Eleven | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Los Angeles, California, USA |
Genres | Alternative rock, grunge, hard rock |
Years active | 1990–2007 |
Labels | Morgan Creek, [1] Third Rail, A&M |
Past members | Alain Johannes Jack Irons Natasha Shneider Matt Cameron Greg Upchurch Ric Markmann |
Eleven was an American alternative rock group from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990 by Alain Johannes (vocals, guitar, sitar, horns), Natasha Shneider (vocals, keyboards, bass), and Jack Irons (drums).
Eleven's early history is intertwined with that of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As teenagers Irons and Johannes formed the band Anthym with Flea and Hillel Slovak; this band was soon to be renamed What Is This. The members of What Is This then joined with Anthony Kiedis to form the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but Slovak and Irons also continued to record with Johannes, and What Is This released the EP Squeezed with Chris Hutchinson playing bass. After the recording of the self-titled second What Is This album, Slovak and Irons discontinued the band to concentrate full-time on the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Johannes and Shneider met and formed the duo Walk The Moon, which featured Irons and Hutchinson on several tracks. When Irons later left the Red Hot Chili Peppers he teamed up with his former bandmate Johannes and his new partner to form Eleven.
Midway through the recording of Eleven's third album, Thunk, Irons departed again to drum with Pearl Jam, and Matt Cameron played drums on the album's remaining four tracks. Irons was replaced by Greg Upchurch for their fourth album, Avantegardedog, but returned to the band once again prior to the recording of their fifth album, Howling Book. Rick Markmann played bass for Eleven on stage, though he did not feature on any of their albums.
Eleven toured with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age and Candlebox, and Johannes and Shneider also became a sought-after production team that worked on albums such as Chris Cornell's Euphoria Morning (on which they also wrote, performed and toured), No Doubt's Return of Saturn , Steadman's Revive, and The Desert Sessions 7&8 and 9&10 with Josh Homme. Most of the recording took place at 11AD, their home studio; Howling Book was self-produced, recorded and mixed in its entirety at 11AD.
The band has cited as their major influences Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Sergei Prokofiev. With Chris Cornell, they recorded Shneider's arrangement of Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria", which appears on the album A Very Special Christmas 3 , in the liner notes of which they state they deliberately chose a classical work to help interest young people in classical music.
Johannes and Shneider contributed the theme for the film Catwoman . The track was composed by Johannes and Shneider with Shneider credited as the performer rather than the band.
On July 2, 2008 Natasha Shneider died following a battle with cancer. The news broke with a message posted on the Myspace page of the band Sweethead, of which Natasha's former bandmate Troy Van Leeuwen is a member and was a close friend:
Natasha Shneider, musician extraordinaire, former actress, singer of the ground-breaking band Eleven, and one-time Queens Of The Stone Age keyboard player, died today at 11:11am of cancer. She was a brilliant, beautiful, and ballsy woman who will be missed deeply by all those who knew her. Send your loving thoughts her way in the universe.
— Sweethead Myspace page, 2008
Another tribute message later replaced the main page at the official website of Queens of the Stone Age.
According to Eleven's July 11, 2007 Myspace blog, they were working on a sixth album that they planned to have released by the fall. No release date has been announced and it is unclear how much, if any, of a new album was completed.
Johannes and Irons later were part of the band Spinnerette, in which Johannes had a major hand in songwriting. Shneider is credited with "spiritual guidance."
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk, punk rock, hard rock, hip hop, and psychedelic rock. Their eclectic range has influenced genres such as funk metal, rap metal, rap rock, and nu metal. With over 120 million records sold worldwide, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the top-selling bands of all time. They hold the records for most number-one singles (15), most cumulative weeks at number one (91) and most top-ten songs (28) on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. They have won three Grammy Awards, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2022 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Anthony Kiedis is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis and his fellow band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Hillel Slovak was an Israeli-American musician, best known as the founding guitarist of the Los Angeles rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he recorded two albums. His guitar work was rooted in funk and hard rock, and he often experimented with other genres, including reggae and speed metal. He is considered to have been a major influence on Red Hot Chili Peppers' early sound.
Mother's Milk is the fourth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 16, 1989 by EMI Records. After the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak and the subsequent departure of drummer Jack Irons, vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea regrouped with the addition of guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. Frusciante's influence altered the band's sound by placing more emphasis on melody than rhythm, which had dominated the band's previous material. Returning producer Michael Beinhorn favored heavy metal guitar riffs as well as overdubbing. Frusciante perceived Beinhorn's taste as excessive, and as a result, the two constantly fought over the album's guitar sound.
