Blake Hazard

Blake Hazard was born in Northern Vermont and taught herself to play guitar by writing songs. Her father, a guitarist, played traditional folk and country tunes as well as some Brazilian and jazz standards. Those jazz and bossa nova sounds would combine to form Hazard's musical sensibilities, as did her childhood experiences listening to Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, and, later, to Bjork, PJ Harvey, Beth Orton and Aphex Twin.

Blake graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, just north of Manhattan, and spent two years as a visiting undergraduate at Harvard University. During this time Hazard recorded solo acoustic demos of her first songs with the help of Mark Sandman (Morphine) at his home studio, and with Paul Q. Kolderie (producer of Radiohead, Hole). With former members of Helium (Mike Leahy, Brian Dunton, Shawn King Devlin), she recorded demos at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, which earned her a spot in the Boston Phoenix's Top Ten list of the best undiscovered Boston bands. Her interests began to shift from what had begun as an alt-country pop sound to a more electronic influenced, beat-oriented production. At this time, her band line-up changed to include Rich Gilbert (Frank Black, Tanya Donelly) on guitar, Joe Klompus (Tracey Bonham, Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt, Jackdrag) on bass and Steve Scully (Nina Gordon, Jack Drag) on drums. It was Klompus who introduced Blake to producer John Dragonetti, founder of the band Jack Drag.

Hazard and Dragonetti had their first collaboration with a remix of the track "Glittering," the basic tracks for which were recorded by Hazard and band at Fort Apache Studios. This successful collaboration, an inspired combination of jazz-influenced pop songs with organic beats and electronic sounds, eventually led to the completion of a full album produced and recorded by Dragonetti.

Little Airplane was released domestically in 2002 by Boston-based indie Kimchee Records and overseas in Holland and Belgium on the Dutch label Parkmaker. Blake introduced her record in Europe, playing on Dutch national television and performing in support of Evan Dando, whom she has supported on a number of tours and one-off shows in the U.S. over the past year. For her record release show in Boston, Hazard was joined by her friend Tanya Donelly of Belly. She has also recently opened for Ben Lee, Joseph Arthur, and Pernice Brothers, while staying very active in the Boston music scene. During the last two years she has played in the band Jack Drag, touring several times with them throughout Europe. Blake and band played an early spring tour supporting Dutch indie-rockers Bettie Serveert in the Northeast and on the West coast. She appeared live on KCRW's acclaimed radio program, Morning Becomes Eclectic, in LA in April. She was also nominated for two 2003 Boston Music Awards.