Karen O | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Karen Lee Orzolek |
Also known as | Marshmellow |
Born | Seoul, South Korea | November 22, 1978
Origin | Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 2000–present |
Labels |
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Member of | Yeah Yeah Yeahs |
Spouse(s) | |
Website | karenomusic |
Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) [1] is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Karen Lee Orzolek was born in Seoul, South Korea, [2] [3] the daughter of a Korean mother and a Polish father. [4] [5] [6] The family eventually moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where she grew up [7] and graduated from The Elisabeth Morrow School and Dwight-Englewood School. [8] About her childhood, she stated that "it's almost embarrassing how well-behaved I was, which is probably why I do things like spit water on myself on stage as an adult". [9] She attended Oberlin College before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Karen O is known as the lead vocalist for the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She has also been noted for her fashion, often wearing outfits made by her friend, fashion designer Christian Joy. In the early days of the band, she became well-known for her antics during live shows. [5]
During a tour for the 2003 Livid Festival in Australia, at a sideshow at The Metro in Sydney, Karen O accidentally danced off the stage and was reluctantly taken to a hospital. A few days later, at the Sydney leg of the Livid Festival, she appeared in a wheelchair pushed onstage by Angus Andrew. [10]
In 2007, Karen O was placed at number three on Spinner's "Women Who Rock Right Now" list. [11] The following year, she debuted a side project called Native Korean Rock with fellow New York City musicians, with two intimate performances at Union Pool in Brooklyn on July 21. [12] [13]
In 2009, she contributed backing vocals, screaming animal sounds, and noises to the songs "Gemini Syringes", "I Can Be A Frog", and "Watching the Planets" on The Flaming Lips album Embryonic . In 2011, she contributed vocals on the song "Pinky's Dream" on the David Lynch debut album Crazy Clown Time . In 2012, she collaborated with experimental rock group Swans on the song "Song for a Warrior" on their album The Seer . She also lends vocals to the song "GO!" on Santigold's 2012 album Master of My Make-Believe .
On the collaboration project with N.A.S.A. on The Spirit of Apollo , she appears on the track "Strange Enough", together with Ol' Dirty Bastard and Fatlip. Karen O's vocal approach has been described as "ethereal", [14] and has been described as "yelping" at times. [15] She described her approach:
We still have to grab people by the collar ... We put out a record every three years now; we could easily be forgotten. If you look at a lot of our peers that we came up with, a lot of them have disappeared.
Karen O has also collaborated with James Iha on his second solo LP Look to the Sky in 2012. In 2014, Target used a version of the song "A Marshmallow World" sung by Karen O. [16] In 2015 she did a remake of Animotion's Obsession, written by legendary songwriter, Holly Knight for a new STARZ show, Flesh and Bone. On May 5, 2015, a song by Karen O in tribute to Nellie Bly was used as part of a Google doodle commemorating Bly's 151st birthday. [17] The same year, Microsoft approached Karen O to pen a theme song for Square Enix's game Rise of the Tomb Raider , which resulted in the song "I Shall Rise". [18]
Karen O was featured in the track "Cut Me Up" by Har Mar Superstar for the soundtrack to the 2005 horror film House of Wax . For the movie Jackass 2 , Karen O collaborated with electronic artist Peaches and Johnny Knoxville to record a track entitled "Backass"; for Jackass 3D , she covered Roger Alan Wade's "If You're Gonna Be Dumb" under the alternative title of "If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough". In 2007, she also contributed vocals to a version of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" for the I'm Not There film soundtrack. [19] At the end of episode 409, "Brothers Cinco", of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! she performed a short song. She also has a song titled "Strange Love" on the album "Frankenweenie Unleashed!"
