Justine Frischmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Justine Elinor Frischmann (b. 16 September 1969) is an English singer and guitarist, best known as being the lead singer of now-defunct band Elastica.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Justine Frischmann was born into a wealthy Jewish family on the 16th of September, 1969, in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
She grew up in a house built by her father with her older brother Richard Frischmann and attended St Pauls school before studying Architecture at University College London. Initially, Frischmann had wanted to pursue art, but after her father expressed doubts, she agreed to swap going to art college for The Barlett at UCL. On this campus, she met Brett Anderson.
[edit] Suede
Frischmann begun dating Brett Anderson in 1989 and played rhythm guitar for the band Suede. One of the band's founding members, Frischmann thought of the band name after Morrissey released his single "Suedehead". Frischmann and Anderson parted ways in their relationship in 1991, and Frischmann eventually began dating Damon Albarn, the lead singer for the band Blur. She stated feeling like "the token girl playing guitar in the back".[citation needed]
[edit] Elastica
Frischmann later founded and fronted her own band, Elastica, which were formed in 1992 but emerged in 1993 with the single "Stutter" thanks to help from Radio DJ Steve Lamacq. They were signed to his label, Deceptive Records and band members were: Frischmann on vocals/guitar, Donna Matthews on guitar, Annie Holland on bass and Justin Welch on drums. In 1995, Elastica were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for their album Elastica. Each track consisted of punchy basslines and sharp lyrics that climaxed at the 2 minute mark, capturing the punk sound that was a large influence on the members. The band struggled to complete a follow-up album. In later interviews, Frischmann admitted that the group's 2000 release, The Menace, was a result of burn-out following the stress of long periods of touring. The band toured North America in support of the release, but disbanded soon after.
From 2002-2003, she collaborated with her friend and flatmate M.I.A. by co-writing the first demos for her album Arular. She cowrote the music on M.I.A.'s 2003 single, "Galang."
In 2003, she performed lead vocals on Pleasure's single "Don't look the other way".
She has also produced demos for the band White Rose Movement.
Frischmann is now studying visual arts and psychology at Naropa University.
[edit] Television
In 2003, Frischmann co-presented a series called Dreamspaces for the BBC about modern architecture. She also wrote the incidental theme tune for Channel 4's Working It. In 2004 Justine presented the UK's premier and longest running arts programme The South Bank Show and appeared as a judge for the Stirling Prize for Architecture.
[edit] Personal life
She split from long term boyfriend Damon Albarn (of Blur) in 1998. Despite the split, the two have remained friends. Most of Blur's album 13 is about Frischmann, most notably the #2 single "Tender" and "No Distance Left To Run", which reached #14 on the UK charts. The sad nature of these songs came about because they were written at the end of the relationship but there are other Blur songs about the positive sides and the often eccentric and energetic Damon Albarn's love for her before they split up: "Yuko and Hiro" is about his love for her but their inability to see each other because of both being in hugely successful bands) from their 1995 album The Great Escape and "Beetlebum". She is still good friends with Albarn and Brett Anderson.
[edit] External links
