Justine Frischmann

Justine Elinor Frischmann (born 16 September 1969) is an English artist and retired musician. After forming Suede, she co-founded the Britpop band Elastica before retiring from the music industry and pursuing a career as an artist.

Early years

Frischmann was born on 16 September 1969 in Twickenham, England, the daughter of Wilem Frischmann, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who is the former chairman of the Pell Frischmann company of consulting engineers, and a Russian mother. Her parents are both Jewish. She grew up in Twickenham, Greater London, and attended St Paul's Girls School, before studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London from 1989 to 1993.

Career

Music

Frischmann began writing and studying music at age 11.

She was a founding member of the band Suede with Brett Anderson, whom she met at UCL in 1988. She left the band in October 1991. In the 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones, Anderson cites her as a highly significant influence on the band's first album.

Frischmann later founded and fronted her own band, Elastica. In 1994, Elastica were voted Best New Band by NME readers at the Brit awards. They were signed to Deceptive Records in the UK, and later with Geffen Records in Europe and the US. Their first album, Elastica, released in 1995, became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history. In 1995, Elastica were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for Elastica. The album went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. In 2001 the band announced an amicable breakup, citing, in part, burnout from a grueling touring schedule.