Karen O collaborated with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the soundtrack to the 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , for which Reznor and Ross composed the score. [20]
Karen O and Spike Jonze collaborated on a 2005 Adidas commercial, Hello Tomorrow , after Jonze had directed the video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2004 single "Y Control". Karen O composed all songs on the soundtrack of Jonze's film Where the Wild Things Are (with the exception of a cover of the Daniel Johnston song "Worried Shoes") in collaboration with Carter Burwell. She is listed on the soundtrack as "Karen O and the Kids". [21] The song "All Is Love", written by Karen O and Nick Zinner and included in this soundtrack, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, a songwriter's award, at the 2010 Grammy Awards. [22]
Karen O also contributed "The Moon Song" to Jonze's 2013 film Her . [23] Karen O and Jonze were nominated in 2014 for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Moon Song". [24]
Jonze shot the video for Karen O & Danger Mouse's "Woman" live in one take as the duo performed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
In 2004, Karen O, using the moniker Marshmellow, directed the music video for "We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own" by Liars, fronted by her then-boyfriend Angus Andrew. [25] [26] The following year, she directed the "Blessed Evening" video for Foetus with her then-boyfriend Spike Jonze working as cinematographer. [27] In 2006, she directed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs video for "Cheated Hearts". [28] [29]
Under the moniker Kids with Canes, Karen O and her now-husband Barnaby Clay directed the music video for the Tiny Masters of Today song "Hologram World", released in 2008. Karen O also contributed vocals to the song and served as choreographer of the video, in which she appears with Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, as well as Mike D from the Beastie Boys, Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers, Russell Simins from the Blues Explosion, and Sam James from The Mooney Suzuki. [30]
On December 10, 2006, a home-recorded album titled KO at Home was leaked via an invite-only BitTorrent tracking site. The album, originally a personal gift to Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, was discovered inside a suitcase that Sitek had left behind in a New York City apartment. The disc's 14 tracks and scan of the cover (a photograph of Karen O with a poem written by Oscar Wilde on the back side of the photo) quickly spread. News sites broke the story of the leak when Sitek lashed out at the fan who leaked the demos. [31] [32] [33] Eventually, Sitek followed up his comments with an apology letter. [34] In response to the leak, Karen O said that "shit happens", and although she was "a little grossed out", she offered commentary on which of the songs she liked the most. [35]
Karen O's debut solo album, Crush Songs , was released on September 9, 2014. [36] It was released on Cult Records via Kobalt Label Services. [37] On February 17, 2015, Karen O released a live album titled Live from Crush Palace, recorded during three shows at Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles in September 2014. The album features live renditions of songs from Crush Songs, as well as "Hideaway" from Where the Wild Things Are and "The Moon Song" from Her. [38] [39] On January 11, 2018, Karen O released the song "Yo! My Saint", featuring guest vocals from Michael Kiwanuka, in support of Kenzo's Spring Summer 2018 collection. [40] In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Karen O at number 184 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. [41]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(January 2022) |
Lux Prima is the collaborative album from Karen O and musician-producer Danger Mouse, released March 15, 2019. The two originally met to discuss collaboration in 2007 as mutual admirers, but did not collaborate until 2016 due to scheduling and availability, resulting in the album Lux Prima three years later.
"An Encounter with Lux Prima" [42] was an immersive art piece and communal listening experience soundtracked by Karen O and Danger Mouse's collaborative album Lux Prima. The installation premiered at Los Angeles' Marciano Art Foundation in April 2019, where it played to sold-out audiences.[ citation needed ] The piece saw the duo collaborate with a number of artists, including creative director Barnaby Clay, sound designer Ren Klyce, lighting designer Tobias Rylander and visual artist Davy Evans, in collaboration with George Lucas' Skywalker Sound and Meyer Sound on audio design and build, as well as MSG's Obscura Digital on projection mapping.[ citation needed ]
Karen O has dated Spike Jonze and Liars lead singer Angus Andrew, the latter of whom was the subject of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' song "Maps". [43] In December 2011, she married director Barnaby Clay. [44] Their son Django [45] was born in August 2015. [46]
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [47] | US Rock [48] | AUS Hit. [49] | CAN Rock [50] | FRA [51] | MEX [52] | UK Sales [53] | UK Indie Break. [54] | |||||
