Hope Sandoval
Hope Sandoval |
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Hope Sandoval (born June 24, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter who was lead singer for Mazzy Star and later Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions.
Early life and career
Sandoval is from a large Mexican-American family in East Los Angeles, California.
Sandoval started her career in 1986 with her friend Sylvia Gomez in a folk music duo called Going Home.
Opal and Mazzy Star
Hope started to sing and perform with the band Opal in the late 1980s alongside David Roback, and originally playing second fiddle to long-time Roback collaborator Kendra Smith. At a gig in Hammersmith, UK, Smith stormed off stage after just a couple of songs, and the foundations of Mazzy Star were laid as Hope stepped up to take on the lead vocals. The two began writing together and renamed their alternative/dream pop band Mazzy Star.
The first Mazzy Star album, She Hangs Brightly was released in 1990. While not a commercial success, this album did establish Hope and David as a unique band with a sound that has been often imitated.
They had what many consider a surprise breakthrough hit single released in October of 1993. "Fade Into You" — from their second album So Tonight That I Might See — was recorded one year before it became a success (with heavy video rotation on MTV).
The tracks on the third Mazzy Star album, Among my Swan continue the sound and feel established on the first two albums.
Post-Mazzy Star
After 1996, Hope began a career of working with other bands. She collaborated with a series of artists, including Air, Bert Jansch, Death in Vegas, Le Volume Courbe, Richard X, The Chemical Brothers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Twilight Singers, Vetiver, and Massive Attack.
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Hope formed The Warm Inventions and released their first (and thus far only album) called "Bavarian Fruit Bread", in 2001. This album sounds, again, little different in terms of theme, voice, and instrumentation than that of her work with Mazzy Star.
Subsequently, The Warm Inventions released three EPs but received very little commercial success, no video on MTV, and very little radio play.
In live performance, Hope prefers to play in near darkness with only a dim backlight.
External links
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