Heather Nova
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Heather Nova | ||
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 Oyster album cover
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Heather Allison Frith | |
| Born | July 6, 1967 (age 39) |
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| Origin | Bermuda | |
| Genre(s) | Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar | |
| Years active | 1990 – Present | |
| Label(s) | WORK, V2, ... | |
| Website | heathernova.com | |
Heather Nova, born Heather Allison Frith, (Bermuda; July 6, 1967) is a singer-songwriter and poet.
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[edit] Biography
Nova was born in Bermuda. Her father's family history on the island dates back 300 years, while her mother is of Canadian origin. Nova spent most of her childhood with her family (including one sister, television reporter Susannah, and one brother, reggae singer Mishka) on a 40 ft (12 m) boat built by her father, where the Friths spent most of the 1970s and part of the 1980s, sailing throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean waters and coasts.
Nova started playing guitar and violin at a very early age, writing her first song when she was 12. Her family relocated to New England where she attended the Putney School in Putney, Vermont. Following her graduation in 1983, Nova enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she majored in film in 1989. She also sat in on poetry classes and wrote music to go with her student films. Later, she would forego film study to focus on creating music.
[edit] Career
After graduating from RISD, Nova briefly relocated to New York City (where she unsuccessfully tried to interest some major labels in a demo), before moving to London, England, a place she called home for twelve years (she already had British citizenship due to her Bermudian origins). In 1990, she released her first recording, Heather Frith, an EP; she had not yet changed her name. The name change came a year or so later, when she chose a name that would be easily pronounceable in every European language, "Nova".
The new name debuted in 1993 with her second EP Spirit in You and her first full album, the critically acclaimed Glow Stars. The success of the album led her to record and release her first live album Blow the same year, which she supported by a tour of Europe. In 1994, she released what many consider to be her finest work to date, the emotional yet jagged album Oyster, for which she toured for almost two years. Another live album, Live from the Milky Way, was released in 1995. Siren, the long-awaited follow up to Oyster, was released in 1998, after which she joined Sarah McLachlan and others on the North American Lilith Fair, a music festival with only female performers.
After the release of Siren and a world tour to promote the record, Nova took a break while various television show and film soundtracks licensed some of her songs and her record company (Sony Records/The WORK Group) released various singles from the album, which received only moderate play on America's MTV2, Europe's MTV and Canada's MuchMusic and on mainstream radio, although she was popular on college radio. Also during this time, she recorded a version of the often covered traditional song "Gloomy Sunday", for the German WWII feature film drama Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod (released under the International title Gloomy Sunday). She released yet another live album, Wonderlust, in 2000.
Over the years, Nova has written and recorded over 100 songs. With the release of South (2001), she returned to the international spotlight with an appearance on the soundtrack of the John Cusack movie Serendipity, a couple of music videos, and a collaboration with Swedish indiepop band Eskobar, for a song called "Someone New". Its music video, which proved so popular that it was played primarily on America's MTV, not just MTV2 (which is normally reserved for less-popular songs). Storm, Nova's fifth studio album, was released in late 2003 on Big Cat Records, as was her latest record Redbird, released in 2005.
In December 2005, Nova released Together As One, an EP supporting the Bermuda Sloop Foundation. The EP was only available in Bermuda shops and from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De.
In 2002, she self-published the sorrowjoy, a 72-page book of her poetry and drawings. An album of the same name was released in March 2006, which featured Nova reading the poems from her book set to ambient music. The album has only been available for purchase at concerts beginning with the Intimate Evening tour, from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De, and from the official website, HeatherNova.Com.
[edit] Personal life
Nova lives in Bermuda with her husband, music producer Felix Tod, and their son Sebastian (born in 2004).
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Glow Stars (1993)
- Blow (live, 1993)
- Oyster (1994)
- Siren (1998)
- Wonderlust (live, 2000)
- South (2001)
- Storm (2003)
- Redbird (2005)
- the sorrowjoy (2006)
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song |
|---|---|
| 1994 | "Walk This World" |
| 1995 | "Maybe An Angel" |
| 1996 | "Truth and Bone" |
| 1998 | "London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do)" |
| 1998 | "Heart & Shoulder" |
| 1999 | "I'm The Girl" |
| 1999 | "Gloomy Sunday" |
| 2001 | "I'm No Angel" (2-parts) |
| 2002 | "Someone New" with Eskobar |
| 2002 | "Virus of the Mind" |
| 2003 | "River of Life" |
| 2005 | "Welcome" |
[edit] EPs
- These Walls (1990); reissued in 1997 as The First Recording
- Spirit In You (1993)
- Live From The Milky Way (1995)
- Together As One (2005); a fundraiser for the Bermuda Sloop Foundation
[edit] Books
- the sorrowjoy, ISBN 0-9542115-0-2
