Lisa Millett

Lisa Millett

Lisa Millett is a UK vocalist associated with house, vocal house and dance music. She begins singing classical music at the age of 10 and continues formal classical training until 20, while also performing in local bands as a lead and backing singer.

She grows up in the United Kingdom, with strong musical influence from her family. Her mother introduces her to Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, classical music and jazz, while her father is a fan of James Brown and funk. Her siblings introduce her to roots, soul, progressive rock and other styles from the 1970s and 1980s, and she also develops an interest in new romantic, alternative, U.S. soul, hip-hop, disco, electro-funk and rock.

At school, she takes part in choirs, musicals, pop bands, concerts, recitals and music competitions. She sings with a number of local groups before joining Soul Station, a funk band that relocates from Leicester to London in an attempt to pursue music professionally. When that band later stops, she moves into further study and performance in jazz.

She auditions for and enters the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studies alongside emerging British musicians and works across jazz, classical and commercial music. During college she performs and writes with jazz groups, leads her own quintet, and works as a session singer.

She has already made a couple of house records before linking up with the Manchester-based dance group Evolution and signing to Deconstruction. That collaboration shifts her focus towards dance music, and she becomes involved in house projects and recordings with prominent house labels and DJ-producers. Her work also reflects an ongoing link to jazz and other styles.

Alongside house and dance, she remains a member of Grupo X, a Latin jazz group, and Buttaball, a left-field electronic duo formed with one of the original members of Soul Station. She is also involved in Strayhorn, described as a new soul project, and says that she hopes to return to jazz.