Fiona Apple

SHE'S young, talented, beautiful, and, if her handlers have done right by her, she's well on her way to becoming a rock star. No wonder Fiona Apple is so miserable.

At least that's how she appears. Observe, for example, how Apple stares searchingly from advertisements for her debut album, Tidal: her eyes are sunken, dark-rimmed; her hands clutch at the corners of her open shirt, giving a perception that she's been violated in some unspeakable, albeit very sexy and not altogether involuntary, manner. The image is a shocking and highly inappropriate one, given that Apple was herself a victim of rape at age twelve.

Next, listen as Apple rants at the MTV Awards about how "this world [the entertainment industry] is bullshit," prematurely dismissing a generation of potential Fionabes with the admonition "go with yourself." But don't fail to note that her helplessly waifish on-screen image is directly in keeping with the kind of systematic objectification of women for which many critics have indicted MTV. Her clip for "Criminal," for instance, unfolds like outtakes from a porno film, as Apple, clad only in underwear, prowls among a houseful of partied-out teenagers reposing in various stages of undress. Either Apple has indeed been a "bad, bad girl," as her "Criminal" lyrics profess, or she just plays one on TV. As Aretha Franklin once asked, who's zoomin' who?

Born September 13, 1977, in New York City, Fiona Apple Maggart is the daughter of actor Brandon Maggart and former actress Diane McAfee, who met when they performed together in a musical. The couple has another daughter, Amber, two years Fiona's senior, in addition to children from other relationships. Maggart and McAfee split up when Fiona was four, and she thereafter lived primarily in New York with her mother; she now divides her time between both parents' homes.

At age eight, Apple started taking piano lessons, stopping after a couple of years to leave her keyboard skills to develop intuitively. At eleven, she wrote her first song. That same year, she announced to a classmate that she was going to kill herself and her sister. Apple now claims the remark wasn't said with any serious intent, but, at the time, it prompted a visit—the first of many—to a psychiatrist. "Therapy's great if you have a good therapist and if you're willing to go and answer questions," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1996. "But I really thought I was fine until they put me into therapy. Then I thought, ?Well, maybe something's wrong with me.' It screwed me up. So now I need therapy because they forced it on me before!"

Apple suffered a devastating childhood trauma at the age of twelve, when she was raped in the hallway of her mother's New York apartment building. Though she has only obliquely referred to the incident in her art with the song "Sullen Girl," she has not been shy about addressing the topic in interviews, typically stating with some vehemence that she does not wish to be thought of as a "poster girl for rape." At the same time, she has also suggested that her artistic personality might never have emerged had the incident not happened.

The story of Apple's discovery reads something like a Generation-X version of Hollywood's Schwab's Drug Store legend. In 1994, a friend of Apple's passed a demo tape of several songs she had written and performed to music-industry publicist Kathryn Schenker, for whom the friend worked as a baby-sitter. Schenker (whose clients include Sting, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Aerosmith) met with Apple and was impressed enough by what she heard and saw to introduce the young singer-songwriter to producer-artist manager Andrew Slater. Slater took Apple on at HK Management; got her signed to Sony's affiliate label, WORK; and produced her debut record in late 1995.

Propelled by the singles "Shadowboxer," "Sleep to Dream," and "Criminal," the moody Tidal became a hit, and Apple's jazzy, world-weary vocals and lyrics earned her favorable comparisons to Nina Simone. As accomplished as the debut effort was, Apple's penchant for midriff-baring ensembles called into question her seriousness as an artist. Doubts proliferated after her very public faux pas at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. Called to the stage to accept the Best New Artist prize, an unprepared Apple bit the hand that was feeding her by delivering a brief invective, characterized by extreme prejudice and not a little incoherence: "You shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything," she protested, "Go with yourself."

Though Apple considers the gaffe a "defining moment," one that will enable her to fearlessly navigate such situations in the future, it required considerable spin-doctoring. In an open letter to her fans published on her Web site, Apple explained: "When I won, I felt like a sellout. I felt that I deserved recognition, but that now, in the blink of an eye, all of those people who didn't give a fuck who I was, or what I thought, were now all at once, just humoring me, appeasing me, and not because of my talent, but instead because of the fact that somehow, with the help of my record company, and my makeup artist, my stylist, and my press, I had successfully created the illusion that I was perfect, and pretty, and rich, and therefore living a higher quality of life."

Despite such protestations, the Apple cart rolls on: Fiona garnered 1998 Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Best Rock Song (the latter two for "Criminal"); her album has racked up multi-platinum sales; and she and her boyfriend, street magician David Blaine, continue to be favorite subjects of the paparazzi. There's no doubt that Apple is a promising artist, that her album betrays both an old-soul wisdom and new-school smarts — but whether her music or her flighty image proves to be more entertaining has yet to be determined.

Singer/songwriter Fiona Apple gained a recording contract in 1995 as one in a crop of mid-'90s female artists, but her confessional writing and throaty vocals made the teenager sound like much more than just the latest flavor. Born in 1977 in New York to singer Diana McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart, Apple began playing the piano at the age of eight and started composing her own songs just four years later, after the separation of her parents and her own brutal rape. After leaving high school at the age of 16, she journeyed to Los Angeles to see her father and make a demo tape of her songs. After several months of tape-passing, Sony Music signed Apple in 1995.

After recording Tidal with producer Andrew Slater, she released the album in mid-1996 and began touring. Constant video play of "Criminal" and "Shadowboxer" brought Tidal into the upper reaches of the album charts; it eventually went platinum, and landed her a Grammy plus an MTV Video Music Award. (She made one of the most famous VMA acceptance speeches in history when she proclaimed "This world is bullsh*t" and quoted Maya Angelou.)

The long-awaited When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and if You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and if You Fall It Won't Matter, 'Cuz You'll Know That You're Right -- the album's full title -- followed in 1999. It was a bold move on Apple's part, to follow her debut with an album with 90 words in the title. But she was more confident than ever on When the Pawn, working with producer Jon Brion to craft literate, jazzy pop that played mightily to her strengths. Some of her more casual fans were turned off, but the Apple diehards only grew, and When the Pawn peaked at number 13 on the Billboard charts (aided by the single "Fast as You Can"). Still, its brash title, heady sound, and Apple's on-again, off-again relationship with the public proved obstacles to repeating Tidal's platinum success.

She wasn't heard from again until 2002-03, when word spread through the internet that Sony was unhappy with Apple's newest songs. (By now the Apple cult had grown immensely, helped along by blogs and message boards.) The controversy continued through 2004, with the facts about who was responsible for the griping -- Apple or her label -- ranging from murky to downright unclear. But tracks from her recording sessions had certainly leaked, and while they were apparently unfinished, the fan response was mostly rabid. Apple could now add internet sensation to her lengthy list of titles (prodigy, tease, true songwriting talent, etc.).

By summer 2005, Fiona Apple's third album had a name and a release date. Extraordinary Machine was slated for an October release; it would feature production work from Mike Elizondo and at least some of the material that had leaked, though in what form was unclear. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide