Isabella Janet Florentina Summers is an English musician, singer, songwriter, producer, remixer and member of English indie rock band Florence and the Machine. As well as being the keyboard player for the group, Summers has five co-writing credits on the critically acclaimed, BRIT Award-winning Lungs and three on the albumCeremonials. She has three songs on the album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful: "Delilah", "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" and "Which Witch", including two productions on the deluxe version. When not on tour with Florence and the Machine, Summers writes, produces and remixes tracks for artists including Beyoncé, Juliette Lewis, Iggy Azalea, Jasmine Thompson, Nas, Cara Delevingne, Izzy Bizu, Pablo Dylan, Mondo Cozmo, Kacy Hill, Jessica Simpson, Chloe and Halle, Flux Pavilion, Maxine Ashley, Rita Ora, Judith Hill, and The Game. Summers also scores movie and television projects, having teamed with musician/composer Mark Isham to create the score for the Hulu mini-series Little Fires Everywhere and, on her own, creating the title theme for Sky Atlantic’s Riviera. She is also collaborating on the score for the Amazon Prime series Panic.
Background
Summers lived her first nine years in London, and met Florence Welch as the young Summers would babysit Welch's younger sister Grace. When Summers was nine, her family moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. There Summers attended Woodbridge School and in her teenage years got an interest in music, particularly hip-hop. Her neighbours gave her a tape with Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle and 6 Feet Deep by Gravediggaz, and she would also spend evenings with fishermen's sons "who smoked loads of weed and listened to hard American rap." For her university years, Summers moved back to London, where she would get a fine arts degree at Central Saint Martins. In the meantime she bought a set of DJ mixers to learn how to mix, while also doing side jobs such as being a runner for Top of the Pops and transcriptions and film digitising for Alan Parker. Soon she was working with Dan Greenpeace on his 'All City Show' radio show on XFM London, an experience that led Summers to buy her first MPC which was installed at the cupboard of her shared flat. With the help of a friend she started a studio in a former plastics factory at Crystal Palace, and began making hip hop. During this time, Summers worked with, amongst others, Kashmere, The Iguana Man, IRS Crew, MBC Crew, Inja and The Last Skeptic. She would also have meetings with Welch during DJ work and art school, as Welch was attending the Camberwell College of Arts. As Summers was hired to remix songs by the band Ludes, Welch became a more common sight at her studio given she was dating Ludes' guitarist Matt Alchin, and even impressed Summers with her singing. One day, as Summers got into a creative rut and thought of writing pop music with a woman, she invited Welch to write songs with her. Following a day joining Summers' beats with Welch's lyrics, soon they were creative partners, with Welch nicknaming Summers "Isabella Machine" for her electronic music skills. This led to their performing together for a time under the name Florence Robot/Isa Machine. The project was renamed Florence and the Machine as according to Welch "that name was so long it'd drive me mad."
