Heather Nova

Heather Nova
Heather in Hanau, Germany 2005
Background information
Birth name	Heather Allison Frith
Born	July 6, 1967 (1967-07-06) (age 44)
Origin	Bermuda
Genres	Alternative rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1990–present
Labels	WORK, V2
Website	www.heathernova.com

Heather Nova, (born Heather Allison Frith, July 6, 1967) is a Bermudian singer-songwriter and poet.^[1] She has released eight full-length albums and has found lasting success in Germany where two of her albums South and Storm have made their way into the Top-5 of German official album chart.^[2]

Biography

Heather Nova was born in Bermuda. Her mother is Nova Scotian, and her father is a native Bermudian. Nova spent most of her childhood with her family (including one sister, television reporter Susannah, and one brother, reggae singer Mishka) on a 40 ft (12 m) boat (named "Moon") built by her father, where the Friths spent most of 1970s and part of the 1980s, sailing throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean waters and coasts. Since her idyllic childhood, Heather has played over 600 concerts, sold over 2 million albums and has a career of 20 years in the Music industry.

Nova started playing guitar and violin at an early age, writing her first song when she was 12. Her family relocated to New England where she attended the Putney School in Putney, Vermont. Following her graduation in 1983, Nova enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she majored in film in 1989. She also sat in on poetry classes and wrote music to go with her student films. Later, she would forego film study to focus on creating music.

Career

After graduating from RISD, Nova briefly relocated to New York City (where she unsuccessfully tried to interest some major labels in a demo), before moving to London, England, a place she called home for twelve years (she already had British citizenship due to her Bermudian origins). In 1990, she released her first recording, Heather Frith, an EP; she had not yet changed her name. The name change came a year or so later, in an effort to create a name with more buzz.^{[citation needed]}

The new name debuted in 1993 with her second EP Spirit in You and her first full album, the critically acclaimed Glow Stars, after being discovered by producer Felix Tod and introduced to Big Cat label manager Steven Abbott. The success of the album led her to record and release her first live album Blow the same year, which she supported by a tour of Europe. In 1994, she released Oyster, for which she toured for almost two years. Another live album, Live from the Milky Way, was released in 1995. Siren, the follow-up to Oyster because of the hit single "London Rain", was released in 1998, after which she joined Sarah McLachlan and others on the North American Lilith Fair, a music festival with only female performers.

After the release of Siren and a world tour to promote the record, Nova took a break while various television show and film soundtracks licensed some of her songs and her record company (Sony Records/The WORK Group) released various singles from the album, which received only moderate play on America's MTV2, Europe's MTV and Canada's MuchMusic and on mainstream radio, although she was popular on college radio. Also during this time, she recorded a version of the often covered traditional song "Gloomy Sunday", for the German WWII feature film drama Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod (released under the International title Gloomy Sunday). She released yet another live album, Wonderlust, in 2000.

Over the years, Nova has written and recorded over 120 songs. With the release of South (2001), she returned to the international spotlight with an appearance on the soundtrack of the John Cusack movie Serendipity. She also appeared on the soundtrack to the Sean Penn film, I am Sam and sung on The Crow. A collaboration with Swedish indiepop band Eskobar, for a song called "Someone New", led to its music video being played primarily on America's MTV. Storm, Nova's fifth studio album, recorded with Mercury Rev as her backing band, was released in late 2003 on her own Saltwater label, went top 5 in Germany, followed by a tour during which Nova became eight months pregnant. She quickly followed the birth of her son with her next record Redbird, released in 2005, again Top 10 in Germany.

In December 2005, Nova released Together As One, an EP supporting the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, which operates the Bermuda sloop Spirit of Bermuda. The EP was only available in Bermuda shops and from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De.

In 2002, she self-published The Sorrowjoy, a 72-page book of her poetry and drawings. An album of the same name was released in March 2006, which featured Nova reading the poems from her book set to ambient music. The album has only been available for purchase at concerts beginning with the Intimate Evening tour, from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De, and from the official website, www.heathernova.Com.

She also collaborated with the German trance artist ATB on tracks like "Love Will Find You", "Feel You Like A River" and the international hit "Renegade".

In 2008, Nova released an album called The Jasmine Flower, a solar powered acoustic album recorded in Bermuda, before touring as an acoustic tour. In the fall of 2010 she embarked on another European tour promoting her The Jasmine Flower album. On this tour, she played four unreleased songs ("Save A Little Piece Of Tomorrow", "Everything Changes", "Burning To Love", and "Turn The Compass Round") that are included on her current album, 300 Days At Sea. This full-band album was released on May 27, 2011, using Pledge Music as the forum.

Personal life

Nova lives in Bermuda with her husband, music producer Felix Tod, and their son Sebastian (born in 2004).

Discography

Albums

• Glow Stars (1993)
• Blow (live, 1993)
• Oyster (1994) - UK #72^[3]
• Live From The Milky Way (live, 1995)
• Siren (1998) - UK #55^[3]
• Wonderlust (live, 2000)
• South (2001)
• Storm (2003)
• Redbird (2005)
• The Sorrowjoy (2006)
• The Jasmine Flower (2008)
• 300 Days at Sea (2011)

Singles

• "Spirit In You" (1993)
• "Frontier" (1993)
• "Walk This World" (1994) - UK #69^[3]
• "Maybe An Angel" (1995)
• "Truth and Bone" (1996)
• "London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do)" (1998)
• "Heart & Shoulder" (1998)
• "I'm The Girl" (1999)
• "Gloomy Sunday" (1999)
• "Love Will Find You" (2000, with ATB)
• "Feel You Like A River" (2000, with ATB)
• "I'm No Angel" (2001)
• "Someone New" (2002, with Eskobar)
• "Virus of the Mind" (2002)
• "River of Life" (2003)
• "Welcome" (2005)
• "Done Drifting" (2006)
• "Renegade", (2007, with ATB)
• "Made of Glass", (2007 with ATB)
• "Ride" (2008)
• "Higher Ground" (2011)

Heather Nova is popular in New Zealand with "Oyster" peaking at #23 and "Siren" peaking at #18 in the RIANZ Top 40. The single "Walk This World" peaked at #19 and still gets occasional radio play.

EPs

• Heather Frith Ep (1990)
• Spirit In You (1993)
• Live From The Milky Way (1995)
• The First Recording (1997) Reissue of Heather Frith Ep
• Together As One (2005, a fundraiser for the Bermuda Sloop Foundation)
• Higher Ground EP (2011)

DVDs

• Live at the Union Chapel (2004)

Books

• The Sorrowjoy, ISBN 0-9542115-0-2

References

1. ^ "Allmusic: Heather Nova". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p44942. Retrieved 2008-05-16. 
2. ^ "Chartverfolgung / Nova, Heather / Longplay". musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Nova%2CHeather/?type=longplay. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 398. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

External links

• Official Heather Nova website
• Discography and song list
• Biography at Allmusic

Persondata
Name	Nova, Heather
Alternative names	Frith, Heather Allison
Short description
Date of birth	July 6, 1967
Place of birth	Bermuda
Date of death
Place of death