Bass guitarist with TV On the Radio
Gerard Smith, who has died from lung cancer aged 36, was the bassist with the acclaimed New York rock group TV On the Radio. He died little more than a week after the band released their fourth studio album, Nine Types of Light. TV On the Radio drew attention partly for their music's intelligence and complex layering of sound, but also because there are few popular black rock groups, and four of the five band members were African-American. They created a sparse, powerful art rock quite unlike that produced by any of their contemporaries.
Smith, who grew up on Long Island, New York, was a self-taught musician who played the piano, bass, organ, classical guitar and sitar. He studied fine arts but became disillusioned. "I had a difficult time, to say the least, toward the end of my fine arts career," he told LA Record in 2008. "I started to look around and see that I was one of the few – if not the only – black fine arts students and I saw that again in the art world itself." Smith subsequently spent several years working as a street performer and was busking in the New York subway when Tunde Adebimpe recruited him for TV On the Radio.
The band had been founded by David Sitek and Adebimpe, who shared an interest in painting and experimental music. Their self-produced and promoted 2002 album OK Calculator (the title a nod to the British band Radiohead) attracted enough attention to win them a contract with Touch and Go Records. Joined by the guitarist Kyp Malone, they recorded Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, the 2004 album regarded as their official debut. It garnered critical acclaim and won the Shortlist prize, America's equivalent of the Mercury.
Seeking out a permanent rhythm section, they hired Smith and the drummer Jaleel Bunton. Smith's solid and melodic bass locked with Bunton's drums to provide an anchor for the band's epic, fluid songs. The 2006 album Return to Cookie Mountain established TV On the Radio internationally. David Bowie sang backing vocals on one track and Spin magazine declared it album of the year.
Dear Science (2008), named best album of the year by several publications (including the Guardian), found them creating a less challenging, more radio-friendly music. Heavy touring to promote the album exhausted the band and they took a year off to pursue separate projects. Smith and Adebimpe wrote the score for the 2010 documentary feature The Lottery before the band regrouped to record Nine Types of Light.
Smith is survived by his parents and his son, Julian.
• Gerard Smith, bass guitarist, born 1975; died 20 April 2011