BIOGRAPHY

about Sian Evans

EARLY LIFE

Sian Evans’ family have a long musical history. Her mother was a singer and Sian herself began singing from an early age. Her grandfather was a composer and conducted for male voice choirs and by her teenage years she was following in his footsteps providing vocals for numerous jazz and r&b bands, as well as immersing herself in the music of female singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell. A hip-hop enthusiast from an early age, it was perhaps inevitable that the young Sian would be caught up in the energy of the fledgling dance scene. Sian had her first encounter with drum & bass courtesy of the seminal Roughneck Ting parties. She had left home at 16 and moved to Cardiff to escape, living in squats and friends’ houses while working several jobs at once and travelling to parties and festivals all over the country.

I always got it. I was never refused entry and I rarely had any money. I was top blagger

Having moved through the free party scene, Sian found her musical tastes radically altered by a change in her personal life. At the height of the rave scene, in 1991, she gave birth to her son, and was forced to reassess her priorities.

I had a baby at the height of the rave scene which obviously puts a stop to going crazy. It started me thinking a lot more about songs and the music, and at the time I also got full on into jungle

With a strong foundation in her mother’s collection of Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell LPs, Sian began applying her combined tastes to a variety of dance music and funk/jazz projects, before retreating up a Welsh mountain to raise her little boy in a teepee.

For the next four years, Sian and her son split their time between environmental protests like Newbury and working at summer festivals. It was all she needed to give her a taste for living outdoors and so in 1996, Sian moved into a tepee on a traveller’s site in the Brechfa Forest for nine months. At night, after her son went to bed, Sian passed the time by writing songs. Despite being brought up writing poetry and listening to Welsh folk music and Joni Mitchell, it was the first time Sian had felt moved to create music. Realising her future lay with these songs – in fact, most of them went on to form the tracks on Kosheen’s debut album, ‘Resist’ – she soon moved back to Bristol to find someone to play them with.

KOSHEEN

Whilst most people might find this a rather daunting experience, Sian was only driven back to regular life in Bristol by a growing collection of songs, and an increasing frustration at having nobody but a few sheep to play them to. Darren Beale and Mark Davies first heard Sian singing on a track by a friend of theirs, but deciding that all’s fair in love and war. Their first studio meeting yielded instant results

I hadn’t even taken my coat off when I heard their music and we started working. And it hasn’t changed since then. We still fling things down that fast, it’s a lovely chemistry

As a trio, the band learned they could combine their respective loves of rock, hip-hop, jazz, drum n’ bass and folk. The debut single ‘Hide U‘ grabbed hold of the dance circuit in mid-2001, later earning Kosheen honours for Best Single at the Drum & Bass Awards in the UK. ‘Hide U’ reached number 6 in the UK, while ‘Catch‘ hit number 15 and ‘Hungry‘ reached number 13. The accompanying album ‘Resist‘ (now platinum–selling) went on to reach number 8 in the UK album chart and made the top 30 in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece. It has since sold half a million copies, making it the most successful drum & bass album at that time.

Ignoring the accepted protocol that dictates ‘dance’ acts don’t play live, Kosheen then set off on tour. With their debut album ‘Resist’ this equated to an impressive 141 shows in 33 countries to an audience of over million.

I cut my teeth on pub gigs in Wales. so I really wanted to get the music of Kosheen represented live. The songs really translated because they're very melodic. A lot of them were written on the guitar and we can actually do most of them unplugged too. When you strip a song down like that and it still works, you know it’s a good song. A lot of people were surprised when they go into the gig and see a full band set up with a drum kit and guitars. No one’s been disappointed

In fact, crowds of up to 17,000 have since seen the band play in Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia, even America where fans who had only heard Kosheen via Napster knew all the lyrics before anything had ever officially been played there. The LA Times went so far as to proclaim the band one of four hot new electronica acts to watch for. In summer 2001, Kosheen further cemented their reputation as a world-class live act by performing to a 20,000-strong crowd in Serbia, the first international band to do so since the trouble in the Balkans.

After touring extensively, Kosheen had become a successful live act and festival favourite. By 2002 the band had recorded enough new material for their second album. ‘All in my head‘, the first single released from ‘Kokopelli‘ went straight into the charts at number 7. After ‘Kokopelli’ went gold in the UK, Kosheen left BMG in the midst of the Sony/BMG merger, signed to Universal Germany, and returned to the studio, with a new drive and vision and worked on their third album, ‘Damage‘ for the next two years. ‘Damage’ featuring ‘Guilty‘ & ‘Overkill‘ was released in Europe in March 2007 by Moksha/Universal GMBH.

