| Fiona Apple | |
|---|---|
Apple performing in Seattle in 2006 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart |
| Born | September 13, 1977 Manhattan, New York, United States |
| Genres | Baroque pop Alternative rock Experimental rock Jazz Fusion |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Piano, optigan, vocals |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Epic |
| Website | Fiona-Apple.com |
Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success. At the age of nineteen she received a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single "Criminal" from that album in 1998.
After Tidal, Apple released the critically acclaimed, though less commercially successful albums, When the Pawn... (1999) and Extraordinary Machine (2005). A perceived shelving of Extraordinary Machine was met with vocal protests from her fans, who campaigned against her record label in 2005. Apple's musical style contains elements of jazz and alternative rock. Her musical output has been praised and given her a cult following.[1]
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Born in New York City, Apple is the daughter of singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart. Her older sister, Amber, sings cabaret under the stage name Maude Maggart. Her half brother Spencer is a director and directed the video for her single "Parting Gift". Her half brother Garett Maggart starred in the TV series The Sentinel. In addition, her maternal grandparents were Millicent Green, a dancer with the George White's Scandals, a series of 1920s musical revues similar to the Ziegfeld Follies, and Johnny McAfee, a multireedist and vocalist of the big band era; her grandparents met while touring with Johnny Hamp and his orchestra. Apple was raped at the age of 12, a trauma she would later allude to in songs such as "Sullen Girl".[2][3]
Apple was introduced to the music industry in 1994 when she gave a demo tape containing the songs "Never Is a Promise", "Not One of Those Times", and "He Takes A Taxi" to her friend who was the babysitter of music publicist Kathryn Schenker.[2] Schenker then passed the tape along to Sony Music executive Andy Slater.[4] Apple's contralto [5][6] voice, piano skills and lyrics captured his attention, and Slater signed her to a record deal.[7]
In 1996, Apple's debut album, Tidal, was released by Work. The album sold 2.7 million copies and was certified three times platinum in the U.S.[8][9] "Criminal", the third single, became a hit and the song reached the top forty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song's controversial Mark Romanek-directed music video — in which a scantily-clad Apple appeared in a '70s-era tract house — played on MTV. Apple later said: "I decided if I was going to be exploited, then I would do the exploiting myself."[10] Other singles from Tidal included "Shadowboxer," "Sleep to Dream," and "Never Is a Promise." In 1997, while accepting MTV Video Music Award for "Best New Artist" for her song Sleep to Dream, Apple said: 'This world is bullshit, and you shouldn't model your life on what we think is cool, and what we're wearing and what we're saying'.[11] The New Yorker and NYRock characterized her MTV Award show speech as ungrateful and "ridiculous".[2][5] Apple was unapologetic: "I just had something on my mind and I just said it. And that's really the foreshadowing of my entire career and my entire life. When I have something to say, I'll say it" she said responding to these criticisms in an article in Rolling Stone in January 1998.[12]
During this period, Apple also made recordings of The Beatles' "Across the Universe" and Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love" for the soundtrack of the film Pleasantville. She later canceled the last twenty-one dates on a tour in support of her album due to "personal family problems".[13]
Apple's second album, When the Pawn..., was released in 1999. Its full title is a poem Apple wrote after reading letters that appeared in Spin regarding an article that had cast her in a negative light in an earlier issue.[14] The title's length earned it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records for 2001. However, as of October 2007, it is no longer the longest album title, as Soulwax released Most of the Remixes, a remix album whose title surpasses When the Pawn...s length by 100 characters.[15] When the Pawn was cultivated during Apple's relationship with film director Paul Thomas Anderson. When the Pawn..., which was produced by Jon Brion, used more expressive lyrics, experimented more with drum loops, and incorporated both the Chamberlin and drummer Matt Chamberlain.[16] The album received a positive reception from publications such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone. It did not fare as well commercially as her debut, though it was an RIAA-certified platinum album[8] and sold 1 million copies in the U.S.[9] The album's lead single, "Fast as You Can", reached the top 20 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and became Apple's first Top 40 hit in the UK. The videos for two follow-up singles, "Paper Bag" and "Limp" (directed by then-boyfriend Anderson), received very little play.
