Hope Sandoval

Hope Sandoval was born in 1966 and grow up in east L.A. with her Mexican-American family. Hope started her career together with her high-school friend Sylvia Gomez (Gomez later played on She Hangs Brightly) in a band called "Going Home", a folk duo formed in 1986. Hope and Sylvia admired Kendra Smith as a teen-age Dream Syndicate fan. Sylvia Gomez handed Kendra Smith a demo tape which was comprised of Hope Sandoval on vocals and Sylvia on guitar. David offered to produce some recordings for them and they went into the studio and recorded an album that to this day is yet to be released. That obviously helped solidify Hope and David's relationship. Hope and Sylvia played gigs in California throughout the mid '80s, and stayed friends with both Kendra and David.

During the Opal tour in Europe Decemeber '87 Kendra left the band and disappeared. When found, she informed Roback that she wanted to leave the band but recommen­ded her replacement Hope Sandoval. David called Hope to see if she would be interested to take Kendra's place in Opal. Kendra did two more shows together with Opal but then she flew home. Keith Mitchell flew back to the US as well but the next day he got back with Hope. After that tour Opal became Mazzy Star and Hope has been a very popular bandmember ever since.

Besides vocals Hope often plays harmonica and percussion instruments like tambourine, maracas and glockenspiel etc. Sometimes she even plays guitar. Hope has written nearly all the Mazzy Star lyrics, with occasional input from David Roback.

Hope seems to be a very shy and private person, and doesn't seem to enjoy the popularity or the journalist and music business mentality very much. Many writers use the adjective "waifish" to describe Hope, but she's much tougher than that word suggests. Even if she isn't very fond of performing live.

"For me recording is better", she told Rolling Stone. "Live, I just get really nervous. Once you're onstage, you're expected to perform. I don't do that. I always feel awkward about just standing there and not speaking to the audience. It's difficult for me."

In 2000 Hope Sandoval joined with Colm O'Ciosoig (formerly of My Bloody Valentine) to form Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. The project retained the laid-back, slowcore sound of Mazzy Star, and much like Mazzy Star, featured Sandoval's sensuous, hypnotic voice. In 2001 Sandoval issued her first EP with the Warm Inventions, "At the Doorway Again", and followed it up with her debut full-length, "Bavarian Fruit Bread", a year later. She has also contributed on several songs by other artists for example the Jesus & Mary Chain, Chemical Brothers, Death In Vegas and Bert Jansch.

At the moment (mid 2008) she's working on her second solo album together with the Warm Inventions.