User:Jmosebach/Stephanie Rivers (singer-songwriter)

Stephanie Rivers (singer-songwriter)

Stephanie Nicole Rivers (born October 11, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, composer, pianist, producer, and philanthropist. She first achieved critical success in 2008 with her debut LP, Play Things, produced with Ron Rogers.

Often compared to Jill Scott and Sade for her style and vocal character, Rivers creates original “folk soul” music. Having previously released two EPs, Rivers created her first full-length LP, Time Tells a Lie (May 2015). Produced by Carey Alex Clayton of the rock-jazz trio Carbon Mirage, Time Tells a Lie contains soulful hooks, an ambitious score, and Rivers’ rich mezzo-soprano.

1982-2002: Early life and career beginnings

Rivers was born Stephanie Nicole Rivers on October 11, 1982, in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Mary (Davison) Rivers, a nurse from Tulsa, and Willie Rivers, an aircraft mechanic and private pilot from Atlanta, Georgia. Rivers’ father is African American, and her mother is of Native American and European descent. Her parents separated when she was 10. She and her younger brother, Michael, share six half-siblings from their parents’ previous marriages.

Rivers started performing at an early age. As she recalls, “My mom saw that I was a pretty animated child, so she started putting me in kids’ fashion shows and pageants and anything where I could perform.” At age 4, she competed in a Miss Black Tulsa pageant, where she lip-synched Whitney Houston’s “How Would I Know?” She went on to compete on the syndicated music/variety show Puttin’ on the Hits, where she won the top prize, and also landed a spot on Star Search.

When she was 5, Rivers’ family moved to Atlanta. Its burgeoning 1990s music scene, which saw the emergence of LaFace Records and So So Def Recordings, was formative for Rivers. She attended church with the female R&B quartet Xscape and met Usher and other up-and-coming acts on the local circuit.

Following the divorce of her parents in 1992, Rivers and her mother moved back to Oklahoma and settled in Norman, just 20 miles south of Oklahoma City. Though far removed from Atlanta’s nascent music industry, Rivers delved into Norman’s prolific arts programs. For the first time, she learned how to read, write, and play music. She began studying classical piano at age 10, which she continued for another 10 years. From age 12, Rivers took private voice lessons and went on to compete in state and national opera championships.

At Norman High School North, Rivers thrived in jazz choir. “We would belt out numbers in the style of The Manhattan Transfer,” Rivers says. “And, whenever we had our solo time, I took those jazz solos and really just made them mine. Billie, Ella, I’d sing whatever I could. And that’s when I realized, ‘Hey, I’ve got something here.’”

From then on, Rivers sought to create her own voice. Not content with simply being an “entertainer,” she graduated high school in three years and attended the University of Oklahoma, where she majored in Political Communications and Spanish. “By the time I got to college, I was just tired of being treated like a puppet expected to sing on command,” she says. “I was always singing somewhere—at weddings, funerals, school events, football games. I wanted to be taken seriously because I was smart and had other interests besides music that I wanted to explore.”

2002-2003: London

After spending her first two years singing in OU choir, Rivers left the States to study abroad at the University of Reading in the UK. She often cites this experience as the most influential in her music career. While sharing a cabin with 10 other women, many of them musicians, Rivers ignited her passion for songwriting. Borrowing a roommate’s beat-up Spanish guitar, she churned out “Helpless” and a batch of other original songs. She shopped her demo around dozens of London clubs until she caught the ear of two producers, Simon Paul (of the DJ team Lost Witness) and Pete “Mixmaster” Hammond (Kylie Minogue), who recruited Rivers to sing vocals on House tracks. A resulting hit, “Club Together,” helped to launch her stint as a studio session singer in the UK.

While wrapping up her senior year in the States, Rivers continued to travel back and forth to London to write and record music. “My parent were angry because I was skipping class and flying to London for free on my dad’s airline pass every three months,” she says. “But, I was determined to create my presence, plus I loved London. It totally changed my life, musically.”

