Entertainment
90s indie frontwoman, 48, has barely aged 22 years after quitting Brit Award-winning band-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
She has since forged a solo career, with new music out.
The 90s frontwoman and singer of the award-winning band looks the same, 22 years later (Picture: Ebet Roberts/Redferns)
Nineties indie band frontwoman Isobel Campbell looks virtually the same now as she did back in the heyday of her former group’s success, over 20 years ago.
Campbell, now 48, joined indie darlings Belle and Sebastian back in 1996, at the age of just 19, after it was founded by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David.
At the time, the Scottish indie pop group also consisted of guitarist Stevie Jackson, keyboard player Chris Geddes and drummer Richard Colburn in its original six-piece lineup.
The band has since recorded 12 studio albums and enjoyed critical success along the way, although their shunning of widespread promotional activities has kept their popularity low-key, despite a passionate fanbase.
They did, however, win the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act in 1999, beating the likes of Steps, Five and Billie Piper.
Belle and Sebastian also appeared on the soundtrack for hit 2007 indie movie Juno, as well as gaining recognition in films including High Fidelity and (500) Days of Summer, and their song The Boy with the Arab Strap being used as the end credits song for Bafta-nominated TV series Teachers.
Isobel Campbell was a singer and cellist in the original lineup for Belle and Sebastian (Picture: Hayley Madden/Rex/Shutterstock)
Belle and Sebastian won the British breakthrough act at the 1999 Brit Awards, over the likes of Steps and Five (Picture: Getty)
Chris Geddes, Richard Colburn, Mick Cooke, Stevie Jackson, Sarah Martin, Bobby Kildea and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian in 2006, four years after Campbell left (Picture: Getty)
Campbell went on to a successful solo career, collaborating with the likes of Queen of thr Stone Ages’ Mark Lanegan (Picture: Nils Jorgensen/Rex/Shutterstock)
Campbell, though, opted to quit Belle and Sebastian back in 2002, to pursue a solo career and a new life in Los Angeles, where she currently resides.
The singer and cellist had collaborated with Snow Patrol back in 1998, providing vocals for the song NYC on their debut album Songs for Polarbears.
She also released two solo albums in 1999 and 2000 under the stage name The Gentle Waves, as well as an EP of Billie Holliday songs with Scottish jazz musician Bill Wells.
The following year, her first solo album since her departure from Belle & Sebastian was released, Amorino, which was the first under her own moniker too.
Her fourth solo album, Milkwhite Sheets, followed in 2006, and after a long gap due to label troubles she released There Is No Other in 2020.
The singer later moved to LA and continued making music, with a new album out next month (Picture: Instagram/@isobelcampbellmusic)
She is instantly recognisable over 20 years later (Picture: Instagram/@isobelcampbellmusic)
New album Bow To Love represents a return after label troubles (Picture: Instagram/@isobelcampbellmusic)
During the interim, she moved to America’s West Coast with her husband and collaborator, recording engineer Chris Szczech.
She also began a professional partnership with late American singer Mark Lanegan, formerly of Queens of the Stone Age and Screaming Trees.
Their 2006 record together, Ballad of the Broken Seas, made the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize that year, and they released two further albums before his shock death in February 2022, aged 57.
Still making music now, Campbell’s new album Bow To Love is set for release on May 17, with single Everything Falls Apart out earlier this month.
The lead track, 4316, came out in February when she announced the album.
‘The album is about what we’re all in right now, and my response to that and my life as a microcosm within that,’ she explained in a statement at the time.
‘I think there’s a quote from A Course In Miracles which says, “Love brings up everything unlike itself for the purpose of healing and release”.
‘Maybe these horrible things are coming up and out so we can get rid of them and things can be better.’
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