"All Is Love" (Karen O and the Kids) | 2009 | — [upper-alpha 1] | — | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | Where the Wild Things Are: Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||
"Immigrant Song" [56] (with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) | 2011 | — [upper-alpha 2] | — [upper-alpha 3] | 8 | 43 | — | 49 | — | — | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | ||
"The Moon Song" (with Ezra Koenig) | 2014 | — | 27 | — | — | 194 | 34 | — | 13 | Non-album single | ||
"Rapt" [59] | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6 | — | Crush Songs | |||
"I Shall Rise" [60] | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | ||
"Yo! My Saint" [61] (featuring Michael Kiwanuka) | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | 41 | — | — | |||
"Anti-Lullaby" [62] | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Hanna: Season 1 (Music from the Amazon Original Series) | ||
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings" [63] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Woman" [64] (with Danger Mouse) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Lux Prima | |||
"Lux Prima" [65] (with Danger Mouse) | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | ||||
"Turn The Light" [66] (with Danger Mouse) | — | 40 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Under Pressure" [67] (with Willie Nelson) | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 18 | — | Non-album single | ||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
US [47] | MEX [52] | |||
"Hello Tomorrow" (Adidas version) [68] (Squeak E. Clean featuring Karen O) | 2005 | 85 | — | Non-album single |
"Strange Enough" [69] (N.A.S.A featuring Karen O, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and Fatlip) | 2010 | — | — | The Spirit of Apollo |
"Pinky's Dream" [70] (David Lynch featuring Karen O) | 2012 | — | 37 | Crazy Clown Time |
"Let It Grow" [71] (Maximum Balloon featuring Karen O and Tunde Adebimpe) | 2015 | — | — | Non-album single |
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
---|---|---|---|
MEX [52] | |||
"Strange Love" | 2012 | 41 | Frankenweenie Unleashed! |
Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
---|---|---|---|
"Cut Me Up" | 2004 | Har Mar Superstar | The Handler [72] |
"The DNA Will Have Its Say" | 2005 | Some Girls | The DNA Will Have Its Say |
"Hologram World" | 2007 | Tiny Masters of Today | Bang Bang Boom Cake [73] |
"Highway 61 Revisited" | The Million Dollar Bashers | I'm Not There: Original Soundtrack [74] | |
"Strange Enough" | 2009 | N.A.S.A., Ol' Dirty Bastard, Fatlip | The Spirit of Apollo [75] |
"Watching the Planets" | The Flaming Lips | Embryonic | |
"Communion" | 2010 | Maximum Balloon | Maximum Balloon [76] |
"If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough" | None | Jackass 3D: Music from the Motion Picture [77] | |
"Go!" | 2012 | Santigold | Master of My Make-Believe [78] |
"Song for a Warrior" | Swans | The Seer [79] | |
"Strange Love" | None | Frankenweenie Unleashed! [80] | |
"The Moon Song" (studio version duet) | 2014 | Ezra Koenig | "The Moon Song (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture Her )" (single) [81] |
"The Moon Song" (end title credit) | None | ||
"Rattlesnakes" | Walter Martin, Nick Zinner | We're All Young Together [82] | |
"Sing 2 Me" | Walter Martin | ||
"Living in a Trance" | 2017 | None | Resistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album [83] |
"Talisa" | Daniele Luppi, Parquet Courts | Milano [84] | |
"Flush" | |||
"Pretty Prizes" | |||
"The Golden Ones" | |||
"Sorrow Is My Name" | None | Vanity of Vanities: A Tribute to Connie Converse [85] | |
"Dial D For Devotion" | 2020 | The Avalanches | We Will Always Love You |
In 2006, Karen O was nominated for the GAFFA-Prisen Award for Best Foreign Female Act. [86]
Karen O was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "The Moon Song" with Spike Jonze for the film Her . [24]
Adam Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring member in 2009 and replaced Imaad Wasif, who had previously held the role. According to an interview that aired during ABC's Live from Central Park SummerStage series, the band's name was taken from modern New York City vernacular.
Fever to Tell is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, by Interscope Records. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder. Four singles were issued, the first being "Date with the Night" followed by "Pin", "Maps" and "Y Control".
"Maps" is a song by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell (2003). The song is about the relationship between Liars frontman Angus Andrew and Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O. Released in September 2003, the song reached number nine on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 26 in the United Kingdom. The band performed the song at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, and the music video received extensive play on MTV.
"Gold Lion" is the first single by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their second album, Show Your Bones. Distinct in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' discography, it features acoustic guitar and a more slowed-down pace in contrast to earlier works like "Bang!" and "Date with the Night". It was released on March 20, 2006, and became the band's second major hit after 2004's "Maps".
