BAND BIOGRAPHY, and BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILES OF SIX MEMBERS OF MAZZY STAR,
four of whom remain current members. The profiles below are taken from defunct fan site Mazzy Star Boulevard, still accessible in archives here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120702032 ... icles.html & were presumably written by the site's webmaster, Anders. They are somewhat out out date/incomplete by now but still worthwhile. By now (2014), some additional musicians could be added to the list of Mazzy Star members. Colm O'Ciosoig, Josh Yenne, & Paul Mitchell (Keith's son) have all toured as part of the band.
Musician Credits on four albums are:
-She Hangs Brightly, 1990: Hope Sandoval, David Roback, Suki Ewers, Keith Michell, Will Cooper, plus Sylvia Gomez & Paul Olguin
-So Tonight That I Might See, 1993: Hope, David, Keith, Will, plus Jason Yates
-Among My Swan, 1996: Hope (vocals, harmonica, percussion), David (guitars, keyboards & "other instruments"), Keith (Drums), Jill Emery (bass), William Reid (additional guitar on "Take Everything"), Aaron Sherer (Drums on "Take Everything" & "Still Cold")
-Seasons of Your Day, 2013: Hope, David, Suki, Keith, Colm O'Ciosoig, Will, Paul Mitchell, Bert Jansch, Paul Olguin, Al Browne, Steven McCarthy
(note: only Among My Swan gives credits for specific instruments played)
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[Biographical Profiles taken from Mazzy Star Boulevard fan site]:
DAVID ROBACK
David grew up in Hollywood California. He started a band called Rain Parade with his brother Steven. They first hit the scene in 1982 as part of a loose aggregate of psychedelic '60s-influenced guitar bands in Los Angeles, and they were in the forefront of that movement which lasted a couple years.
After Rain Parade's first album and tours, David left the band. He now got involved, both musically and emotionally with ex-Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith and formed a new band named Clay Allison in 1983. The recordings from the summer this year remained unreleased until the 1989 release of Opal Early Recordings.
After Clay Allison's '84 tour, the band decided to go with a name change, and went from Clay Allison to Opal whose sound was defined by Roback's spare, distorted guitar work and Smith's lyrical voice. They released the Northern Line EP in 1985. SST Records signed Opal and released their masterpiece album Happy Nightmare Baby on December 14 1987. During the Opal tour in Decemeber '87, Kendra Smith left the band. She was replaced by Kendra's friend, Hope Sandoval, and they toured Europe through early 1988. Hope and David had an intimate relationship at this time and after Opal was disbanded, David and Hope took the remaining members of Opal and changed their name to Mazzy Star in 1989.
In Mazzy Star David plays guitar and occasionally keyboard and piano. While Hope Sandoval writes the lyrics David compose almost all the music. He has also been the producer of all their recordings.
In 1999 David worked with Beth Orton. He produced and mixed some songs on her album Central Reservation. And back in 1990 he worked as producer for the band Sacred Miracle Cave.
Roback have been spending most of his time in Norway the last eight or nine years. Different sources says that he's been working on material to a new Mazzy Star album. If that ever will be released is hard to say.
David have also played a smaller part in the french movie "Clean" (2004) in which he played himself.
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HOPE SANDOVAL
Hope Sandoval was born in 1966 and grow up in east L.A. with her Mexican-American family. Hope started her career together with her high-school friend Sylvia Gomez (Gomez later played on She Hangs Brightly) in a band called "Going Home", a folk duo formed in 1986 [No. See post on Going Home earlier in this thread for evidence Hope & Sylvia were writing songs as a duo by 1981 or 1982 & were gigging publicly as Going Home at least as early as January, 1985]. Hope and Sylvia admired Kendra Smith as teen-age Dream Syndicate fans. Sylvia Gomez handed Kendra Smith a demo tape which was comprised of Hope Sandoval on vocals and Sylvia on guitar. David offered to produce some recordings for them and they went into the studio and recorded an album that to this day is yet to be released. That obviously helped solidify Hope and David's relationship. Hope and Sylvia played gigs in California throughout the mid '80s, and stayed friends with both Kendra and David.
