Contact Stella Soleil

Full Name:

Stella Soleil

Stella Soleil extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Stella Soleil
Birth name	Stella Katsoudas
Born	November 3, 1971 (1971-11-03) (age 38)
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres	Pop, dance, Rock
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, Record Label Owner
Years active	1996-present
Labels	Katharsis Records (Owner), Universal (mid 90s-2002), LunaPark Records (Owner, present label)
Website	Official site

Stella Katsoudas; better known as Stella Soleil, (born November 3, 1971) is an American pop and rock singer best known for her work with 'Sister Soleil' and her 2001 cover hit "Kiss Kiss". She has been working in the music industry for over 10 years. She is currently the vocalist for Dirty Little Rabbits.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and career beginnings 1.2 1997-2001: Life at Universal Records 1.3 Whorse and life after pop stardom 1.4 April 2007 - Dirty Little Rabbits 1.5 Albums 1.6 Singles 2 Books 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Early life and career beginnings

Stella grew up in Chicago, Illinois and as a child was a classically trained ballet dancer. She discovered her passion for singing when her brother needed a replacement singer for his band on short notice. Soon a local recording studio offered her free time in return for working for their studio. Soon she began doing back up vocals for a number of local bands.

Deciding to make a name for herself she decided to record a 7 track EP disc and send it out to record labels. Discovering labels wouldn't take unsolicited demos she got an idea: she would 'pretend' to be an A&R rep. She made up the fake name 'Sarah Kaye' and made buzz for her fake label "Katharsis Records".

The fake label and A&R rep soon created so much buzz that her debut performance at the 1100 seat Metro Chicago was sold out; despite her having never performed at all before. She used the funds from the performance to make "Katharsis Records" a real live indie label. "Katharsis Records" proceeded to release her EP to the public with the title "Drown Me In You".

In 1996, she sang backing vocals for the Ministry song "Useless", from the album Filth Pig.

Stella also collaborated with Chemlab on their album East Side Militia she sang on "Vera Blue" it was when she really started to get into industrial music, circa 1995, 1996, 1997. They also told her about 1001 Homo DJ's (band), which is how she first discovered the voice of Trent Reznor. She also worked with 16 Volt on LetdownCrush she did background vocals for "Swarm" and on Big Shiny Spears additional vocals on "Chemikaze."

Additional collaborations included Die Warzau part of a side project with Van Christie which lead to working together on the album Soularium.

When working on her record at Real World Studios Stella wrote two tracks with Joseph Arthur "Butterfly" and "Hanging Around" she gained lots of inspiration from him.

Peter Gabriel wanted to use a couple of producer's she was working with to program a couple of tracks for him. He also worked on a song on the Soularium album called "Blind" that she had written in Chicago with Preston Klik and Thomas Cray. There it was, like a mantra, he sang over and over again "shine like the sun, shine like the sun.”

When Stella got her record deal with Universal, Stella flew Corey Taylor into Real World Studios to record a song called "Liar." When Sister Soleil toured for the Soularium album in the midwest Corey would always come to do the show live with her, ending in a fist fight on the floor, their idea of a antithesis to "Baby Its Cold Outside."

Gaining a lot of recognition in the midwest thanks to radio D.J. Sophia John of the once 107.5 KKDM Radio Station in Des Moines, Iowa. Sister Soleil had a lot of airplay, featuring top songs "Red" and "Torch" and performing at the local radio station's music festival "The Dotfest", the band received a lot of great feedback. However at the time of her record being released there was a different scene that was more popular.

1997-2001: Life at Universal Records

To gain inspiration for her next album, Stella took a two year trek around the world, during which she read, wrote in journals, and practiced yoga while recording in five different countries. "I spent two years by myself," she said. "[The label] was really supportive that I needed to go across the Atlantic to reinvent myself and to find my voice and my writing muse."¹

In 2001, Stella was transformed into "Stella Soleil" (Soleil is French for sun) a Pop princess ready to compete with Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, and Christina Aguilera who were all very popular at the time.

The record went through many different phases. While the tracks "Imperfect" and "Stand Up" were being worked on at such well known studios in London known as Milo Studios and Air Studios the track "Pretty Young Thing" was being worked on in the states. Once the tracks were finished, at last minute Universal decided to have her do a cover song.

The first single released was Kiss Kiss the English version of "Şımarık" originally sung by Turkish star Tarkan. The song's popularity spread after first being played on Y-100, a South Floridian radio station. "Kiss Kiss" was one of Stella's biggest hits reaching #27 on the Billboard Top 40 charts in the US.².

