve punk metafiction ("So What"), surrealism ("Accuracy"), straightforward rock/pop ("Boys Don't Cry", "I'm Cold"), and poetic mood pieces ("Another Day" and "Fire in Cairo"). In subsequent decades, Smith explored more poetic moods, which accorded with New Order and other bands of that genre.

Smith's songwriting is sometimes pop-oriented, for example "Love Cats" and "Catch". However, even Smith's seemingly upbeat singles often contain dark themes; for example, "In Between Days" contrasts a bouncy pop-rock beat with lyrics about sadness and heartbreak.^{[citation needed]}

Although Smith is the main songwriter with the Cure, the songwriting credit is usually shared with the members of the current line-up.

In an interview in 2000, Smith said that "there is one particular kind of music, an atmospheric type of music, that I enjoy making with the Cure. I enjoy it a lot more than any other kind of sound". When Smith was asked about the 'sound' of his songwriting, Smith said that he did not "... think there is such a thing as a typical Cure sound. I think there are various Cure sounds from different periods and different line-ups."

Collaborations

Smith has also been involved in other musical projects, including stints in 1979 and 1982–84 as guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a side project in 1983 with Banshee bassist Steven Severin called The Glove.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980, Smith sang backing vocals on the song "The Affectionate Punch" on the Associates' debut album The Affectionate Punch. At the time, the Associates were also signed to Fiction Records. The Cure song, "Cut Here", is about the Associates' singer Billy MacKenzie's suicide.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992-1993 Smith formed a friendship with The Cranes, whom he asked to open shows on The Wish Tour to support the Wish album. Smith later contributed some guitar work on an alternate version of The Cranes' "Jewel" single.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, Smith formed a "one-off" side project with Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels under the name COGASM, releasing the track "A Sign from God" for the film Orgazmo. In 2000, Smith contributed to the track "Yesterday's Gone" on Reeves Gabrels' solo album Ulysses (Della Notte).^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Smith collaborated with the pop punk band Blink-182 on the track "All of This" on their self-titled Blink-182 album. He also provided vocals for Junior Jack for the club hit "Da Hype".^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, Smith co-wrote and supplied vocals for the Tweaker song "Truth Is". Smith collaborated again with Junior Jack on a remix of "Da Hype", featured on the album Trust It. Blank & Jones remixed "A Forest" featuring Smith on vocals. He was also featured as a vocalist and co-writer on JunkieXL's "Perfect Blue Sky".^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Smith teamed up with Billy Corgan, lead singer and lead guitarist of both The Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" on Corgan's first solo release, TheFutureEmbrace.^{[citation needed]}

Smith also provides guest vocals to the track "Come to Me" on the 65daysofstatic album We Were Exploding Anyway, released in 2010.

Smith has provided guest vocals for the single version of Crystal Castles song "Not in Love", released on December 6, 2010.

In 2011 Smith collaborated with The Japanese Popstars on their track "Take Forever".^{[citation needed]}

Guest appearances

In 1993, Smith appeared as himself in the BBC2 comedy show Newman & Baddiel In Pieces. Standing by a grave, Smith—who was often fondly parodied by the two comedians—says "I've never felt so miserable".

On 9 January 1997, Smith joined David Bowie on stage at Bowie's 50th Birthday Party concert at Madison Square Garden to duet on two Bowie songs, "The Last Thing You Should Do" and "Quicksand".

In 2004, Smith stood in as one of three guest presenters for John Peel on BBC Radio 1, a week before Peel's death. In November, he joined Placebo on stage at their Wembley arena gig to sing the band's hit song "Without You I'm Nothing", as well as the Cure staple "Boys Don't Cry".^{[citation needed]}

Also in 2004 Smith made a guest appearance with the popular pop-punk band Blink-182 to perform the song "All of This" and The Cure hit "Boys Don't Cry".^{[citation needed]}

Smith along with his band, joined Korn onstage for the band's unplugged performance in 2006 where they played a mashup of Korn song "Make Me Bad" and Cure song "In Between Days".

He was also in an episode of South Park, in which he battles "Mecha" Barbra Streisand in a battle that completely destroys the town of South Park. Smith looks very similar to Mothra of the Godzilla movies, but has the ability of "robot punch" to take out the "Godzilla (Mecha) version" of Streisand. In one scene, he offers to roshambo Cartman in order to get his Walkie-Talkie back, and immediately kicks Cartman in the groin, causing him to drop the walkie-talkie. At the end of the episode as Smith walks off into the sunset, Kyle remarks "Disintegration is the best album ever!" In recording the lines for the episode, Trey Parker and Matt Stone deliberately did not provide any context for his lines, for a more humorous effect.^{[citation needed]}

He also has a guest spot on the soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. His track on "Almost Alice" is titled "Very Good Advice" which is a cover of one of the songs from the 1951 film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Smith appeared on 65daysofstatic's fourth album We Were Exploding Anyway on the song, "Come to Me". The major shift from math rock to electronica and dance music in the album is believed to be partially due to influence from The Cure after the two toured on The Cure's 2009 tour. Smith was also going to be on the third studio album This Is War of US rock band 30 Seconds To Mars but at the time Smith was busy.^{[citation needed]} Smith also appeared on The Japanese Popstars single 'Take Forever' released on Virgin Records on September 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Cultural references

The look of the main character in This Must Be the Place (film) is inspired by Smith's appearance.

The song "Robert Smith in meiner Kneipe" by German singer/songwriter Tommy Finke is mainly about Smith coming into a fictional bar and drinking beer with the singer/songwriter. In the music video, an actor dresses like a stereotyped version of Smith.

Discography

Band discography

With The Cure

See The Cure discography from 1976 (start) to present

With The Glove

• Blue Sunshine (1983)

With Siouxsie and the Banshees

• Nocturne (1983)
• Hyæna (1984)

External links

• Robert Smith at Pictures of You
• Robert Smith interview at Stereo Warning
• Robert Smith discography at Discogs
• Robert Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Smith at BFI Film & TV Database