Vanessa Quinones

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Vanessa Quinones (born 1975 in Paris), sometimes known under the musical alias Vanessa St. James, is a London-based singer-songwriter. From 1992 onwards she mainly recorded as the primary member of the musical project Espiritu, assisted by former Frazier Chorus member Chris Taplin. In 2003, she co-founded the band Vanessa and the O's.

[edit] Biography

Quinones was influenced by a variety of music early on in life, having been raised in the Canary Islands before returning to Paris (releasing her first album by the age of 16), then moving to England. She settled first in Brighton and then in London, performing at local nightclubs and absorbing the dance music culture.

Signing a recording contract with Heavenly Records (then in a distribution deal with Arista Records, subsidiary of Sony Music) in 1992, Quinones and Taplin released a number of singles as Espiritu: "Francisca" (remixed by Farley & Heller), "Conquistador" (remixed by The Sabres of Paradise), and "Los Americanos" (remixed by Mark Stent), all of which failed to chart in the UK. Meanwhile, the Heavenly/Sony deal ended and Espiritu was dropped from the label. However, Quinones then signed on with Japan's Toshiba-EMI, and the first Espiritu album, Always... were subsequently released in Japan only in 1995. A cover of Burt Bacharach's "Always Something There to Remind Me" from Always..., credited to Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu, went to #14 on the UK single charts, while the album itself reached #1 in Japan.

Drum and bass influences were to be found on the next three Espiritu singles, and the second album Another Life, released after re-signing with Heavenly (now newly acquired by Deconstruction Records). After poor chart performances, Espiritu was dropped again.

In 1999, a cover of the Carly Simon song "Why" was released on EMI Music Germany. In 2000, Quinones sang on the Dario G song "Voices" on the soundtrack to the Leonardo DiCaprio film The Beach. 2001 saw the Cream Records release of "In Praise of the Sun", by the Mr. Joshua Presents Espiritu collaboration, and co-written by Nick Bracegirdle, better known as the dance artist Chicane. Subsequently Espiritu was recruited to re-record the song for the unreleased 2003 Chicane album Easy to Assemble.

Also in 2003, a meeting with James Iha (of A Perfect Circle and formerly the Smashing Pumpkins), Andreas Mattson (of Popsicle) and Niclas Frisk (of Atomic Swing) in Manhattan resulted in the formation of the band Vanessa and the O's.

[edit] References

Biography. www.espiritu.demon.co.uk at the Wayback Machine (August 1999). Retrieved on April 7, 2006.
Kelly, Martin and Robin Turner. Artists' Biographies: Espiritu. Heavenly Records. Retrieved on April 7, 2006.