Isabella Summers

Isabella Summers

Isabella Summers at Dean St Studios
Background information
Birth name Isabella Janet Florentina Summers
Also known as Isa Machine
Born 31 October 1980
Hackney, England
Genres Indie rock, art rock, alternative rock, experimental
Occupation(s) Songwriter, record producer, musician
Years active 2008–present
Labels Universal Publishing
Associated acts Florence and the Machine, Florence Welch, Ivan Ink 'n' Isa,
The Life The Love & The Grateful
Website www.myspace.com/isabellasummers

Isabella Janet Florentina Summers (born 31 October 1980) is an English musician, songwriter, producer, remixer and member of English indie rock band Florence and the Machine. As well as being the keyboard player for the group, Summers has five co-writing credits[1] on the critically acclaimed, BRIT Award-winning Lungs.[2] Isabella also has three co-writing credits on the album Ceremonials.

When not on tour with Florence and the Machine, Summers spends her time writing, producing and remixing tracks for an array of artists. She is also a founding member of the band The Life, The Love and The Grateful, to which she is co-writing and producing their debut album.

Background

Summers lived her first nine years in London, and met Florence Welch as the young Summers would babysit Welch's younger sister Grace. The Summers family moved at the age of nine to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. There Summers attended Woodbridge School,[3] and in her teenage years got an interest in music by spending evenings with fishermen's sons "who would smoke a ton of weed and listen to hip-hop."[4]

For her college years, Summers moved back to London, where she would get a fine arts degree at Central Saint Martins. In the meantime she bought a set of DJ mixers to learn how to mix, while also doing side jobs such as being a runner for Top of the Pops and transcriptions and film digitising for Alan Parker.[3] Soon she was working with Dan Greenpeace on his 'All City Show' radio show on XFM London, an experience that lead Summers to buy her first MPC which was installed at the cupboard of her shared flat. With the help of a friend she started a studio in a former plastics factory at Crystal Palace, and began making hip hop.[4] During this time, Summers worked with, amongst others, Kashmere The Iguana Man, IRS Crew, MBC Crew, Inja and The Last Skeptic. She would also have meetings with Welch during DJ work and art school, as Welch was attending the Camberwell College of Arts.[5]

As Summers was hired to remix songs by the band Ludes, Welch became a more common sight at her studio given she was dating Ludes' guitarist Matt Alchin, and even impressed Summers with her singing. One day, as Summers got into a creative rut and thought of writing pop music with a woman, she invited Welch to write songs with her.[5] Following a day joining Summers' beats with Welch's lyrics, soon they were creative partners, with Welch nicknaming Summers "Isabella Machine" for her electronic music skills.[3] This lead to them performed together for a time under the name Florence Robot/Isa Machine. The project was renamed to Florence and the Machine as according to Welch "that name was so long it'd drive me mad."[6]

Discography[1]

Writing/ Co-writes

Producing

Remix

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Florence + The Machine* – Lungs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Florence And The Machine's 'Lungs' finally tops UK albums chart". NME. UK. 17 January 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Aldeburgh: Florence and the Machine writer set to release new music, EADT
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Shannon, Aideen. "Isabella Summers". 1883, June 2012
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Howe, Zoe (2012). Florence + The Machine: An Almighty Sound. Music Sales Group. ISBN 9781780385136.
  6. ↑ Bell, Sean (26 July 2009). "A piece of my mind: Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine". The Herald (Herald & Times Group). Retrieved 8 January 2014.

External links

Media related to Isabella Summers at Wikimedia Commons