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She and her family spent much of her childhood living on a 40-ft sailboat built by her father. "Music was clearly important to my parents - the only electricity we had came from a small wind generator on top of the mast. They chose to use this one source of power to run the tape deck - not a fridge or electric lights! We listened to music alot on windy days. Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Stones, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell. These were my early influences"
Heather learned the violin at the age of 10 and then picked up a guitar at age 13. "Once i had learned the basic chords, I started writing songs. It came so naturally to me, and it quickly became something I needed to do"
When Heather was 19 she landed a place at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, with the idea of majoring in visual arts. She had a strong interest in painting and the moving image, but also attended classes on poetry and kept writing music, most notably for her short films. It became increasingly obvious to her that her real passion was music.
After graduating in 1989 Heather moved to London searching for a recording contract and a musical community to fit into. In London she was discovered by Steve Abbott of Big Cat records, who produced her first ep heather frith, released in 1990. Heather kept writing and playing as many gigs as she could, opening for such acts as Neil Young, Van Morrison, and The Cranberries, and playing small club gigs of her own in London.
Her first album, Glowstars (1993) received the attention of the media and allowed Heather to start touring outside of the UK. at this point she put a band together and one of her London shows was recorded and released as a live album entitled Blow. It received critical acclaim both in the UK and mainland Europe.
In 1994 Heather entered the studio to record what would become her breakthrough album. Oyster received a world wide release on Sony records, and delivered the hit song "Walk this World". it was followed by a world tour that ended in 1996, after which Heather returned home to Bermuda to write more songs.
Siren, the follow up to Oyster, was released in the summer of 1998, to critical and commercial success, and Heather embarked again on a new series of concerts that included several stops on the Lilith Fair tour in the US.
Tracks from Siren were featured regularly on the popular "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity" soundtracks.
In 2000 heather started working on new material and toured Europe to promote her live album Wonderlust. Now known for her compelling live performances, she spent much of her life on the road, playing to sold out crowds across Europe and playing high on the bills of the major European festivals.
Her rendition of the classic song Gloomy Sunday climbed to the top of the German charts. and the song was included in Heather's subsequent studio album South in 2001.
During this period, Swedish band Eskobar invited Heather to write with them, which resulted in the hit song "Someone New". After another worldwide tour in promotion of South, Heather moved back to Bermuda permanently, and started working on a 'stripped down project' produced by New York indie band Mercury Rev, titled Storm, which came out in 2003.
At the beginning of 2004, Heather gave birth to her son, Sebastian. the Live at Union Chapel dvd, recorded the previous year in London, shows a pregnant Heather in top form, going through most of the Storm songbook.
Redbird was released in 2005 and once again went into the top ten in the European Charts. A full band tour in the fall of 2005 took her around europe (with son in tow!), and then in the spring of 2006 she performed with a fresh new lineup –with just a violinist and a piano player. It was met with much enthusiasm from fans and newcomers alike.
A new collaboration with electronic artist and DJ "ATB" in january 2007 led to the hit single "Renegade"
Heather released her latest album of original material, The Jasmine Flower in October 2008, and embarked on a European tour in the same month.
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