Chrysta Bell


Chrysta Bell Zucht, and known professionally by her first name Chrysta Bell, is an American singer, songwriter, model, and actress from San Antonio, Texas. In addition to her solo work, she has collaborated with filmmaker and composer David Lynch on various projects since 1999. Together they released two records This Train and Somewhere in the Nowhere on her labels, La Rose Noire and Meta Hari. Chrysta Bell also appeared as FBI Agent Tammy Preston in Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return which premiered on Showtime on May 21, 2017. Her most recent album, Feels Like Love, released April 5, 2019, is a collection of disco, post-punk and torch songs recorded in Austin and San Antonio with her long time song writing partner Christopher Smart, who also produced the record.
Chrysta Bell has been featured in Vogue Italia, Interview, W, The Observer, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Le Figaro Magazine, Elle and others.
Her voice and musical style are described as "ethereal" and "sensual".

Early life

Chrysta Bell was born to a Bohemian San Antonio couple who divorced when she was a child. Her father was a dentist, hot air balloonist, hotelier, and president of the local Bachelors’ Club. Her mother was a professional singer and performer, whom she credits for early exposure to music from Michael Jackson, Eurythmics and The Go-Gos, among others. She began her professional career at a young age singing commercial jingles at Emerald Studios, a recording facility founded by her mother and step father in San Antonio.
She was also active in local musical theater productions and appeared in a short film Jesus in a String Bikini. This was followed by a role in the locally filmed Chinese production Once Upon a Time in China and America, directed by martial arts director Sammo Hung, in which she starred opposite Jet Li.

Career

8 1/2 Souvenirs

After graduating from high school in San Antonio, Chrysta Bell moved to Austin, Texas, and became the lead singer for 8½ Souvenirs. The band was named for the Federico Fellini film 8½ and notable for its Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz influence as well as a repertoire of songs with lyrics in French, Italian, Spanish and English. In 1997 8½ Souvenirs signed to the RCA Victor label and subsequently released two albums, Happy Feet and Twisted Desire. The band received some national attention after making an appearance on an Austin City Limits broadcast in April 1998. That same year they served as the opening act on an 8-week tour with The Brian Setzer Orchestra. The band also performed with Willie Nelson at his annual Fourth of July picnic.
8 ½ Souvenirs dissolved in 2000.

Musical collaborations with David Lynch and others

In 1999 Chrysta Bell came to the attention of music manager Bud Prager, who had represented bands like Foreigner and Megadeth. Through Prager she met CAA agent Brian Loucks who had the idea that David Lynch might want to work with her. Loucks arranged a meeting at Lynch's home recording studio and the pair "hit it off", writing their first song "Right Down to You" that day.
Lynch included the song "Polish Poem", co-written with Chrysta Bell, in the final minutes of his 2006 film Inland Empire.
During her decade-long recording sessions with Lynch, Chrysta Bell performed with various indie bands in Texas as well as traveling performance troupes MASS Ensemble and Soul in the Machine in California. These performances used oversized, homemade instruments and elaborate choreography and were often staged for exclusive audiences or businesses.
In September 2011, Chrysta Bell released her debut album This Train, which was co-written and produced by Lynch and released independently through La Rose Noire Records. The album was officially re-released throughout Europe with additional bonus material on January 31, 2014, through the German-based label, QQ5.
In October 2016, she released a 5-song EP Somewhere in the Nowhere, also produced and co-written by Lynch, on Meta Hari Records.
Along with Duran Duran, Lykke Li, Karen O, Moby, The Flaming Lips, Sky Ferreira, Zola Jesus, Donovan and Angelo Badalamenti, Chrysta Bell appears on the double LP The Music of David Lynch, performing "Swing With Me", a song she wrote with Lynch. The album is a live recording of a tribute concert that took place on April 1, 2015, at the historic Ace Theater in Downtown Los Angeles as a benefit for the David Lynch Foundation. The concert was filmed for television as well and subsequently aired on AXS TV. The companion book for the concert, Beyond the Beyond: Music From the Films of David Lynch, includes an interview with Chrysta Bell on her artistic relationship with Lynch.
She most recently served as emcee and performer for the three-night event, "David Lynch Presents..." with musicians Anna Calvi, These New Puritans, and Douglas Dare, among others, as part of 2019's Manchester International Festival.
Lynch has said of her "Chrysta Bell is not only a killer performer, she also has a great intuitive ability to catch a mood and find a melody that's really spectacular. The first time I saw her perform, I thought she was like an alien. The most beautiful alien ever."

Solo recordings

Between the recording sessions for This Train, Chrysta Bell recorded two solo albums, Bitter Pills and Delicacies and Strange Darling, a collection of covers executive produced by Lynch, both of which remain officially unreleased. Her third album, We Dissolve, released on Meta Hari Records in June 2017, was produced by John Parish, with guests including Adrian Utley, Geoff Downes and Stephen O'Malley. Feels Like Love followed in 2019. Speaking of the provenance of the latest album with Texas Monthly, she said, "I had to go off to California and experience Hollywood and get all of that enrichment, frustration, and elation, then go to England and record in the cold. I took these lessons and tools from across the world and have come home to put everything I’ve experienced into the music."

Modeling

Chrysta Bell began modeling in her late teens, posing for the Chicano muralist George Yepes for his ongoing Madonna series. Photographer Emma Summerton shot Chrysta Bell for an 8-page feature in the February 2013 issue of Vogue Italia. In May 2014 The Red Bulletin published an interview and pictorial on her titled "A Real Femme Fatale". She appeared on the cover of photographer Larry Fink's 2006 book Somewhere There's Music. She has also worked regularly with photographers Elias Tahan, Todd Wolfson and Candice Ghai.

Acting

In addition to her role in Once Upon a Time in China and America, Chrysta Bell appeared in the ABC Family reality television series Switched!, and a commercial for the Ford Motor Company. Following her role in Twin Peaks: The Return, she made a cameo in the rodeo themed horror film Lasso.

Personal life

Chrysta Bell owns a family-run cemetery in La Vernia, Texas, called Countryside Memorial Park, which is dedicated to the green cemetery and home funeral movements. “Who wouldn’t want to end up here? It’s so beautiful,” she has commented on the topic of being buried there herself.
She practices Transcendental Meditation and believes in reincarnation.

Discography

Solo