After performing for 40 minutes in a set hampered by equipment issues to 3,000 fans at the New York City Roseland Ballroom, a frustrated Apple left the stage without returning. Her performance saw Apple appearing distraught at the sound quality, apologizing numerous times for the sound and crying.[17] The incident was described by AOL as "music's most infamous on-stage meltdown".[18] After completing a concert tour in support of her second album in 2000, Apple relocated to Los Angeles. During her hiatus, Apple contemplated retiring from her recording career. In spring 2002 Apple and Jon Brion, her longtime friend and producer on When the Pawn, met for their weekly lunch meeting. Brion reportedly "begged" Apple to make another album. Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, Epic Records, with strict stipulations (including no deadline), which the label eventually agreed to. A tentative November 2002 release date was then set.
Apple sang with Johnny Cash on a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" that ended up on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals". She also collaborated with Cash on Cat Stevens's "Father and Son", which was included in his 2003 collection Unearthed.
Apple's third album, Extraordinary Machine, was originally produced by Jon Brion. Recording sessions began in 2002 at Ocean Way studios in Nashville, Tennessee, but later moved to the Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles. Work on the album continued until 2003, and in May of that year it was submitted to Sony executives. In 2004 and 2005, tracks were leaked on the Internet in MP3 format and played on U.S. and international radio. Subsequently, MP3s of the entire album went online. Although a website distributing the album was quickly taken offline,[19] it soon reached P2P networks and was downloaded by fans.[20] A fan-led campaign supported the album's official release. Mike Elizondo, who had previously played bass on Pawn, was brought back as co-producer to complete the tracks he had begun with Brion and Apple. Spin later reported the following: "Fans erroneously thought that Apple's record label, Epic, had rejected the first version of Extraordinary Machine... in reality, according to Elizondo, Apple was unhappy with the results, and it was her decision to redo the record, not her label's."[21] In August 2005, the album was given an October release date.[20] Production had been largely redone "from scratch" by Elizondo and was co-produced by Brian Kehew. Two of the eleven previous leaked tracks were relatively unchanged, and one new song was also included.[22]
Despite suggestions that the album had caused a rift between Brion and Apple, they regularly perform together at Largo, a club in Los Angeles, including a joint appearance with Elizondo on bass just before the news broke of an official release.[23] Extraordinary Machine debuted at number seven and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Vocal Album". It was eventually certified gold[8] and sold 462,000 copies in the U.S.,[24] though its singles ("Parting Gift", "O' Sailor", "Not About Love" and "Get Him Back") failed to enter any Billboard charts. Apple went on a live tour to promote the album in late 2005.
In June 2006, Apple appeared on the joke track "Come Over and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)" by comedian Zach Galifianakis. Galifianakis previously appeared in the music video for Apple's "Not About Love".[25] Apple recorded a cover of "Sally's Song" for the 2006 special edition release of the soundtrack for the Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas. In May 2006 Apple paid tribute to Elvis Costello on VH1's concert series Decades Rock Live by performing Costello's hit "I Want You";[26] her version was subsequently released as a digital single. Apple toured the East Coast during August 2007 with Nickel Creek.[27][28]
In 2008, Apple recorded a duet titled "Still I" with Christophe Deluy. In 2009, Apple covered "Why Try to Change Me Now" and "I Walk A Little Faster" for The Best Is Yet to Come - The Songs of Cy Coleman. In January 2010 Fiona Apple and Jon Brion performed together at "Love and Haiti, Too: A Music Benefit", a charity concert for the people hurt by the Haiti earthquake. Fiona sang a cover of "(S)he's Funny That Way", composed by Neil Moret, lyrics by Richard Whiting, which is often associated with the singer Billie Holiday. In June 2010, Fiona released a song titled "So Sleepy" produced by Jon Brion written by children involved with the non-profit organization 826LA. The song will be included on a compilation album released by the organization titled Chickens in Love. Apple collaborated with Margaret Cho on her album Cho Dependent, which was released on August 24, 2010.[29]