‘Independence‘, Kosheen’s fourth studio album was released in October 2012 and their fifth, ‘Solitude‘, in December 2013, both on Kosheen Recordings.

Over the past few years, Kosheen took a hiatus from touring. During this time, Sian Evans took the time to channel her energy and innovate the band’s live show from a whole new perspective. She reached a new level of passion and depth, bringing Kosheen’s music and live shows to a whole new level of excellence. Her live performances have always been brandished by her unique ability to resonate every lyric in the hearts of each and every member of the audience with ﬂawless vocals, charismatic charm, and boundless enthusiasm.

As a result, the band returned in full force in 2019, headlining countless UK and European festivals and world-class events.

Since then, Kosheen has put out some of their best shows, still going strong with a reformed line-up, performing blistering, passionate and powerful sets.

In 2021, Kosheen celebrated 20 years of their iconic record with a “Resist 20th Anniversary Tour” across the UK. The tour was a groundbreaking milestone for the band. Fans and attendees have received the band’s powerful performance with widespread acclaim. Sian Evans is a true force to be reckoned with on stage, putting so much energy into her show and matching the intensity of her music with her unique presence and charisma. Show after show, Kosheen hit the mark continuing to cement their reputation as one of the most iconic performing bands of their time.

This year, Kosheen is back on the road with a massive UK tour to celebrate 25 years of music, performing the best tracks spanning the career.

COLLABORATIONS

Early into the following decade, as Sian remained in the group, she made a name for herself as a featured vocalist. She had also worked on a side project with Simon Kingman as Melo Park.After a reunion gig in aid of the Tsunami disaster, Sian and Simon began writing songs in the winter of 2006 and in 2007 began developing Melo Park. They later played festivals in Russia and Glastonbury in 2008.

In 2011, Sian Evans teamed up with Dj Fresh writing and featuring on the number 1 smash hit ‘Louder‘. It was released on 3 July 2011 on Ministry of Sound. The song debuted at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart, UK Dance Chart, UK Indie Chart and the Scottish Charts with first week sales in excess of 140,000 copies. In its second week, the single shifted an additional 80,000 digital copies. The song also peaked at number 4 in the Irish Singles Chart.

It feels great, it feels fabulous. I guess that we knew, actually, that we had something pretty crazy on our hands. We were very confident in it, though we didn’t have a clue it would turn out to be quite as viral it has. We loved it when making it, and that’s a good sign

‘Louder‘ is considered an important landmark for dubstep music as it was the first of its’ genre to reach number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. The song was featured on the soundtrack to SCE Studio Liverpool’s Wipeout 2048 and used as the promotional theme for Fox8’s reality program Cricket Superstar. The song serves as the theme for the Lucozade Sport Lite campaign. Sian joined the select group of Welsh artists to have topped the charts and still she is the most recent Welsh artist to hit the top spot. She also wrote ‘Hot Right Now’ for Rita Ora.

In 2011 Sian Evans appears on several tracks on Roger Shah‘s artist album ‘Openminded!?‘. A new version of ‘Hide U‘ along with two other original tracks ‘In The Light‘ and ‘Shine‘ all appear on the album. Since that Sian has collaborated with many top level producers and artists such as Dino Psaras, Dr. Meaker, Jolyon Petch, Jody Wisternoff, Brains, Martin Eyerer, Chicane, Paul Hazendonk, Lee Dagger, Bent, EZ Rollers and Bench.

In 2016 she featured on the track ‘Losing My Mind‘ with eSQUIRE & Petch and in 2017 ‘Boy In The Picture‘ with House luminaires Kid Crème & Jolyon Petch.

In 2019-2020 Sian Evans released new collaboration ‘UP2U‘ with Stanton Warriors and featured on tracks ‘Orange Heart‘, ‘The Hunter And The Prey‘ and ‘Dragonborn part 3 (Oceans Apart)‘ with Headhunterz.

In 2021 Tinlicker remix of ‘Hide U’ was released with a tidal wave of sonic flavor and even more replay value. Later in 2021 Sian Evans featured on two tracks with Cypherpunx – ‘This Is Real‘ and ‘Alien‘, and released two more songs which this time came out of a collaboration with Moussa Clarke – ‘Vision’ and Russell Small & DNO P – ‘Centremental’.