During the Opal tour in Europe December '87 Kendra left the band and disappeared. When found, she informed Roback that she wanted to leave the band but recommended her replacement Hope Sandoval. David called Hope to see if she would be interested to take Kendra's place in Opal. Kendra did two more shows together with Opal but then she flew home. Keith Mitchell flew back to the US as well but the next day he got back with Hope. After that tour Opal became Mazzy Star and Hope has been a very popular band member ever since.
Besides vocals, Hope often plays harmonica and percussion instruments like tambourine, maracas and glockenspiel etc. Sometimes she even plays guitar. Hope has written nearly all the Mazzy Star lyrics, with occasional input from David Roback.
Hope seems to be a very shy and private person, and doesn't seem to enjoy the popularity or the journalist and music business mentality very much. Many writers use the adjective "waifish" to describe Hope, but she's much tougher than that word suggests. Even if she isn't very fond of performing live.
"For me recording is better", she told Rolling Stone. "Live, I just get really nervous. Once you're onstage, you're expected to perform. I don't do that. I always feel awkward about just standing there and not speaking to the audience. It's difficult for me."
In 2000 Hope Sandoval joined with Colm O'Ciosoig (formerly of My Bloody Valentine) to form Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. The project retained the laid-back, slowcore sound of Mazzy Star, and much like Mazzy Star, featured Sandoval's sensuous, hypnotic voice. In 2001 Sandoval issued her first EP with the Warm Inventions, "At the Doorway Again", and followed it up with her debut full-length, "Bavarian Fruit Bread", a year later. She has also contributed on several songs by other artists for example the Jesus & Mary Chain, Chemical Brothers, Death In Vegas and Bert Jansch.
At the moment (mid 2008) she's working on her second solo album together with the Warm Inventions.
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KEITH MITCHELL
Keith Mitchell plays drums in Mazzy Star. He was born and raised in Long Beach, California, USA June 16. Keith has played in many different bands in the last 20 years. He played with Monitor in 1981 and with The Romans for some years in the mid 80's. Between 1983-86 The Romans released three albums. Keith also played drums on some tracks on Johanna Went's album Posh Boy in 1982. Other bands he's been playing with before Mazzy Star are Green On Red, Clay Allison, Opal and in 1989 with Chris Cacavas And Junkyard Love.
Keith Mitchell knew Kendra Smith when he was in Monitor, she and David were fans and in early 1984, when the drummer of Clay Allison, Terry Graham, left the band they asked him to join Clay Allison to fill his place. It seemed like he was the perfect drummer for Clay Allison. David Roback was delighted when Keith first played with the band. His great ambient and rhythmic droning drums matched perfectly with the sound of the band.
Keith followed David into Opal and later on into Mazzy Star so he has been playing with David Roback for a long time and he has played drums on all three Mazzy Star albums with exception for some songs.
For a while he worked on his own material and formed a group called Euphora together with singer Mary Mullen. Unfortunately they ended their collaboration after some time.
Keith was the only original Mazzy Star member (besides Hope and David) that played on the short European tour in 2000.
In 2004 Keith worked together with the band Sugarplum Fairies and played drums on their album "Introspective Raincoat Student Music" (Starfish 2004).
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SUKI EWERS
Suki Ewers grew up in Seattle but as a child she and her family lived in Germany, Taiwan, and Japan.
In the early 80's Suki played in a couple of different bands in Seattle with her brother. They were called "The Tears" and "Second Story".
Suki joined Opal in 1985. Kendra Smith had an ad in the paper looking for a keyboard player and Suki who liked the Dream Syndicate records and the Clay Allison single, decided to join the band. In Opal she sang harmonies on many of the Happy Nightmare Baby songs and she also wrote "Strange Delight" and "Brigit on Sunday" on Opal's Early Recordings album. It's Suki that sings the lead vocal on "Brigit on Sunday". She followed the rest of the musicians in Opal into Mazzy Star.
