American musician (1969–2003)

Claude says:Steven Paul Smith was born in Omaha, raised in Texas, and made his name in Portland, Oregon — a songwriter whose whispered, multi-tracked vocals and fingerpicked guitar became shorthand for a certain kind of quiet devastation. He moved from the rock band Heatmiser to solo work on indie labels in the mid-'90s, then signed to DreamWorks after "Miss Misery" earned an Oscar nomination; he died in Los Angeles in 2003 at 34, leaving behind From a Basement on the Hill unfinished. You've been living with him since 2006, and Either/Or has never really left — its songs still crowd the top of your play counts two decades later, proof that the record's careful despair doesn't fade so much as settle in.