In late 2010, Billboard published an article stating that Apple was planning on releasing a new album in spring 2011, with musician Michelle Branch having claimed to have heard some of the new tracks by Apple.[30] As of November 2011, the fourth album had yet to be released.[30] On November 23, 2011, an online article from a well known blogger quoted an exchange between Apple and Jon Brion during a show at the Largo Coronet in Los Angeles. When a member of the audience requested Apple to perform new material, the singer announced to the crowd, "I can't remember [how to play] any of my new songs because they've been done for a fucking year," to which Brion was quoted as replying, "[It's] not her fault!"[31]
Apple mentioned in a 1998 interview with Rolling Stone that she was raped by a stranger at age twelve outside her family's Manhattan apartment on the day before Thanksgiving.[32] Her public statement about it was reportedly due to an interviewer asking her about the meaning of the song "Sullen Girl" from Tidal, which was written in response to the rape. She said the incident left her with violent dreams and extreme depression in the years that followed. Public speculation about Apple having an eating disorder arose in 1997 upon the release of the music video for "Criminal", in which Apple appeared to be extremely thin. The New Yorker wrote that she "looked like an underfed Calvin Klein model."[33] During the 1998 Rolling Stone interview, Apple admitted that she "definitely had an eating disorder", and speculated that it stemmed from her rape as an adolescent.[32] "I definitely did have an eating disorder," Apple said. "What was really frustrating for me was that everyone thought I was anorexic, and I wasn't. I was just really depressed and self-loathing [...] For me it wasn't about getting thin, it was about getting rid of the bait attached to my body."[32]
Apple was romantically linked to director Paul Thomas Anderson between 1999 and 2001.[34] Anderson directed several music videos for Apple's second album.
Apple is a vegan.[35] "I'm not really up in the activist world right now [though]," Apple said on the subject. "I'm not really thinking about it. I'm a vegan, but I don't care if you're eating turkey in front of me. I'm not a preaching vegan."[35]
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions[36] | Certifications[8] (sales threshold) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Heat | UK | AUS | NZ | BEL | FRA | |||||||||||||
| 1996 | Tidal
|
15 | 1 | — | 43 | 22 | 48 | 21 | |||||||||||
| 1999 | When the Pawn…
|
13 | — | 46 | 54 | — | — | 32 |
|
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| 2005 | Extraordinary Machine
|
7 | — | — | 53 | — | — | 61 |
|
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| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||||||||||||
| Year | EP details |
|---|---|
| 2006 | iTunes Originals – Fiona Apple
|
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[36] | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Alt | US Pop | UK | ||||||
| 1996 | "Shadowboxer" | — | 34 | 32 | — | Tidal | |||
| "Slow Like Honey" | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 1997 | "Sleep to Dream" | — | 28 | — | 84[37] | ||||
| "Criminal" | 21 | 4 | 17 | — | |||||
| "The First Taste" | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 1998 | "Never Is a Promise" | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Across the Universe" | — | — | — | — | Pleasantville (soundtrack) | ||||
| 1999 | "Fast as You Can" | — | 20 | 29 | 33 | When the Pawn... | |||
| 2000 | "Limp" | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Paper Bag" | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 2005 | "Parting Gift" | — | — | — | — | Extraordinary Machine | |||
| 2006 | "O' Sailor" | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Not About Love" | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 2007 | "Get Him Back" | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Year | Song | Director | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | "Shadowboxer" | Jim Gable | Tidal |
| 1997 | "The First Taste" (Released only in France)[38] | Dewey Nicks | |
| "Sleep to Dream" | Stéphane Sednaoui | ||
| "Criminal" | Mark Romanek | ||
| "Never is a Promise" | Stéphane Sednaoui | ||
| 1998 | "Across the Universe" | Paul Thomas Anderson | Pleasantville soundtrack |
| 1999 | "Fast as You Can" | When the Pawn... | |
| 2000 | "Limp" | ||
| "Paper Bag" | |||
| 2005 | "Parting Gift" | Spencer Maggart | Extraordinary Machine |
| "O' Sailor" | Floria Sigismondi | ||
| 2006 | "Not About Love" | Michael Blieden |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alanis Morissette |
MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist 1997 |
Succeeded by Natalie Imbruglia |
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