American singer and actress Ashley Tisdale has released three studio albums, one soundtrack album, one extended play, and ten singles. Prior to launching a musical career of her own, Tisdale starred as Sharpay Evans on the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical in 2006. Consequently, it became a franchise that released several soundtracks, in which she performed under character. The 2006 soundtrack became the top-selling album in the United States that year. With "What I've Been Looking For" and "Bop to the Top", both singles from that soundtrack, she became the first female artist to debut with two songs simultaneously on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Santi White, known professionally as Santigold, is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, Santogold (2008), received widespread critical acclaim for its cross-genre combining dub, new wave, and hip-hop. The album's second single "L.E.S. Artistes", reached the top 40 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Zero" is a song by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released as the lead single from their third studio album, It's Blitz! (2009). The song received critical acclaim from music critics for its production, and was named the best track of 2009 by both NME and Spin magazines.
Sam Spiegel, known by the stage name Sam i and previously as Squeak E. Clean, is an American DJ, producer, composer, and director from New York City.
"Heads Will Roll" is a song by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released as the second single from their third studio album, It's Blitz! (2009). The CD and 7-inch singles were released in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2009.
"All Is Love" is a song written by Karen O and Nick Zinner for the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. The song was recorded by Karen O and the Kids, a group consisting of O, Zinner, and several other prominent indie rock musicians, and released as the lead single from the film's soundtrack on August 25, 2009. The name "All is Love" is a play on the name of the Swedish band Love is All, whose song "Make Out Fall Out" inspired Karen O. The whimsical song contains shouting, whistling, and clapping and incorporates an untrained children's choir.
Where the Wild Things Are: Motion Picture Soundtrack: Original Songs by Karen O and the Kids is the soundtrack to the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. It is performed by Karen O and the Kids. It was released on September 29, 2009, in CD, LP, and digital download formats.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the score album for David Fincher's 2011 film of the same name, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It was released on December 9, 2011, through The Null Corporation in the US and Mute Records outside North America. This is the second soundtrack that Reznor and Ross have worked on together, following the Oscar-winning The Social Network, also for Fincher.
Master of My Make-Believe is the second studio album by American musician and singer Santigold, released in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2012 and in the United States on May 1, through Downtown and Atlantic Records. The album features contributions from a wide range of musicians, including long-time collaborators John Hill, Switch and Diplo, as well as Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The cover art of the album, designed by Jason Schmidt, represents four incarnations of Santigold. The album received positive reviews from music critics, and earned Santigold her first number one on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and reached number 21 on the US Billboard 200 and number 33 on the UK Albums Chart.
Crush Songs is the debut solo studio album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead vocalist Karen O. It was released on September 5, 2014, by Cult Records. "Rapt" was released as the album's lead single on July 29, 2014.
"Yellow Flicker Beat" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde released on 29 September 2014 as the lead single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 by Republic Records. Written by Lorde and Joel Little and produced by Little and Paul Epworth, it is as an art pop and electropop song with minimal synthesisers, drums, and vocal samples in its production. Music critics compared its instrumentation style to the singer's work on her 2013 debut album Pure Heroine. The track's lyrics refer to the rise of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games (2008–2010) young adult dystopian novel trilogy.
Lauren Ashley Daigle is an American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter. After being signed to the label Centricity Music, she released her debut album, How Can It Be, in 2015. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart, has been certified Platinum by the RIAA and produced three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Christian Airplay chart.
Japanese Breakfast is an American indie pop band headed by musician Michelle Zauner. Zauner started the band as a side project in 2013, when she was leading the Philadelphia-based emo group Little Big League. She has said that she named the band after seeing a GIF of Japanese breakfast and deciding that the term would be considered "exotic" to Americans; she also thought it would make others wonder what a Japanese breakfast consists of.
Michelle Chongmi Zauner is an American musician and author, known as the lead vocalist of the alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast. Her 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, spent 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list. In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the category Innovators on their annual list.
Lux Prima is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Danger Mouse. It was released in March 2019 under BMG Records.
On a wintry evening in late November [2008], Karen O celebrated her 30th birthday by ...
Karen O: Actually, I was born in Seoul. Zauner: You were born in Seoul, that’s right! Your Wikipedia used to say Busan. Karen O: Does it still say that? Zauner: Yeah, it still says that. Karen O: We changed it two years ago. I guess they went back— Zauner: Busan really wants to claim you [laughs].— Rolling Stone, Karen O and Michelle Zauner on Smashing Expectations and the Power of ‘No’
... ethereal vocals over charmingly ramshackle folk-pop arrangements ...
... singer Karen O yelps her mandate over slabs of marbled synths ...