Anomie Belle

"I grew up in your prototypical American suburb. The manicured lawns, strip mall parking lots, chain stores, and massive expanses of cement and housing developments depressed me. I chose the moniker Anomie Belle to speak to the decadent alienation of the American dream.

Growing up, music became my outlet. Bored by video games and dollhouses, I plunked away on my parent's piano for hours at a time, teaching myself to play blues riffs and writing little pop songs."

Anomie Belle's parents gave her a karaoke machine when she was ten years old. She immediately chucked the pre-set karaoke tapes and began multi-track recording her own songs. Already a classical violinist performing in an orchestra, Anomie had also taught herself the piano. She recorded one instrument at a time to the tapes, adding vocals and harmonies. Desiring more layers, she began teaching herself to play more instruments; she hasn't stopped. To this day, Anomie Belle's music asserts itself through careful layering of rhythm, texture and harmony while remaining moody and sensual.

As a college student, Anomie Belle became dissatisfied with her ability to fully produce her own music, so she studied drums, audio engineering and electronic programming. She spent the next four years working as a studio musician, chamber violinist, radio DJ and producer in Madrid, New York, Buenos Aires, Glasgow and Amsterdam. While immersed in the music communities of each locale, Anomie began concocting her eloquently sexy style, drawing upon the multitude of genres that surrounded her.

Anomie Belle arrived in Seattle itching to ambush the ears and minds of listeners. The haunting melodies that had so often soothed the crowded nature of Anomie's own mind, materialized, with angsty experimental soundscapes and provocative lyrics set to introspective urban beats. She recorded Sleeping Patterns in solitude over the next two years while playing live shows to test her ideas on ever-so-willing Seattleites.

Since the release of Sleeping Patterns in 2008, Anomie Belle has toured and collaborated with the likes of Tricky, The Album Leaf, Mr. Lif (The Perceptionists), Jon Auer (The Posies, Big Star), Little Dragon, and Bajofondo. She also shared the stage with Bonobo, Phantogram, Kid Koala, Azure Ray, The Heavy, Efterklang, Emily Wells, Grieves & Budo, Sea Wolf, Asobi Seksu, Kimya Dawson, Mirah, Tristeza, Yppah and others.

Belle is also an active film composer. Her music has been featured in Xbox's Alan Wake, Showtime's United States of Tara, and MTV's Jersey Shore. She has composed scores for award winning short films that have screened at the Seattle International Film Festival, Toronto Hot Docs, and Bumbershoot, and is currently scoring a new television pilot.

Anomie Belle finds herself in a unique position in more ways than one. Less than 5 percent of music producers (and audio engineers) are female, and female composers scored less than 3 percent of the 500 top-grossing films in the USA in the past five years. Anomie has become active in empowering the next generation of female musicians to develop skills as producers and engineers, mentoring young women in audio recording, electronic music production, and film composition through mentoring at several Seattle and Portland nonprofit arts organizations.