After graduating college, Rivers secured a work visa and moved back to London. While living in Hackney, she teamed up with two musician friends and formed a group called Deuce Laureates. Together, they made music in the style of the Fugees and spent six months shopping their demos.

2005: Atlanta

In 2005, with an expired visa, Rivers moved back to Atlanta. She connected with Chris and Conrad Rosser (AKA DJ Chris Cutz and DJ Twin). As the production duo Bread & Water, the Rosser brothers worked with Tupac Shakur (All Eyez on Me), David Banner, Goodie Mob, Bone Crusher, and a host of other artists. With Bread & Water, Rivers wrote and recorded two R&B tracks, “Come Onto Me” and “Natural High,” reinforcing her versatility as a songwriter. Chris Rosser presented her work to producers in Atlanta including Jermaine Dupri, who expressed initial interest. However, a deal did not materialize.

2006: New York City Rivers moved to Harlem in 2006. As she recalls, “I had almost given up on music. I was so tired of hitting wall after wall.” With a background in politics (she was a former campaign staffer for John Kerry and Al Gore campaigns in Oklahoma), she got a job at MediaGlobal, a nonprofit news agency based at the United Nations. There, her passion for politics and philanthropy was reignited. Rivers was later recruited by Helen Keller International, a leading global health organization based in Manhattan, to fund-raise for its domestic program, ChildSight®.

All the while, Rivers kept writing and performing music. With a backup band she found on Craigslist called The Tollywood AllStars, she played her first NYC gig at 169 Bar on the Lower East Side. The set list, comprised of original tracks Rivers wrote in London, was an arrangement of what she calls “folk soul.”

2008-2010: Play Things and Play Things Remixed

In 2008, Rivers cut her first EP, Play Things. She hired veteran composer, producer, and songwriter Ron Rogers (whose credits include Luther Vandross, Patti LaBelle, and Kid Creole and the Coconuts), to produce the five-track EP. Featuring Colombian guitar virtuoso Camila Celin, Play Things features eclectic jazz arrangements and emphatic vocals. It was a moderate success, with 2,000 copies sold and more than 2,000 single copy downloads of the song “The Whole.” Rogers also produced Rivers’ follow-up EP, Play Things Remixed (2010). Having worked three jobs to fund the production of Play Things, Rivers subsequently went on tour and played shows along the East Coast for most of 2008 and 2009.

2014-2015: Time Tells a Lie

After a brief hiatus, during which Rivers traveled to Los Angeles to shoot a music video for “The Whole,” Rivers returned to the studio in 2014 to record her first full-length LP, Time Tells a Lie (May 2015). Released on Rivers’ own SRPR label, Time Tells a Lie weaves a personal story of faded love and renewed passion. Its boozy chords and drum pockets, as heard in “As Long as You’re Here With Me” and “Southern Comfort,” take the listener on a journey from old school Soul to the Delta blues. Rivers wrote the album in a fiery four months while camped out at a friend’s loft in Peekskill, New York.

To produce the album, Rivers asked Carey Alex Clayton (of the rock-jazz trio Carbon Mirage) to work on the project. Clayton originally responded to Rivers’ ad seeking a guitar player to help arrange songs. After playing a number of gigs together, along with drummers Charlie Schmidt and Josh Giunta (of the electro-soul band Love Science Music) and bassist Jordan “JORSCAN” Scannella (of the electro-pop band Tortured Soul), Rivers and Carey decided to join forces in the studio. Recorded at SweetSounds Studio in SoHo, Time Tells a Lie is Clayton’s first major production. Rivers is the album’s executive producer. Guinta also serves as the mixing engineer, and Brooklyn-based mastering engineer Kevin Blackler rounds out the team.

Philanthropy

From 2010 to 2013, Rivers served as a full-time fundraiser for Helen Keller International’s eye health programs.

In 2014, Rivers joined the Board of Directors for Turning Point, a community-based nonprofit organization that supports individuals and families in need through education, health, and social services programs.