Odette di Maio
Lives and works in Milan / Italy.
Odette Di Maio's passion for music has been growing since childhood and she started writing and playing songs with her acoustic guitar when she was 16.
Born in Naples but raised in Milan where she still lives, she began her musical career in 1993 when she returned from a 9-month trip to the U.S.A. (she also had the chance to play downtown Seattle with a local band, the Hyperlung) and joined SOON, a Milan-based pop band as lead singer and guitarist. SOON became more known in Northern Italy thanks to its unique power pop and its rather intense concerts.
A record deal with Mercury/Polygram in 1995 and the release of their first album "SCINTILLE" (Sparks) in May 1996, produced by English sound engineer Anjaly Dutt (My Bloody Valentine, Sleeper, Oasis) soon followed. A long and successful tour the following year brought SOON to popularity in the alternative rock circuit and they get a nomination for revelation band for the Italian Music Award (PIM). The music videos of "Il fiume " and "Settimane" in addition to various TV appearances made the band a leader of It-pop, following the example of British alternative pop trend.
1997 saw SOON's second album release "SPIRALE" produced by an Italian team that allowed the band to better show their improved style and energetic approach to pop. "Abitudini", the lead single and video of the album, was promoted with TV shows while the best of "Spirale" was performed in live concerts all over Italy including an opening show for Skunk Anansie in Rome in July '97 and the popular TV musical contest "San Remo Giovani" in November 1997. SOON, despite of the production of the new material, performed in selected gigs during the summer of 1999, split up at the end of that same year.
Odette Di Maio has been pursuing her solo project since, testing it in a demo with new songs and in "L'America di Odette", a unplugged show in which she performs successfully also classics from her favourite international artists (Suzanne Vega, Neil Young, Edie Brickell, P.J. Harvey, Nirvana...). Recently Odette performed also on the new album by DEADBURGER (Wot4), an alternative band from Florence and a special guest appearance made her sing " Nothing else matters" on Italian "remixers" duo (Fred Ventura & Enrico Colombo) BEDROOM ROCKERS' new Cd, released in May 2001 (Universal-Italy), also soundtrack of TV advertisement for MARTINI drink, starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
Back from Singapore, in South East Asia, where she toured from March to June 2001 with EPIC, an Italian rock band as lead singer, she has put up an acoustic folk-pop duet - THE MARCH - with an American young baritone singer, Ben Slavin, with whom toured on East Coast USA tour in October 2003. Now she is involved with Lorenzo Bianchi with their unique elettro downbeat project LORBI (hosted on www.totalwipes.com) which enhances Odette's crystal clear voice and brought a record deal with American indie label, Basina Recordings. Their first records is due by November 2005.
