Biography
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Born
9 October 1971 (age 52)
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Born In
Caerphilly, Caerphilly, Wales, United Kingdom
Sian Evans (born 9 October 1971) is a Welsh singer from a small town in south Wales, Caerphilly.
She is singer/songwriter and front woman of the band Kosheen, where she found her first major success in the music industry.
Early life
Sian Evans is from a long musical dynasty, singing is in her blood. Her mother was a singer and Sian herself began singing from an early age. Her grandfather was a composer and conducted for male voice choirs and by her teenage years she was following in his footsteps providing vocals for numerous jazz and r&b bands, as well as immersing herself in the music of female singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell. A hip-hop enthusiast from an early age, it was perhaps inevitable that the young Sian would be caught up in the energy of the fledgling dance scene. Sian had her first encounter with drum & bass courtesy of the seminal Roughneck Ting parties.
She had left home at 16 and moved to Cardiff to escape, living in squats and friends’ houses while working several jobs at once and travelling to parties and festivals all over the country. At the height of the rave scene, in 1991, she gave birth to her son, and was forced to reassess her priorities. For the next four years, Sian and her son split their time between environmental protests like newbury and working at summer festivals. It was all she needed to give her a taste for living outdoors and so in 1996, Sian moved into a tepee on a traveller’s site in the Brechfa Forest for nine months.
“I just thought it looked like a lovely way to live,” she says, “and I wanted to give him the freedom to run around and have some amazing memories.” At night, after her son went to bed, Sian passed the time by writing songs. Despite being brought up writing poetry and listening to Welsh folk music and Joni Mitchell, it was the first time Sian had felt moved to create music.
“I used to keep diaries as a kid and turn them into poems and I’ve found that writing is better than talking sometimes. It’s always been a great way to getting things off my chest.“ Realising her future lay with these songs – in fact, most of them went on to form the tracks on Kosheen’s debut album, ‘Resist’ – she soon moved back to Bristol to find someone to play them with.
Musical career
with Kosheen
Kosheen are a British trip hop, drum and bass and rock group based in Bristol, England. Fronted by singer/songwriter Sian Evans and Bristol dance natives Darren Decoder and Markee Substance, Kosheen's meeting arrived in 1998. As a trio, the band learned they could combine their respective loves of rock, hip-hop, jazz, drum n’ bass and folk. The debut single "Hide U" grabbed hold of the dance circuit in mid-2001, later earning Kosheen honors for Best Single at the Drum & Bass Awards in the U.K. BBC Radio 1 raved about it nonstop and trance guru John Digweed was already spinning Kosheen tracks such as "(Slip & Slide) Suicide and Catch into his club sets. "Hide U" reached number 6 in the UK, while "Catch" hit number 15 and "Hungry" reached number 13. The accompanying album, "Resist", went on to reach number 8 in the UK album chart and made the top 30 in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece. It has since sold half a million copies worldwide. "Hide U" won ‘Best remix’ at the Muzik Dance Awards and record of the year at the Dancestar USA Awards in Miami.
With their debut album (now platinum–selling) "Resist" this equated to an impressive 141 shows in 33 countries to an audience of over a million. In fact, crowds of up to 17,000 have since seen the band play in Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia etc. In summer 2001, Kosheen further cemented their reputation as a world-class live act by performing to a 20,000-strong crowd in Serbia, the first international band to do so since the trouble in the Balkans.
"All in my head", the first single released from the second Kosheen album “Kokopelli” going straight into the chart at number 7.
After Kokopelli went gold in the UK, Kosheen left BMG in the midst of the Sony bmg merger, signed to Universal Germany, and returned to the studio, with a new drive and vision and worked on their third album, “Damage” for the next two years. Sonically referencing both the electronica of “Resist” and the creativity and darkness of “Kokopelli” (their second), with “Damage”, Kosheen created their ‘biggest’ and most beautiful record to date.
“Damage” featuring “Guilty” & “Overkill” was released in Europe in March 2007 by Universal gmbh.
“Independence”, Kosheen’s fourth studio album was released in October 2012 and their fifth, “Solitude”, in December 2013, both on Kosheen Recordings.
Solo career & Collaborations
Early into the following decade, as she remained in the group, she made a name for herself as a featured vocalist.
Sian Evans has also done a side project with Simon Kingman called Melopark. Although they are sometimes just billed as Sian Evans & Simon Kingman. After a reunion gig in aid of the Tsunami disaster, Sian and Simon began playing together in the winter of 2006 and started developing this project in 2007. They played at festival in Moscow also played live at Glastonbury 2008.
In 2011, she featured on DJ Fresh's single, "Louder", which was used as part of a Lucozade Lite advertising campaign in the UK and Ireland. The song was released on 3 July 2011. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, Download Chart, UK Dance Chart, UK Indie Chart and the Scottish Charts with first week sales of 140,000 copies. It also peaked number four on the Irish Singles Chart based on UK success.
Sian Evans wrote “Hot Right Now” for Rita Ora, her first number 1 single.
She also appears on several tracks on Roger Shah's artist album Openminded. New version of "Hide U" along with two other original tracks "In The Light" and "Shine" all appear on the album.
Sian Evans has also collaborated with many artists and producers such as Dino Psaras, Dr. Meaker, Jolyon Petch, Jody Wisternoff, Brains, Martin Eyerer, Chicane, Paul Hazendonk, Bent, EZ Rollers and Bench.
Taking a step back from the world of electronic music, Sian has teamed up with her long term writing partner Ron McElroy for her new solo project. Their partnership has lasted almost two decades, but a one-off show in St Petersburg in late 2013 brought their work into focus. It provided an opportunity to arrange their songs, old and new, in the simplest form possible: one guitar and one vocal. The audience response in Russia was overwhelming, and a very bright light showed the way ahead.
Sian and Ron formed a band to compliment their songs and support them on a bigger stage. The band match Sian’s boundless enthusiasm and talent with that of their own. Sian and Ron’s UK debut sold out Camden Jazz Café. Bookings for Glastonbury, Boomtown and Sunrise Festivals followed. They have also performed in Salzburg and sold out the Roof Music Festival in St Petersburg, this time performing with the whole band. It’s a soulful sound with hints of jazz, folk and blues coming through and gives Sian the opportunity to hear the songs she’s written over the years in a format without electronics. Their debut album is going to be released in the near future. This is the beginning of a new chapter for her solo career.
Links:
www.sian-evans.com
www.facebook.com/sianevanslouder
www.sian-evans-ron-mcelroy.com
www.facebook.com/Sian.Evans.Ron.McElroy
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