Nellee Hooper

Nellee Hooper
Born March 15, 1963
Bristol, England
Genres Electronica, trip hop, rock, house
Associated acts The Wild Bunch, Sinéad O'Connor, Soul II Soul, Bjork, Massive Attack, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Smashing Pumpkins, Paloma Faith, U2

Nellee Hooper (born March 15, 1963) is a British producer/remixer/composer known for his work with many major recording artists beginning in the late 1980s. He also debuted as a motion picture music composer with famed Scottish composer Craig Armstrong and Marius De Vries for the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet in 1996.

Hooper has produced six Grammy Award winning albums for artists including Smashing Pumpkins, U2 (best song and album), Soul II Soul, and Sinead O'Connor. He has also been awarded Q Magazine's Best Producer award and twice been Music Week Producer of the Year.

Biography

Born in Bristol, Hooper began his career as a DJ and as a member of the Wild Bunch, the Bristol-based group that would turn into Massive Attack.

Between 1989 and 1992 he produced the debut albums for Soul II Soul (Club Classics Vol. I), Massive Attack (Blue Lines) and Björk (Debut), which in 1995 Mixmag magazine ranked the 31st, 1st and 3rd best dance albums of all time.

The 1995 BRIT Awards honoured Hooper as Best Producer for his work on Massive Attack's Protection, Björk's Post and Madonna's Bedtime Stories albums.

In 1998 he won a BAFTA Award (Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music) for his work arranging the score and soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

In the late 1990s Hooper set up the Meanwhile imprint, which is a subsidiary of Virgin Records.

Hooper continued to work steadily into the 2000s. He received a Grammy nomination in 2003 for his work on No Doubt's Rock Steady and Lamya's Learning From Falling albums. His other work has included producing the singles "GoldenEye" (1995) for Tina Turner, "Under the Bridge" (1998) for All Saints and "Down Boy" (2002) for Holly Valance, as well as providing remixes for artists like Janet Jackson and Sade.

He has worked with Gwen Stefani on her solo albums and on U2's 2004 release How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, for which he won a Grammy Award. He also produced the debut solo album of Andrea Corr of The Corrs, entitled Ten Feet High which was released on 25 June 2007.

Hooper produced the full-length debut album for Disney actress/singer Emily Osment, Fight Or Flight in 2010.[1]

In 2011 Hooper produced Paloma Faith's Fall To Grace Album, nominated for two Brit awards for 'Best Female' and 'Album of the Year' and is to be released in the US via Epic Records. L.A. Reid, said of the signing to his label, "In an era where authenticity resonates, Paloma is the epitome of soul. It's an honor for Epic Records to be part of her career in the United States."

Awards

Grammy Winners

Soul II Soul 1989
Soul II Soul's 1989 Album Club Classics Vol. One (known as "Keep on Movin'" in the US), produced by Hooper, was awarded two Grammys: "Back to Life" won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and "African Dance" won Best R&B Instrumental Song.

Sinead O'Connor 1991
Sinead O'Connor took the Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy for her album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.

Smashing Pumpkins 1997
Single The End Is the Beginning Is the End won the Best Hard Rock Performance award at the 1997 Grammys.

U2 2006
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb won Album of the Year at the 2006 Grammys. The single "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" won two awards; Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Song of the Year.

Romeo + Juliet Score

Nellee Hooper was responsible for the BAFTA award-winning soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet in 1996. He worked alongside Scottish composer Craig Armstrong and English composer Marius van Wyk de Vries. It was Hooper's first and only motion picture score. Hooper armed the soundtrack with sequences of bombastic choral and flamboyant orchestral forces and fusing it with his well-known hip hop, electronica and trip hop genres. Hooper since has not been active in the motion picture industry.

Selected production credits

References

  1. ↑ "Fight or Flight - Emily Osment | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-05-15.

External links