Isabella Summers

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Isabella Summers
Isabella Summers at Dean St Studios, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Isabella Janet Florentina Summers
Also known as	Isa Machine
Born	(1980-10-31) 31 October 1980 (age 40) Hackney, England
Genres	Indie rock indie pop art rock alternative rock experimental
Occupation(s)	Musician songwriter producer remixer
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Universal Publishing
Associated acts	Florence and the Machine Ivan Ink 'n' Isa The Life The Love & The Grateful

Isabella Janet Florentina Summers^[1][2] (born 31 October 1980) is an English Emmy nominated musician, songwriter, producer, remixer and composer. She is a founding member of British indie rock band Florence and the Machine.

Background[]

Summers lived her first nine years in London, and met Florence Welch as the young Summers would babysit Welch's younger sister Grace. When Summers was nine, her family moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. There Summers attended Woodbridge School^[3] and in her teenage years got an interest in music, particularly hip-hop. Her neighbours gave her a tape with Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle and 6 Feet Deep by Gravediggaz, and she would also spend evenings with fishermen's sons "who smoked loads of weed and listened to hard American rap."^[4][5]

For her university years, Summers moved back to London, where she got a fine arts degree at Central Saint Martins^{[citation needed]}. In the meantime she bought a set of DJ mixers to learn how to mix, while also doing side jobs such as being a runner for Top of the Pops and transcriber and film digitiser for Alan Parker.^[3] Soon she was working with Dan Greenpeace on his 'All City Show' radio show on XFM London, an experience that led Summers to buy her first Music Production Center which was installed in her shared flat. With the help of a friend she started a studio in a former factory at Crystal Palace, London, and began making Hip hop music.^[4] During this time, Summers worked with, amongst others, Kashmere, The Iguana Man, IRS Crew, MBC Crew, Inja and The Last Skeptik. She also had meetings with Welch DJing at and art school, as Welch was attending Camberwell College of Arts.^[6]

Summers was hired to remix songs by the band Ludes, so Welch became a more common sight at her studio : she was dating Ludes' guitarist Matt Alchin, and impressed Summers with her singing. When Summers got into a creative rut and thought of writing pop music with a woman, she invited Welch to do so.^[6] Following a day joining Summers' beats with Welch's lyrics, they were creative partners, with Welch nicknaming Summers "Isabella Machine" for her electronic music skills.^[3] 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."^[7]

As well as being the keyboard player for Florence and the Machine, Summers has co-written many of their songs.^[8] She has 5 song credits on Lungs^[9] and three on the album Ceremonials. She has three song credits on the deluxe album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" including the title track.

When not on tour with Florence and the Machine, Summers writes, produces and remixes tracks for artists including Beyoncé, Juliette Lewis, Iggy Azalea, Jasmine Thompson, Nas, Cara Delevingne, Izzy Bizu, Pablo Dylan, Mondo Cozmo, Kacy Hill, Jessica Simpson, Chloe x Halle, Flux Pavilion, Maxine Ashley, Rita Ora, Judith Hill, LP and The Game. Summers also scores movie and television. She teamed with Mark Isham^[10] to create the Emmy nominated score for Little Fires Everywhere^[11] and, on her own, creating the title theme for Riviera.^[12] She is currently composing the score for the Panic.^[13] Summers also scores Apple TV+ series 'Physical' starring Rose Byrne.

Summers has developed other talent, discovering Jeremy O. Harris at a party in LA. She took him on tour with her for three years during which time they wrote music, which then lead him to be nominated for 12 Tonys at the 74th Tony Awards in 2020. When Summers met LP they cowrote the title track of his album Forever For Now, helping to create her sound.

Storytelling has been a constant part of Summers' life. Her father, Robin Summers, was an actor and brought books poetry into her life^{[citation needed]}. Growing up in and around her father’s bookstore (Reed Books 4) in the sea town of Aldebrugh inspired her to be one of the top producers in the British industry.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[]

References[]

External links[]

Media related to Isabella Summers at Wikimedia Commons