Biography
Victoria Garance Alixe Legrand French-American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, keyboardist and one-half of dream pop duo Beach House. For some time starting 2001, she was also the lead vocalist for Daggerhearts, a band she co-founded with two of her colleagues at Vassar College.
Victoria Legrand was born on May 28, 1981, in Paris, France. She is the daughter of painter Olivier Legrand, to whom she is of partial Armenian ancestry, as well as the niece of the French composer Michel Legrand and vocalist Christiane Legrand of The Swingle Singers. At age 6, she relocated with her family to Baltimore, Maryland, later to rural Cecil County. They later moved to Philadelphia, where Victoria lived throughout her adolescence. She often studio piano in her early, later joining a Led Zeppelin cover band. After graduating from Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1999, she attended Vassar College, where she majored in drama. During her time in college, she formed a band, Daggerhearts, with two of her colleagues at Vassar; Victoria was the vocalist, with Dirck Ober on guitar and Lauren Turek on bass guitar.
Read full biography ↓
Victoria graduated from Vassar in 2003. She would later relocate back to Paris to study acting at the International Theatre School of Jacques Lecoq. Being dissatisfied with the school and having an increased interest in songwriting, she moved back to Baltimore, where another one of her colleagues, Dirck, was also living at. They both continued their time in Daggerhearts, with the absence of Laura, who decided to remain attending college instead of dropping out to focus on the band. Alex Scally, who was introduced to Victoria by Dirck, would replace Laura as their bassist. Daggerhearts continued up until 2005, when it would disband due to dysfunctionality. Victoria would later begin writing and recording a few songs with newer member Alex, later forming a band in 2005, Beach House. Since then, they have released eight studio albums, including their acclaimed three album run, Teen Dream (2010), Bloom (2012) and Depression Cherry (2015).
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.