Neon Hitch

Neon Hitch
Neon describes her sound as “vintage-gypsy-pop,” and Carmen Miranda is one of her major influences.
Background information
Birth name	Neon Hitch
Born	(1986-05-25) 25 May 1986
Origin	Nottingham, United Kingdom
Genres	Pop, electropop, dance pop, electro-rock, pop rap
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2007–present
Labels	The Beats, Warner Bros.
Website	www.neonhitch.net

Neon Hitch (born 25 May 1986) is a British singer and songwriter. She was signed to Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem's label, The Beats, before it closed down.^[1] She was later discovered on MySpace by Benny Blanco who flew her to New York City to work with him. Their work together earned her a music publishing deal with EMI and a record deal with Warner Bros. Records.^[2] She is currently finishing up her debut album.

Early Life

Born in Nottingham before moving at a young age to the countryside east of London,^[3] Hitch resented her parents for her birth name, Neon, and wanted to change it to something more conventional.^[4] Her father was a lighting technician.^[1] When their house burned down, her mother, Irene Gardiner, bought a caravan to live in.^[2] They then began street performing, making and selling jewelry and clothing around Europe, and consequently, she never attended school.^[3] By the age of four, Hitch was traveling and performing with the Archaos circus. At age of ten, she began writing poetry which led to her writing lyrics.^[1] Her boyfriend noticed that she could sing and encouraged her to hone her singing.^[5] By the time she was in her teens, Hitch was trained as a trapeze artist, fire swinger and stilt walker and had performed across Europe.^[3] Her family was featured in a BBC documentary.^[4] At the age of sixteen, Hitch moved to India for a few years before resettling in London to start her music career.^[3]

Music Career

2010–12: Beg, Borrow and Steal

Hitch began recording her debut album, Beg, Borrow and Steal in March 2010 with Blanco.^[1] Hitch has also been working with producer Greg Kurstin.^{[citation needed]} She released promo single, "Get Over U", co-written by singer Sia, for free in January 2011. This was followed by "Silly Girl", "Bad Dog" (which was intended to be the first single of the album) and "Poisoned with Love", the latter which appeared in Teen Wolf and Now That's What I Call Music! 40. She also released a series of covers and mash-up covers of songs by other artists, including Wiz Khalifa's "On My Level", Waka Flocka Flame's "No Hands" and Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci". Hitch was also featured on "Ass Back Home" by Gym Class Heroes, which has peaked at number twelve in the Billboard Hot 100. Hitch's released the debut single, "Fuck U Betta"^[6] and another single "Gold", co-written by singer Bruno Mars.

2013–present: Happy Neon and 301 to Paradise

On 7 January 2013 Neon announced her EP title Happy Neon which was a collaboration with producer Happy Perez. Happy Neon was released for free through Billboard.com on 14 January 2013.^[7] On 12 November 2013 Neon Hitch was featured on campus.ie ^[8] where she revealed that she and her team had completely scrapped the Beg, Borrow and Steal album because she said she "felt there was not enough of my soul in Beg, Borrow and Steal" and discussed the release of a mixtape called 301 to Paradise in early 2014. Hitch says that the mixtape is a very good preview of what is going to come out on her brand new debut album being released in 2014. On Tuesday 3 December 2013 Neon Hitch announced that her new mixtape, 301 to Paradise, will be released on 3 January 2014.^[9] The mixtape was produced and co-written by NYC-based hip-hop group and songwriting duo Kinetics & One Love, and features two verses from rapper Kinetics. Neon Hitch revealed that some of her favorite songs on the mixtape include "Some Like It Hot" and "Red Lights."^[10] Hitch says "Red Lights" is about her "Bonnie and Clyde experience in India."^[10] On 25 December 2013 Neon released "Some Like It Hot" as the first song from the 301 to Paradise mixtape. On 31 December 2013 she released a snippet of "Gypsy Star"^[11] and on 2 January 2014 a snippet of "Red Lights",^[12] both songs from the mixtape. 301 to Paradise was released on January 03, December for free on her website.^[13][14]

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

Singles

Notes

• A ^ "Fuck U Betta" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Songwriting

Music videos

Awards

References

External links

• Official website
• Neon Hitch on Myspace
• Neon Hitch on Twitter
• Soundcloud
• Twitter Street team
• http://pilot-creative.com/#/ARTISTS/NEON_HITCH