Biography
Skylar Grey, the singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist formerly known as Holly Brook, supplied vocals for chart successes including Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” and Fort Minor’s “Where’d You Go.” She first used her voice at the age of two, drawing early inspiration from folk and jazz before discovering Joni Mitchell and recognizing how those two styles could merge. At six she began performing onstage alongside her mother, and by high school she fronted her own band while already completing two recordings. Throughout her teenage years she refined a sepia-toned piano-pop style before relocating to Los Angeles in 2003, where she encountered Grammy-winning producer Jon Ingoldsby, who would later serve as both co-writer and producer. Under the shortened name Holly Brook—derived from her full name Holly Brook Hafermann—she issued her debut album, Like Blood Like Honey, on Machine Shop Records in 2006. Subsequent support tours with Jamie Cullum, k.d. lang, and Duncan Sheik followed, yet the record failed to gain traction and left her without a label deal. Her guest appearance on Fort Minor’s “Where’d You Go” in 2006 propelled that single into the American Top Five, and in 2009 she joined Duncan Sheik’s ensemble for the Whisper House album and its related tour. The year 2010 marked a decisive advance when she released the O’Dark:Thirty EP; shortly afterward she adopted the name Skylar Grey and met Alex da Kid, who placed her on his Wonderland Music imprint. By year’s end Eminem, joined by special guest Rihanna, scored a hit with his rendition of Grey’s composition “Love the Way You Lie.”
Albums
