Alice Russell

Alice Russell works as a soul singer and songwriter from the United Kingdom. Her reputation rests on her work as a solo performer, a session vocalist, and a road singer who has joined outfits such as Quantic and TM Juke. The Tru Thoughts label issued her first solo efforts, the 2004 album Under the Munka Moon and the stylistically varied My Favourite Letters in 2005. Under the Munka Moon II appeared in 2006 as an eclectic collection that featured the Bugz in the Attic remix of Idris Muhammad’s disco-era anthem “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This,” recorded with Susumu Yokota. Pot of Gold, issued by Six Degrees in 2008 and produced by TM Juke, drew its sound directly from late-’60s soul. In 2012 she joined Quantic’s Combo Barbaro for the jointly credited Look Around the Corner. Although she maintained a touring schedule that year, she still completed To Dust, which came out in winter 2013. Ten years after stepping back from public view, she resurfaced in 2024 with the album I Am, again on Tru Thoughts.

Born in Suffolk in 1975, Russell grew up in Framlingham, where her father served as a classical organist. As a child she took cello lessons and performed in church choirs; she later stated that the vocal discipline gained from those choirs proved indispensable. Radio became a constant companion, exposing her to recordings by American soul artists such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Chaka Kahn.

She relocated to Brighton in 1994 to pursue studies in art and music; the local scene encouraged her to shift emphasis from her classical and gospel background toward developing R&B skills. During this period she performed and cut singles alongside Bah Samba and Kushti. By the early 2000s she was regularly appearing live with Will Holland’s (aka Quantic) ensembles and contributing guest vocals to Ben Lamdin’s Nostalgia 77. She secured her own Tru Thoughts contract and delivered her debut album, Under the Munka Moon, in 2004. The thirteen-track project drew on production from Quantic, Dave Noble, Kushti, and Julien Bendall. Her near-constant stage work with both her own group and Quantic’s projects earned the record critical regard. The 2005 follow-up My Favourite Letters, again produced by TM Juke, achieved stronger notice; its singles “Humankind” and “Fly on the Wall” received airplay throughout the United Kingdom and across mainland Europe.

Under the Munka Moon II functioned essentially as a compilation in 2006. Full-time commitments to the Quantic Soul Orchestra and to TM Juke’s band left little room for fresh material, so the release instead highlighted existing collaborations, among them her work with Susumu Yokota on a cover of Idris Muhammad’s “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This.” Originally a disco staple at Paradise Garage, the version received its mix from Bugz in the Attic. Additional tracks captured her contribution to Nostalgia 77’s reading of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” which circulated widely on the U.K. rare-groove circuit, plus appearances fronting Natural Self on “I Don’t Need This Trouble” and the Bonobo remix of “Mirror Mirror on the Wolf ‘Tell the Story Right.’” That same year she also appeared on Nostalgia 77’s The Garden and on singles by TM Juke, Quantic, Luke Fair, and Max Sedgley while completing more than 150 live performances.

Russell maintained her association with the Quantic Soul Orchestra over the following two years and added session work with the Bamboos, Natural Self, Juke, and Robert Luis. TM Juke produced, engineered, and mixed her 2008 album Pot of Gold, an expansive set of original compositions (written by Russell or Cowan) that blended funk, R&B, Afrobeat, gospel, and blues; the sole cover was Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” The mid-tempo blues-soul ballad “Hurry On Now” gained airplay in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Pot of Gold Remixes followed in 2009 as a double-disc collection featuring reworkings by Yellowtail, Clutchy Hopkins, Kidkanevil, Mocean Worker, and DJ Vadim, among others. Throughout this time Russell kept a demanding travel schedule, touring independently or with the groups she supported. She joined David Byrne and Fatboy Slim on the 2010 single “Here Lies Love,” recorded with Mr. Scruff on the Nickodemus & Zeb remix of “Music Takes Me Up” the next year, and contributed to Bah Samba’s “Everybody Get Up (Superphonics Southport Weekender Mix).”

Stepping beyond familiar territory in 2012, Russell shared billing on Look Around the Corner with Quantic and Combo Barbaro. The album was tracked at Quantic’s studio in Cali, Colombia, and featured guitarist Mike Simmonds, pianist Alfredito Linares, bassist Fernando Silva, conguero Freddy Colorado, drummers and percussionists Wilson “Coco” Viveros and Larry Joseph, plus an added string section. Its repertoire mixed cumbias, Latin jazz, hybrid soul, and left-field funk.

February 2013 brought To Dust, Russell’s first solo album in five years. Produced by TM Juke under the alias Differ-Ant and co-written in part with Cowan, the record displayed her comprehensive grasp of soul and R&B idioms and outsold all earlier releases. She returned to the road for dozens of shows until her father’s death that summer. The day after his funeral she learned she was pregnant, prompting a decade-long hiatus from recording and touring during which she addressed generational trauma through therapy and raised two children.

Even while away from the public eye and throughout her earlier touring years, Russell continued writing. She resumed live work in summer 2023, appearing on the main stage of Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here, supporting Nile Rodgers, and performing in an Aretha Franklin tribute across France. Recording resumed in 2024 with I Am, again produced by TM Juke and containing nine co-written originals. One of these, the piano ballad “I See You,” addressed overcoming adversity rooted in childhood trauma; it had been commissioned by Lemonade for its festival theme “Care,” selected by guest curator Lemn Sissay. Tru Thoughts released I Am in April 2024.