A vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with an impressive résumé, Sasha Bell had been a notable figure on the indie pop scene and an associate of the Elephant 6 collective before stepping out as a solo artist. Bell's music is clever, solidly constructed pop that often refers to classic sounds of the '60s and '70s -- chamber pop, folk rock, psychedelic pop, and sunshine pop -- but communicates compassion and joy without sounding cloying or saccharin. Bell first found a significant audience working with the Ladybug Transistor (1999's The Albemarle Sound) and the Essex Green (2005's Cannibal Sea), and launched her own side project, Finishing School (2003's Destination Girl), before making her official solo debut with 2019's Love Is Alright. Sasha Bell was born in Cooperstown, New York and began making music at an early age; she started taking piano lessons while she was still in kindergarten, and while in elementary school, she picked up the flute and guitar. After completing high school, Bell studied at Yale and continued to make music. In 1991, she was living in Burlington, Vermont, where she helped form the band Guppyboy with Jeff Baron, Michael Barrett, Zach Ward, and Chris Ziter, playing music that fused Americana with indie pop. They released an EP, Rani, in late 1992, and in early 1993, the band relocated to Chicago, where they devoted much of their time to writing material and honing their sound. They decamped to the East Coast in mid-1994, by which time Bell had dropped out of the lineup, though she would pop up on their 1997 release Jeffersonville. Later that year, Bell relocated to Brooklyn, New York, as would Baron, Barrett, and Ziter. Bell would become a member of the group the Ladybug Transistor, led by Gary Olson, who blended psychedelia, folk-rock, and indie pop with a chamber pop sensibility. Bell joined not long after the release of 1997's Beverley Atonale, and appeared on 1999's The Albemarle Sound, 2001's Argyle Heir, and 2003's The Ladybug Transistor. For a while, she was also serving double duty with the Essex Green, a band she founded with Baron, Barrett, and Ziter, whose music recalled the sunny sound of '70s pop and folk-rock, with Bell showing off her gifts on vocals, keyboards, guitar, and flute. They made their debut with a five-song EP released by the Elephant 6 collective in early 1999, followed by a full-length album, Everything Is Green, issued later that same year by Kindercore. 2001's Argyle Heir would be Bell's last album with the Ladybug Transistor as she devoted more of her time to the Essex Green, as well as a solo project she dubbed Finishing School, who debuted with the 2003 LP Destination Girl. The Essex Green were also active in 2003, bringing out the album The Long Goodbye, which was their first for the successful indie label Merge Records. The Essex Green were back in 2006 with Cannibal Sea, but by the time the album came out, Bell had moved to San Francisco, while her bandmates were in Pennsylvania and Vermont, making collaboration difficult. After the birth of her daughter, she dropped out of music for several years, spending time with her family and studying to be a pastry chef. She didn't stop writing songs during this period, though, and in 2013, announced she was working on a solo album, recording with a handful of California musicians, and launched a crowd-funding campaign to finance the completion of the project. There would be a few detours on the way to finishing the solo set — Bell and her family found a new home in Missoula, Montana, she sat in with the band the Sixth Great Lake (featuring several Guppyboy alumni) for the recording of their 2013 album Up the Country, and the Essex Green reconvened for 2018 release Hardly Electronic. But Bell continued working on her solo effort, bringing a number of talented Missoula musicians on board for more recording, and in November 2019, she unveiled Love Is Alright, which was released on her own Both Sides Now imprint. ~ Mark Deming