Mazzy Star | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
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Years active |
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Spinoffs | Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions |
Spinoff of | Opal |
Members |
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Past members |
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Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California, from remnants of the group Opal. Founding member David Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal.[3] The band's current lineup consists of Sandoval (lead vocals, guitars, percussion), Colm Ó Cíosóig (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums), Suki Ewers (keyboards), and Josh Yenne (pedal steel guitars, guitars, drums).
Mazzy Star is best known for the song "Fade into You", which brought the band some success in the mid-1990s and was the group's biggest mainstream hit, earning extensive exposure on MTV, VH1, and radio airplay. Roback and Sandoval were the creative center of the band, with Sandoval as lyricist and Roback as composer of the majority of the band's material until his death in Los Angeles on February 24, 2020, from cancer. Mazzy Star's founding drummer Keith Mitchell, originally part of Opal, died on May 14, 2017, also from cancer. The EP Still released on June 1, 2018, was dedicated to Keith Mitchell and stage manager Tom Cashen who also died in 2017. Following Roback's death in 2020, Sandoval and Ewers are the last surviving members of the band's original lineup.
The band released the album She Hangs Brightly in 1990, So Tonight That I Might See in 1993 (the album went platinum in 1995), and Among My Swan in 1996.
The band's fourth studio album, Seasons of Your Day, was released in 2013, followed by the EP Still in 2018.