Ben Kweller Archives - TURN UP THE VOLUME

BEN KWELLER And THE FLAMING LIPS Get Together For Heartbreaking Ballad ‘KILLER BEE’ For The Late 17 Year Young Talent NELL SMITH

Posted on May 4, 2025 by JL

Reveries for Sundays

4 May 2025

Artist: BEN KWELLER
Who: Renowned San Francisco-born
singer-songwriter.

Last year, highly talented 17-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter
Nell Smith, was hit by fatal fate, when she died in a car crash accident.

A couple of years ago, as a dedicated The Flaming Lips fan she got in contact
with the Oklahoma band and they recorded a Nick Cave covers album together
in 2021, she was just 14. Her solo album Anxious was posthumously released
2 weeks ago.

Unfortunately, Kweller knows the pain of losing a teenage child. His 16-year old son
also passed away after a car accident. It happened two years ago. Via the Flaming Lips,
Ben met Nell‘s family, and afterward he wrote this goosebumps song for her. It’ll be on
his new album Cover The Mirrors, that appears on 23rd May, on his lost son’s birthday.

Heartbreaking.

Instagram – Linktree

BEN KWELLER Dedicates New Ballad ‘KILLER BEE’ To The Unfortunate 17-Year Old Songstress NELL SMITH

Posted on April 13, 2025 by JL

13 April 2025

Press

Back in 2021, highly skilled UK-born and US-based, musical teenager NELL SMITH recorded at the age of 13-year an album, named Where The Viaduct Looms with Oklahoma’s eccentric legends The Flaming Lips.

Frontman Wayne Coyne spotted her at one point as she attended several gigs with her father. They got in touch with each other and after Coyne found out that she’s a singer he proposed her to work with the band on a Nick Cave tribute album he already had in mind for some time.

.
Last October, the worst happened when Nell died in a vehicle motor crash,
only 17. Her debut LP, titled Anxious was released posthumously last Friday.

Also now, San Francisco songsmith BEN KWELLER has shared a goosebumps ballad, named KILLER BEE. A track from his upcoming 7th full-length Cover The Mirrors. It features backing vocals by The Flaming Lips.

His first new music since the sudden passing
of his 16-year-old son Dorian Zev in 2023.

Kweller: “Today we release the song ‘Killer Bee’ in memory of Nell Smith. Nell was
a gifted artist who marched to the beat of her own drum. Like my son Dorian, she was
taken from us out of nowhere, driving alone, freak car accident, 17 years old. Grief makes
us feel isolated and the weight seems too heavy to carry alone. Community reunites and
lifts us up. Love on your people today and every day.”

Heartbreaking.

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