June 24: Hope Sandoval, lead singer for Mazzy Star, & The Warm Inventions and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions is 47-years-old today.

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Hope Sandoval grew up in East Los Angeles, California. In 1986, she formed the folk music duo Going Home with Sylvia Gomez, and recorded one album produced by David Roback, which has never been released.

Photo by Luz Gallardo

Sandoval performed with the band Opal in the late 1980s alongside David Roback and long-time Roback collaborator Kendra Smith. After Smith's abrupt departure during a tour of the UK, Sandoval took over lead vocals. At the end of the tour, Roback and Sandoval began writing together and formed the 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 Mazzy Star as a band with a unique sound. The band had a surprise breakthrough hit single released in October 1993. "Fade into You" — from its second album So Tonight That I Might See — was recorded one year before it became a success.  Music critics have noted a continuity between the sounds and moods established on Mazzy Star's first two albums and its third and last album to date, Among My Swan.

After 1996, Sandoval 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.

Sandoval formed The Warm Inventions in 2000 and released her first solo album Bavarian Fruit Bread in 2001. This album sounds a little different in terms of theme, voice, and instrumentation from that of her work with Mazzy Star. The Warm Inventions released two EPs, At the Doorway Again in 2000 and Suzanne in 2002 but did not win commercial success, with one video on MTV and little radio play.

In 2008, Sandoval recorded a song, "Wild Roses", for a compilation CD released by Air France, In the Air. Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions released their second album, Through the Devil Softly, in September 2009.

Sandoval and her band were chosen by Matt Groening to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England.

During live performances, Sandoval prefers to sing in near-darkness with only a dim backlight, playing the tambourine, harmonica, glockenspiel or shaker. She is reputed to be shy, and rarely interacts with the audience.

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For more about Hope, visit her Website at -

http://www.hopesandoval.com/home.shtml

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