In Mazzy Star Suki played keyboards, rhythm guitar (acoustic and electric) and some bass. Suki contributed on the "She Hangs Brightly" album but did not play on "Among My Swan" or "So Tonight That I Might See". However she appears in the video for "Fade Into You" (both versions) and did all of the touring for "So Tonight That I Might See". She also played at the last California shows of the "Among My Swan" tour.
In 1993 she started another band called Anemone with some friends in San Francisco. The fact that Mazzy Star took alot of her time she moved to Los Angeles where she found new people to her band. Anemone was Suki Ewers on vocals and guitar, Jane Fujimoto on drums, Laura Smith on bass and Russ Chaput on guitar.
After performing for several years with Anemone, and also played in "Maw and Paw" for a brief period, Suki spent the last couple of years in the studio working with Joe Kennedy on a set of nine songs. The result is hazy, bittersweet pop in the vein of Galaxie 500 and Felt. The songs are at once dreamy and enigmatic yet immediately accessible. August 19th 2008 she released the album "Kind of Hazy" on Mind Expansion Records. Be sure to check out Suki's MySpace website and listen to her beautiful music.
Suki is, just like Jill Emery a gifted painter. The art was always something secret that went on behind the scenes. She did photography for a long time and began painting while Mazzy Star was in the studio recording the first album "She Hangs Brightly".
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WILLIAM COOPER (GLENN) [now a former member, deceased]
Will Glenn or William Cooper as he preferred to call himself while playing with Opal and Mazzy Star, was born in 1957. He played with David since their days together in the Rain Parade and he continued with them for a while after David left the band. Will was one of the founding members of Rain Parade. He also produced and played with Viva Saturn, and was a key member of Opal and Mazzy Star.
His superb violin and keyboard playing was always musically inventive. He was an expert at crafting beautiful string arrangements, innovative and surreal keyboard parts, and melancholy yet soulful melodies. He was also an accomplished guitar player and songwriter.
Will has contributed on some Clay Allison shows and he also played bass and strings on Opal's Happy Nightmare Baby.
Will did a lot of session work while not working with Mazzy Star and was well known and respected for his talent by the many musicians that have sought him out to play on their albums.
William Cooper Glenn sadly passed away from cancer on March 16, 2001, at UCLA Medical Center. He will be remembered for his incomparable musicianship, gifted intellect, loving friendship and keen sense of humor.
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JILL EMERY [now a former member]
Jill Emery was born in California 1962 and is a self taught musician. She started to play bass when she was 15 years old and her main instrument is a Fender Telecaster from 1971.
Her first band with Rozz of Christian Death and Steve Darrow on drums were called The Asexuals, an arty punk band. Many bands followed including The Decadent, The Super Heroines, Sylvia Juncosa Band and Hole. Jill was Hole's bassist from 1990-1992, co-writing many of their early songs. She played on the album "Pretty on the Inside" and designed the album back cover.
After she left Hole she joined a new band called Shadow Project together with Rozz of Christian Death and Eva O. from the Super Heroines. A couple of years later her work with Shadow Project ended and Jill became a member of Mazzy Star. She started touring with Mazzy Star in late 1993 and later on Jill played bass on the 1996 "Among My Swan" album. In 2002 she played bass on the song "Around My Smile" on Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions' album "Bavarian Fruit Bread".
Jill enjoys listening to bands like Cat Power, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Acetone, My Morning Jacket and her of course her teenage idol Patti Smith.
Jill Emery doesn't play in any band these days. She now lives in Sierra Madre, California. She is a very gifted painter and her talent ventures beyond the audible into visual with the same intensity and passion as her music.
Jill is also an animal activist and she has three cats. She misses playing music but environmental, animal and human rights as well as her art interest takes most of her time.
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[Also, here's the now somewhat out of date band(s) biography found at Mazzy Star Boulevard site. For this section, Anders credits a book, "Rough Guides to Rock. First edition published Aug 96 / Nov 96 (USA)."
