Robert Smith

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Biography

Robert James Smith (born on 21 April 1959) is a British musician. He is the lead singer , guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock music|rock band The Cure , and its only constant member since its formation in 1976. NY Rock describes him as "pop culture's unkempt poster child of doom and gloom", and asserts that some of his songs are a "somber introspection over lush, brooding guitars".

His guitar-playing and use of flanging , chorus effect|chorusing and phaser (effect)|phasing effects put him amongst the forefront of the gothic rock|Goth and New Wave music|New Wave genres. He also played in the band Siouxsie and the Banshees . Besides guitar, Smith plays the Fender Bass VI|6-string bass and keyboard instrument|keyboards .

Smith cultivated his own look - teased hair, black clothes, pale skin, smudged red lipstick and black eyeliner - but it is perhaps his distinctive voice for which he is best known.

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.Smith was raised as a Roman Catholic Church|Catholic and went to Schools in Crawley, West Sussex#Secondary schools|Notre Dame Middle School and St Wilfrid's Catholic School, Crawley|St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive School in Crawley . He was an accomplished student who attained high marks, but after he began playing guitar at the age of 11 his main focus quickly became his music. His influences were The Beatles , Nick Drake , Jimi Hendrix , Thin Lizzy , The Stranglers , Wire (band)|Wire , Buzzcocks , Siouxsie and the Banshees , The Ink Spots , The Statler Brothers , Syd Barrett , Joy Division and David Bowie .

Smith's sister Janet married to Porl Thompson , the erstwhile "second" guitarist of The Cure, and Robert married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Poole, in 1988.

Role in The Cure

When The Cure was first formed, Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist; he began singing after the original singer left the band and fell into the role somewhat by default, since no better replacement appeared. 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 six-year lifespan. With Lol Tolhurst , Smith wrote such songs as " The Love Cats (song)|The Love Cats ", " Let's Go to Bed (The Cure song)|Let's Go to Bed ", and " The Walk (The Cure song)|The Walk ". He put together the album The Top (album)|The Top between stints playing guitar with Siouxsie and the Banshees . Smith has co-produced most of the band's material.

Stage persona and image

Smith began sporting his trademark and cult 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 took off. However, Smith denies any credit for this trend and claims it is a coincidence that the styles are similar, stating that he wore make-up since he was young and further 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 clinical depression|depression , loneliness, and isolation. The sombre mood of these early albums, along with Smith's on-stage persona, cemented the band's " gothic rock|gothic " image.

The band's aesthetic went from gloomy to psychedelic beginning with the album The Top (album)|The Top . In 1986, Smith 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). This new haircut made the headlines on MTV news. http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/the-cure-biography/272826fee27fcf974825683100151947

Although Smith's public persona could be deemed to portray a depressed image, he has claimed 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." a July 1989 interview for the French fanzine Three Imaginary Boys

Personal life

Smith now resides in Aldwick , West Sussex with his wife, Mary Poole.

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 (song)|Boys Don't Cry ", and a frenetic punk rock|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 . 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 (album)|The Top .

Songwriting styles

Smith's songwriting has developed a range of styles and themes throughout his career. Some songs incorporate literary paraphrase, such as Albert Camus|Camus ' novel '' The Stranger (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 has sometimes been pop-oriented, for example "Love Cats" and "Catch". However, even Smith's seemingly upbeat tunes invariably contain dark themes; for example, " In Between Days " contrasts a bouncy pop-rock beat with lyrics about sadness and heartbreak.
Although Smith is the main songwriter with the Cure, songwriting credits are usually shared with the band's contemporary 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 , as well as a side project in 1983 with Banshee bassist Steven Severin called The Glove .

In 1980, Smith sang backing vocals to the song "The Affectionate Punch" on The Associates (band)|Associates ' debut album The Affectionate Punch . At the time, The Associates were also signed to Fiction Records . The Cure song, " Cut Here ", alludes to The Associates' singer Billy MacKenzie 's suicide.
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.
In 1998, Smith formed a "one-off" side project with Jason Cooper (musician)|Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels under the name COGASM , releasing the track "A Sign from God" for the film Orgazmo . Smith also contributed to and sang the track "Yesterday's Gone" on Reeves Gabrels' album Ulysses (Della Notte) released in 1999 via Internet and in 2000 on CD by E-Magine.

In 2003, Smith collaborated with the pop punk band Blink-182 on the track "All of This" on their self-titled Blink-182 (album)|Blink-182 album. He also provided vocals for Junior Jack for the club hit "Da Hype".
In 2004, Smith co-wrote and supplied vocals for the Tweaker (music)|Tweaker song "Truth Is". Smith collaborated again with Junior Jack on a remix of "Da Hype", featured on the album Trust It (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".
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 (song)|To Love Somebody " on Corgan's first solo release, TheFutureEmbrace .
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 (band)|Crystal Castles song " Not in Love (Platinum Blond song)|Not in Love ", released on 6 December 2010.

In 2011 Smith collaborated with The Japanese Popstars on their track "Take Forever".

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 (David Bowie song)|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 (band)|Placebo on stage at their Wembley Arena gig to sing the band's hit song " Without You I'm Nothing (song)|Without You I'm Nothing ", as well as The Cure staple "Boys Don't Cry".
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".
Smith along with The Cure|his band , joined Korn onstage for MTV Unplugged: Korn|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 Mecha-Streisand|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 (franchise)|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 Broflovski|Kyle remarks " Disintegration (The Cure album)|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, Smith states that Kyle claiming Disintegration (The Cure album)|Disintegration to be the best album ever as one of his "Happiest moments"
He also has a guest spot on the soundtrack to '' Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)|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 Alice in Wonderland (1951 Film)|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 The Cure's influence after the two toured on The Cure's 2009 tour.
He 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.Smith also appeared on The Japanese Popstars single 'Take Forever' released on Virgin Records on September 2011.

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 going into a fictional bar and drinking beer with the singer/songwriter. In the music video, an actor dresses like a stereotyped-version of Smith.

Comedy duo The Mighty Boosh referenced Smith in Season 2 of their TV series - in the episode " Nanageddon ", Howard appeals to Vince for help with his hairstyle, and Vince offers him a can of hairspray called 'Goth Juice', which he describes as "the most powerful hairspray known to man. Made from the tears of Robert Smith."
Smith appears in "Mecha-Streisand" the 12th episode of the first season of the animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 18, 1998. In the episode, Barbra Streisand obtains the Diamond of Panthios from the South Park boys and transforms into a giant mechanical dinosaur called Mecha-Streisand. She is ultimately defeated by Smith, who himself transforms into a giant moth monster.

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 (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)|Nocturne (1983)

Hyæna (1984)

Copyright Citations

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1. The Glove 2. Junkie XL 3. That Petrol Emotion 4. Billy Corgan 5. Perry Bamonte 6. Porl Thompson 7. Bloodflowers 8. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me 9. Mixed Up 10. Wild Mood Swings 11. MTV Unplugged 12. Mae 13. Junior Jack 14. The Bee Gees 15. Baby Brother 16. Jacknife Lee 17. Blank & Jones 18. Far Less 19. Scarling 20. Jimmy Fallon 21. Brighton 22. George Smith 23. Mystery Science Theater 3000 24. Presence 25. Renato Russo

Undetermined Music Artists