Vanessa Quinones

Vanessa Quinones (born 1975 in Paris) aka Vanessa Contenay-Quinones, also known under the musical alias Vanessa St. James as part of the dueting Vanessa st James and Lou Reed [Sunday Morning 2004] , is a London-based singer-songwriter. From 1992 to '97 she co-wrote/co-produced and recorded as the primary member of the musical project Espiritu, assisted by former Frazier Chorus member Chris Taplin up to '95. In 2003, she co-founded the band Vanessa and the O's alongside Smashing Pumpkins co-founding member James Iha, Popsicle's Andreas Mattson and Niclas Frisk of Atomic Swing.

Biography

Quinones was influenced by a wide variety of music early in life, born in Paris but raised in the Canary Islands in her early years before returning to Paris (releasing her first record by the age of 16), then moving to England to found her music career proper. She settled first in Brighton absorbing the dance music culture and starting up latin infused beats and samples pop duo Espiritu with Taplin before moving to London.

Signing a recording contract with Heavenly Records (then in a distribution deal with Arista Records, subsidiary of Sony Music) in 1992, Quinones and Taplin released a number of singles as Espiritu. Their debut "Francisca" (remixed by Farley & Heller) was followed by three UK Top 50 entries: "Conquistador" (remixed by The Sabres of Paradise), "Los Americanos" (remixed by Mark Stent) and "Bonita Manana".

An album called "Manifesto" was announced, but did not appear, due to Sony ending its distribution deal with Heavenly. However a remix of the Bacharach and David song "Always Something There to Remind Me" credited to Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu, went to #14 on the UK single charts, while the original version of the single (without Tin Tin Out) reached #1 in Japan. The "Manifesto" tracks were then licensed to the Japanese Toshiba-EMI label, and the first Sony Espiritu album, retitled "Always..." was subsequently released in Japan only in 1995.

Drum and bass influences were to be found on the next three [more underground] Espiritu singles, and on the second album "Another Life", released after re-signing with Heavenly (now newly acquired by Deconstruction Records). This sound being a little too underground for mass consumer taste, Espiritu and Deconstruction parted company after lack of [understandably] commercial success. Deconstruction folded not long after.

In 1999, a cover of the Carly Simon song "Why" was released on EMI Music Germany. In 2000, Quinones provided vocals on the Dario G song "Voices" on the soundtrack to the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach". 2001 saw the Cream Records release of "In Praise of the Sun", by the Mr. Joshua Presents Espiritu collaboration, and co-written by Nick Bracegirdle, better known as the dance artist Chicane. Subsequently Espiritu was recruited to re-record the song for the 2003 Chicane album "Easy to Assemble".

Also in 2003, a meeting with James Iha formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins), Andreas Mattson (of Popsicle) and Niclas Frisk (of Atomic Swing) in Manhattan resulted in the formation of the band Vanessa and the O's.

In 2004 Vanessa recorded an electro/dance version of the Velvet Underground classic 'Sunday Morning' with Lou Reed himself released on Warners Germany and in 2006 appeared on the Scott Walker album 'The Drift' as guest vocalist on the track 'Clara'.

In 2007 the debut album of Vanessa and The O's 'La Ballade d'O' has been released in 8 countries on the bands own label Rushmore Recordings.

Also in 2007 Vanessa & The O's contribute a track to the tribute album 'We All Love Ennio Morricone' with a version of 'Je Changerais d'Avis'.

References

*cite web
author =
month = August | year = 1999
url = http://web.archive.org/web/20010623174402/http://www.espiritu.demon.co.uk/biography.html
title = Biography
format =
work =
publisher = www.espiritu.demon.co.uk at the Wayback Machine
accessdate = 2006-04-07
accessyear =
*cite web
author = Kelly, Martin and Robin Turner
year =
url = http://www.heavenly100.com/biogs/biog_espiritu1.html
title = Artists' Biographies: Espiritu
format =
work =
publisher = Heavenly Records
accessdate = 2006-04-07
accessyear =

External links

* www.vanessaandtheos.com
* www.myspace.com/vanessaandtheos
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* [http://www.heavenly100.com/biogs/biog_espiritu1.html Espiritu] at HEAVENLY 100 - The Heavenly Records Website
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