Isabella Summers

Summers was raised in Hackney by her mother, a painter, and her father, an antique and antiquarian book dealer who had attended The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he studied theatre, television, film, and radio. He was a bohemian who made mixtapes long before she was born and as a young child Summers was exposed to an eclectic mixture of poetry, literature and musical influences including rare Bob Dylan, Gyorgy Ligeti, The Shipping forecast and all things in between.

At the age of 8 Summers and her family moved to Aldeburgh Suffolk , the hometown of the composer Benjamin Britton. There she would be given her first recording boom box, Summers would record herself singing Madonna songs a cappella, telling stories onto cassette tapes and beginning a life long passion for all things creative. At the age of 10, she attended piano lessons where she learned how to build chords, write melody and music theory, eventually achieving grade 5 piano.

Her father would regularly take her to car boot sales in search of vinyl records to add to his extensive collection. This sparked Summers's own interest in collecting vinyl records and would enjoy listening to both her own and father's records together, Simon and Garfunkel was an early favourite. In her teens she began to attend concerts and fell in love with live music attending raves, hiphop gigs, classical concerts and many theatrical plays.

Heading back to London at 18, after high school in Woodbridge, Summers got a job working for her father’s acting agent, and was sent to the theatre five nights a week to watch all the cutting edge theatrical productions. In her early 20s Summers attended Central St Martins School of art and studied fine art 'the fourth dimension'. During this time she made horror films and scored them as part of her course. She composed music for a Vivienne Westwood Climate Change Show in 2007. This would be the beginnings of her career in composing and scoring to picture. At this time Summers had various jobs working for “Top of the Pops”, XFM and The All City Hiphop show where she met rappers like The Game and Guru. Summers also worked as a transcriber and film digitiser for Alan Parker.

Soon she was working with Dan Greenpeace on his XFM London 'All City Show' radio show, an experience that led Summers to buy her first Music Production Center which was installed in her shared flat at the time. With the help of a friend she started a studio in a former factory in Crystal Palace, London, and began making Hip hop music.

During this time, Summers worked with Kashmere, The Iguana Man, IRS Crew, MBC Crew, Inja and The Last Skeptik.

Whilst working out of her studio in Crystal Palace, London she met Florence Welch.

The band's debut studio album, Lungs topped the [3]UK Albums Chart after charting for 28 consecutive weeks, and won the BRIT Award for Best British Album.[4]

The band's second album, Ceremonials (2011), debuted at number one in the UK and number six on the US Billboard 200. Their third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015) received positive reviews and topped the UK and US albums chart.

Summers was hired to remix songs by the band Ludes, Welch was dating one of the band members and became a more common sight at Isabella’s studio. Summers was hungry to start working and writing with other women as she had been working solely with men in the hip hop scene. She invited Welch to write a song with her and so their creative collaboration was first born. Following a day matching beats with Welch's lyrics, they were creative partners, with Welch nicknaming Summers "Isabella Machine" for her ability to compose music on a variety of instruments. This led to their performing for a time as "Florence Robot/ Isa Machine". It was renamed, as according to Welch "that name was so long it'd drive me mad.”

Florence and the Machine released their debut album Lungs in the United Kingdom on 6 July 2009. The album was officially launched with a set at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley, South East London. It peaked at number one in the UK Album Charts and number two in Ireland. As of 6 August 2009, the album had sold over 100,000 copies in the UK and by 10 August it had been at number two for five consecutive weeks. Following its 25 July 2009 release for download in the United States, the album debuted at number seventeen on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, ultimately peaking at number one. The album was released physically in the US on 20 October by Universal Republic. The album was produced by James Ford, Isabella Summers, Paul Epworth, Steve Mackey and Charlie Hugall. Summers also co-wrote & co-produced 6 songs on this record[5] including the title track Between Two Lungs and Dog Days are Over.

The band's second album, Ceremonials, was released on 31 October 2011. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US Billboard 200.

On 12 January 2012, Florence and the Machine were nominated for two Brit Awards, with the awards ceremony taking place on 21 February 2012 at the O2 Arena, London.

On 26 April 2012, the band released "Breath of Life", produced and co written by Summers’ a song which was recorded as the official theme song for the film Snow White and the Huntsman.

In February 2015, Florence and the Machine announced their third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which was released on 1 June 2015. The album reached Number 1 in many markets including the US,[6] the UK,[7] Australia, and Canada. The record spawned two top 40 UK hits, and earned three Grammy nominations.[8]

During June 2015, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters broke his leg[9] on stage prior to his band's upcoming Glastonbury Festival headline performance, causing Florence and the Machine to be the headline band.[10]

They headlined the festival for the first time on 26 June 2015.[11]

Summers is credited with co-writing and producing 5 tracks on Lungs[12] and 3 on the album Ceremonials.[13]

She also has three song credits on the deluxe album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" including the title track, How Big How Blue, How Beautiful.[14]

As well as the Florence and the Machine credits Summers has written, produced and remixed tracks for artists including Beyoncé,[15] Juliette Lewis,[16] Jennifer Hudson,[17] Jasmine Thompson,[18] Cara Delevingne,[19] Pablo Dylan, Mondo Cozmo, Kacy Hill, Jessica Simpson,[20] Chloe x Halle,[21] Flux Pavilion,[22] Maxine Ashley, Rita Ora, Judith Hill,[23] LP[24] and The Game.

Summers has been instrumental in developing other artists including Jeremy O. Harris and LP.

Isabella took Jeremy O’Harris on tour with Florence and The Machine for four formative years.

Summers met LP and they cowrote the song ‘Someday’ they then went on to write many songs together including the title track of ‘LP’s debut album Forever For Now, helping to create her sound.

Summers is working on her first solo album which is set for release in spring 2022.

It will feature multiple guest vocalists.

RZA’s and Prince Paul’s productions sound were key influences for Isabella.

Summers loved the darkness and simplicity of three chords vamping on a loop - a technique she would apply in the writing of “Dog Days Are Over” and Cosmic Love.

Bernard Hermann is her favourite composer although she sites the Jaws soundtrack by John Williams as an important influence.  

Gyorgi Lygeti is also one of Isabella’s favourite composers.

“I have seen most important artworks in the world as we toured so relentlessly worldwide . The simplicity and depth of Rothko is breathtaking , and magnificent , I also connect with his outsider mentality.”  

Isabella says CY Twombly's 50 days at Ilium in the same gallery as Prometheus Bound by Peter Paul Reuben’s was life changing for her.

Media related to Isabella Summers at Wikimedia Commons