For a more complete band biography as of 2014 one could refer to Wikipedia's Mazzy Star entry, largely written by mazzystar.free.fr forum member, Homeostasis]
BIOGRAPHY
Though Mazzy Star have managed the neat trick of updating psychedelia for the 1990s without sounding dated, if you're looking for blissed-out music with a happy smile on its face, you might want to think twice before taking the plunge.
When guitarist David Roback wraps his shards of feedback and drawn-out crescendos of reverb and distortion around Hope Sandoval's laconic vocal delivery, the results can indeed be trance-inducing. But their music is as much a disengagement from real life as an investigation of alternate realities, and the druggy states they evoke are comfortably numb rather than euphoric.
In the beginning:
Mazzy Star's roots in the California Paisley Underground movement of the 1980s are deep. Roback, along with his brother Steve, was one of the main architects of leading LA psychedelic revival band, the Rain Parade. Leaving that band after their first LP, he founded the dreamier Opal in the mid-1980s with ex- Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith. Opal's quasi-psychedelic ruminations, with their guitar drones and hints of blues and folk, weren't far off the map that Mazzy Star would follow, and indeed Roback met Sandoval through Smith, who was a friend of Hope's.
Sandoval, still in high school at the time, was playing in a duo called Going Home with Sylvia Gomez; Kendra was impressed enough to make a tape of their music and pass it on to Roback, who produced a still-unreleased album by the pair.
When Smith left Opal under cloudy circumstances in the middle of an American tour with The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sandoval was tapped as her replacement. After that tour and a jaunt through Europe were completed, Opal disbanded, and Roback and Sandoval decided to continue collaborating in Mazzy Star.
Though theoretically a full band, Mazzy Star is very much Roback and Sandoval's show. They write all of the material, and although other musicians (including ex-Clay Allison drummer Keith Mitchell) are given minimal credits (no instruments are listed) on their albums, their backing players remain virtually anonymous to the public.
Three album releases:
Their 1990 debut on Rough Trade, She Hangs Brightly, was a post-punk take on the kind of dark, long-winded psychedelia practised by The Doors on "The End", as well as the hypnotic massive guitar drone woven by The Velvet Underground on "What Goes On". That's only about half of Mazzy Star's world, though; most of the rest of their material is devoted to dusty, haunting acoustic-flavoured ballads with heavy blues and folk elements, often giving Roback a chance to stretch his chops on slide guitar. Sandoval's detached, sing-speak vocals betray a bit of a country-folk twang, but are seemingly less concerned with piloting the songs than reflecting their fuzzy, sedate states of free association.
The American branch of Rough Trade folded in 1991, but Mazzy Star's contract was picked up by Capitol, who re-issued the first album and put out the follow-up, So Tonight That I Might See (1993). Similar to the debut, but a bit more forceful in construction and execution, the emphasis remains on mood and texture, rather than melodic variety or clever messages.
A year after its release, So Tonight That I Might See yielded an unexpected hit single, the wispy "Fade Into You". The album, seemingly destined for the cut-out bin, began an unexpected ascent into the US Top 40, and Mazzy Star were suddenly stars in sales as well as name. Make that anti-stars: Roback and Sandoval are notoriously difficult interview subjects, responding to most questions with monosyllables or silence. Their subsequent release, Among My Swan (1996) confirmed them as out-and-out champions of the mournful - their brooding, enigmatic public personas seem less a cultivated pose than a complement to the shadowy, brooding mystery of their simultaneously frustrating and entrancing soundscapes.
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions:
Sandoval made her solo debut in 2001 with Bavarian Fruit Bread ostensibly backed by the Warm Inventions, though really this is a pairing with Colm O'Ciosoig (once of My Bloody Valentine) with folk legend Bert Jansch popping up with his six string on the beautiful "Butterfly Mornings" and "Charlotte". Largely written by Sandoval, this plunges further into a languidly erotic, narcoleptic haze than even Mazzy Star could manage, the latter's spacey guitar rejected as possibly too energetic for the collection's country/folk saturated sleepiness. Adorable.
Rough Guides to Rock.
First edition published Aug 96 / Nov 96 (USA).
Copyright © 2009 Mazzy Star Boulevard