On May 1, 2001 Stella released her 2nd album "Dirty Little Secret". Despite the success of 'Kiss Kiss' the album barely charted at #106 on Billboard though it did reach #2 on the Heatseekers chart.³ However her song "Stand Up" was featured on the WB Fall Line Up as background music. Several different artists also worked on versions of "Kiss Kiss" such as Holly Valance and Lene.

A poll was held on her official website asking what the next single should be. "Pretty Young Thing" was chosen and released to the radio though it never charted. After the low chart positions and failed follow up single, Stella and Universal parted ways the following year.

Many fans criticized Stella's sound during this time. They considered it 'selling out' and too poppy. Unlike her fellow (and younger) Pop princesses, Stella was able to write her own music and had years of experience under her belt. Stella herself has expressed dissatisfaction with this era due to her lack of creative control. In her MySpace biography, it states "Dirty Little Secret was a hit. However, Stella decided to drop the pop act in search of something she could relate to easier."

Whorse and life after pop stardom

After parting ways with Universal, Stella took some time off including taking up dog grooming classes in New York. Afer 9/11 she attended training with the American Red Cross, her experience in New York, between the pop album and the tragedy in New York took Stella through an emotional rollercoaster, which is when she began to write again, and thus began her new project. She eventually relocated to Los Angeles, California, shaved her head to get rid of all the hair dye and to start over. She created her own rock band named Whorse. Whorse consisted of Benjamin Rowley on bass guitar, and Jeff Hanes on drums, and Stella on vocals. The band self released their debut album. The album was not available in stores but only as mail order through the band itself. The album featured a cover of "Horse with No Name" originally performed by the band America. The band traveled to the midwest and did an Iowa residency tour for a month, sharing the bill with the band Hitting My Dad based out of Ames, Iowa. The shows included rock, as well as intimate acoustic shows with bongos. The band continued to do several shows in L.A. at venues such as The Troubadour, The Gig, The Roxy and even more popular venues in Los Angeles. The band was set up to play a show in Arizona and disbanded.

Stella decided to return to recording her own music in 2005. She recorded an EP To Swell So High and started working on a full length album Tutu's and Tattoos. She recorded a duet song "Глаза" ("Eyes") with Russian artist Dolphin and the song was released as critically acclaimed and a highly successful single. In 2006, she began performing around the Los Angeles area with her new show "Stella Soleil and the Cosmic Ballet".[1]

As she continues to work on her music, she has other side projects as well. Her label "LunaPark Records", now part of the Universal Music Group, has been signing acts. She has also added 'author' to her resume by penning an autobiography entitled, Almost a Pop Princess which is almost finished. Apparently, some publishers are quite interested. She was featured on a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "A Warm Place", which was intended for use on the 1999 film Stigmata soundtrack and is now available for free download at Nine Inch Nails' official remix site.

April 2007 - Dirty Little Rabbits

In January 2007, Shawn Crahan of Slipknot and Michael Pfaff of Grimes, Iowa, met and started to collaborate on a project they called Pfaffenclown. After initial writing sessions, they began to look for members for this new band and eventually invited Jeff Karnowski of Des Moines, Iowa on bass and Tyler Fyhrie of the Colorado-based band Murder of Crows on guitar. In April 2007, Crahan, who had known Stella since Slipknot began performing in Des Moines in 1995, invited her to become the lead vocalist for Dirty Little Rabbits and she accepted. Since then, Dirty Little Rabbits have performed in Omaha, Des Moines, Chicago, as well as being on a month-long tour with Stone Sour and Sydonia in August 2007.

Albums

• Drown Me in You (EP released under the name Sister Soleil)
• Soularium (released under the name Sister Soleil)
• Dirty Little Secret (released under 'Stella Soleil')
• To Swell So High (EP released under 'Stella Soleil')
• Breeding (EP released with Dirty Little Rabbits in 2007)
• Simon (Second EP released with Dirty Little Rabbits in 2009)
• Tatu's and Tattoos (TBA)

Singles

• "Torch"
• "Kiss Kiss"
• "Pretty Young Thing"
• "Webisode" (released February 1, 2007)

Books

• Almost a Pop Princess

References

External links

• Official Site (MySpace fansite)
• Official Personal Site
• Dirty Little Rabbits' MySpace Site
• StellaSoleil.net
• Allmusic Stella Soleil page
• The New Era of Stella Soleil Interview 2006
• Official Fan Group
• (Stella Soleil, Sister Soleil Discography)

v • d • e Dirty Little Rabbits Stella Katsoudas · Ty Fyhrie · Jeff Karnowski · Shawn Crahan · Michael Pfaff EPs Breeding · Simon Related groups Slipknot · To My Surprise