Elliott Smith was known for his emotionally evocative and often vulnerable songwriting. As such, there’s one particular artist to thank for inspiring Smith to be authentic during his life. The connection may seem surprising, but to hear Smith tell it, he owed a lot to Elvis Costello.

Speaking with Barney Hoskyns in 1998, Smith revealed his early love for Costello. “There’s a bunch of Elvis Costello records that, when I was in high school, just made all the difference between feeling like a total freak and feeling like only a freak,” he explained.

For Elliott Smith, hearing Elvis Costello’s unapologetic freakness allowed him to feel like he fit in somewhere. Instead of being an outcast, he was then “a freak among other freaks,” said Smith.

Elliott Smith Found Connection with Elvis Costello, but didn’t understand the paul simon comparisons

When Elliott Smith was in the band Heatmiser, which began in 1991, he was stuck performing in a certain vocal style that didn’t mesh with what he really liked. He described it as sounding like he always had a cold, that he was constantly singing with both lungs. A far cry from the softer vocals he would become known for.

He then explained that he had been making songs in his room for a while but didn’t think anyone would be interested. Eventually, he “got over that” and began sharing his music. From there, some strange comparisons began cropping up. The first being the all-encompassing “folk” label Smith was slapped with.

“That really bothered me right at first, when I first started playing,” he said with a laugh. “People would be like ‘Paul Simon,’ [and] I’d be like ‘I don’t feel like I’m anything like Paul Simon.’”

Smith then went on to describe his writing perspective, specifically about addiction. “But it’s not like, a diary or anything,” he clarified, after stating that he writes from a subjective point of view. “I think everybody has those two irreconcilable [impulses constantly] doing battle with themselves that way, every day, all the time, and sometimes it sucks.”

He continued, “But other times it results in people making sort of a dream comprehensible to someone else. People … seem so chaotic internally but being filtered through some form of, like making a record, sort of filters it down into something that can be understood.”

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