Heather Nova

Heather Nova, born Heather Allison Frith, is a Bermudian singer-songwriter and poet. She grows up in Bermuda and on a boat in the Caribbean, and later takes British citizenship because of her Bermudian origin. Her brother is the reggae singer Mishka. She also uses the surname Nova, taken from her Canadian mother’s maiden name, after changing from Frith in the early 1990s because it is easier to pronounce internationally.

Career

After leaving RISD, she moves briefly to New York City, where she tries to interest major labels in her demo without success, then relocates to London. Her first recording is the 1990 EP Heather Frith. The name Heather Nova appears in 1993 on the EP Spirit in You and her first full-length album, Glow Stars. The same year she also releases the live album Blow and tours Europe.

Her 1994 album Oyster becomes one of her best-known records and leads to an extended tour. In 1995 she releases another live album, Live from the Milky Way, followed by several years of touring, including appearances on the North American Lilith Fair alongside Sarah McLachlan and others. She also performs at European festivals including Roskilde.

In 1998 she releases Siren. During the period after that album, television and film soundtracks license some of her songs, and her label Sony Records/The WORK Group issues several singles from it. Around this time she records a version of Billie Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday” for the German WWII drama Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod.

She releases the live album Wonderlust in 2000, then South in 2001. That album appears on the soundtrack of Serendipity and includes her collaboration with Swedish band Eskobar, “Someone New”. The track is also issued as a video. She later releases Storm in 2003 on Big Cat Records and Redbird in 2005. Storm uses Mercury Rev as her backing band, reaches the Top 5 in Germany and the Top 10 across Europe, and is her first release on her own label, Saltwater Records.

Writing and collaborations

Nova writes and records more than a hundred songs over her career, and her albums are generally drawn from material she has already performed live. Many of the songs on Siren are written during the Oyster sessions and already played on stage before studio recording. Most of the songs on South are written between 1999 and 2000 while she is not touring.

She also works with other artists, including a co-write with ATB called “Renegade” and “Someone New” with Eskobar. She performs with Sarah McLachlan as well as opening for artists such as Van Morrison and Neil Young.

Other work

In 2002 she self-publishes the sorrowjoy, a 72-page book of poetry and drawings. In 2006 an album of the same name is released, with Nova reading the poems over ambient music. That album is available at concerts and through her fan-run and official websites. She also releases a live DVD of concerts at Union Chapel. Her output includes a 72-page poetry-and-drawings book as well as recorded poetry set to music.

Reception and reach

Nova sells over two million albums across a career described as spanning 15 years at that point. Her recordings receive moderate airplay on MTV2, MTV and MuchMusic, while she also remains popular on college radio. She is associated with alternative, pop and rock, and is also identified as a female vocalist and singer-songwriter.