Out in L.A. is a compilation of rare tracks by the Red Hot Chili Peppers released November 1, 1994, on EMI. Interpreted by music critics as an attempt by EMI to capitalize on the group's newfound success with Warner Bros., it collects remixes, demo recordings, live covers and outtakes. On release, Out in L.A. received negative reviews from music critics.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers is the debut studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 10, 1984, via EMI America and Enigma Records. The album was produced by Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, and is the only Peppers album to feature Jack Sherman on guitar. Sherman was in the band as a replacement for founding member Hillel Slovak, who'd left the band along with founding drummer Jack Irons before the album was recorded. After the tour for this album, Sherman was fired and Slovak rejoined the band. The album also features founding members Anthony Kiedis on vocals and Flea on bass, as well as Cliff Martinez on drums.
Jack Steven Irons is an American drummer. He is the founding drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers until he departed in 1988 and is a former member of Pearl Jam and Eleven.
What Is This was an American rock band that originated in Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, California. Formed by guitarist Hillel Slovak, drummer Jack Irons, vocalist Alain Johannes, and bassist Todd Strassman, the band served as the nucleus for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Members of the band would go on to perform with Eleven, Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam, Mark Lanegan, Them Crooked Vultures, Alain Johannes Trio and Queens of the Stone Age.
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan is the third studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 29, 1987, by EMI Manhattan. Due to prior obligations resulting in temporary personnel changes following the band's formation in 1983, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan is the only studio album to feature all four founding members of the band on every track: vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons. This is also the last album with Slovak before his death from a drug overdose in 1988, and the only full-length album to feature Irons. "Fight Like a Brave" was released as the album's only single, although "Me and My Friends" received minor radio airplay. In 1992, "Behind the Sun" was released as a single and music video to promote What Hits!?.
Freaky Styley is the second studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 16, 1985, through EMI America Records. Freaky Styley marks founding guitarist Hillel Slovak's studio album debut, following his return to the band earlier in the year. The album is the last to feature drummer Cliff Martinez. Freaky Styley was produced by George Clinton, of Parliament-Funkadelic, and the sessions benefitted from Clinton's chemistry during recording.
What Hits!? is a greatest hits album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers released on September 29, 1992, by EMI. The album contains tracks from the band's first four albums as well as "Under the Bridge" from their fifth album, 1991's hit Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and the Pretty Woman soundtrack contribution/single B-side "Show Me Your Soul". "Behind the Sun" was released as a single and music video to accompany the release of this compilation. The song originally appeared on the band's 1987 album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The compilation is the only full-length release of the band to feature "Show Me Your Soul".
Alain Johannes Mociulski is a Chilean-American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, whose primary instruments are guitar and bass. He is a founding member of several bands, including the alternative rock group Eleven, and has been involved with acts such as hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey, Chris Cornell, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan and The Desert Sessions, both as a musician and as a producer.
Natalia Mikhailovna Schneiderman, known as Natasha Shneider, was a Latvian-born Russian-American musician and actress. She was most notably the keyboardist and vocalist in the band Eleven, along with her partner, bandmate Alain Johannes. Shneider contributed to tracks for Chris Cornell and Queens of the Stone Age, and together with Johannes toured with Cornell on his Euphoria Morning tour in 1999 and with Queens in 2005 on their Lullabies to Paralyze tour. She died of cancer in 2008.
Spinnerette was an alternative rock band formed in 2007. The band was a vehicle for the solo career of Brody Dalle following the breakup of her previous band, The Distillers, in 2006. The band featured Tony Bevilacqua, Jack Irons and Alain Johannes. Dalle stopped using the Spinnerette moniker in 2010 and continued her solo career under her own name.
Attention Dimension is the first solo studio album by drummer Jack Irons. It was released on September 7, 2004, through Breaching Whale.
Awake in a Dream is the debut album by the American hard rock band Eleven, released in 1991 on Morgan Creek Records. Singles from the album include "Break the Spell" and "Rainbow's End", which had a music video released. A promotional EP titled Vowel Movement was also released, featuring alternate mixes of four songs on the album. The album is named for a line in the song "Learning to Be".
The Uplift Mofo Party Tour was a concert tour by Red Hot Chili Peppers to support their third studio album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Founding drummer, Jack Irons returned to the band the previous year to finish out the band's tour and record the next album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, which ended up being the only album and full tour to feature the four founding band members: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak and Irons. It was the band's biggest tour at the time and featured their first trip to Europe. Kiedis, who started to develop a major drug problem on the previous tour, started to fall deeper into his addiction and Slovak's addiction to heroin only grew stronger as well. Slovak died of a heroin overdose a few weeks after the end of the tour on June 25, 1988. The surviving three members regrouped for a small boat trip with then manager, Lindy Goetz. It was there that Irons decided he could no longer deal with being in the band and Slovak's death was too hard for him to handle so he decided to quit the band again, this time for good.
To Be One with You is the debut studio album from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Josh Klinghoffer, under the pseudonym of Pluralone. The album features guest appearances from his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate Flea and his bandmates in the experimental rock band Dot Hacker, Eric Gardner and Clint Walsh along with appearances by former Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery and former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons. Klinghoffer previously released the single "Io Sono Quel Che Sono/Menina Mulher Da Pele Preta" under the Pluralone name.