Ethel Lindsey

French and International Singer/Songwriter, Multi-intrumentist, Arranger, & Record Lover, born in Paris in the early eighties. Under "Ethel" or "Ethel Lindsey" he is mainly known as a soulful, charismatic and chameleon Singer/vocalist. But he also earned the reputation of being a fine songwriter/composer in his own right. Focusing on writing material in his native language for few decades, he moved on writing english language material in the early 2000's, and nearly emerged in the french neo soul movement. Primary an autodidact keyboardist, Ethel started to record himself at the early age of 12 years old, eventually picked up the electric bass at the age of 15. These skills allowed him to arrange, shape and build his own demos. His Musical Knowledge surely helped him to shape his musical developpement. His late brother, Stephane Lindsey Aronowicz (1968-2010) was a french underground Jazz Saxophonist and Composer as well. Both are family related to famous french arranger, Michel Berholc and A&R/Singer/producer, Yves Roze who were their father's cousins. Ethel began his musical career at a very young age when he was discovered in 1993 by the now legendary French westcoast producer, Bernard St Paul. St Paul has previously produced French icons such as Veronique Sanson or Michel Berger back in the 70's/80's and went on to produce, David Koven in the 90's. Ethel was deeply influenced by the music and esthetism of his first idols which were Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, George Duke, George Benson, Junior Giscombe, Sade, Wham / George Michael, Terence Trent D'arby, Rufus, Prince, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind & Fire Other Obvious and major influences includes Cheryl Lynn, Ray Parker Jr, Quincy Jones, Vera Brown & The Ritchie Family B.B & Q Band, Chaka Khan, Bill Summers and the Summers Heat, Anita Baker, Rod Temperton, Narada Michael Walden, Rick James, Lewis Taylor, Al Jarreau, Jay Graydon, Christopher Cross, Chic, David Foster, Beverley Craven, Steely Dan, Eric Tagg, Hamish Stuart & Alan Gorrie / The Average White Band, Hall & Oates, Easy Pieces, Des'ree, Marcus Miller, Tevin Campbell, Shanice, The Jones Girls, The Emotions, Bobby Caldwell, Bill LaBounty, The L.A boppers, Larry John McNally, Pages, Toto, Roger Voudouris... to name a few out of a gigantic List. Ethel have been also influenced by French/Canadian home artists and singer/songwriters like Rachid Bahri, Didier Makaga, Michel Jonasz, Michel Polnareff, Michel Berger, David Koven, Diane Tell, Dwight Druick, Alain Chamfort, Serge Gainsbourg, and Daniel Levi. In Early 1994, he began to work on an anticipated debut album for Wea Records. Prior to this he had already recorded a bunch of demos of his own material in a local studio owned by the arranger and musician, Pierre Lambert Sr, which was his childhood best friend's father. Lambert Jr being a longtime professional Drummer and sound engineer during a major part of the eighties. However this initial project recorded through 1995 never saw the light of day due to Wea's change of guard during that era. Ethel returned to his studies for while, but never ceased to write songs He eventually start to track himself in the fall of 1998 with few tools at home and to record more than 400 demos on a span of 3 years. Originally Playing Acoustic Piano and Fender Rhodes, he soon added all sorts of Keyboards and synthesizers, moved on bass guitar, and sometimes even drums - apart of Singing all his vocal parts and harmonies. From 1998 to 2000, Lindsey did solo gigs in various areas of Paris while focusing again on writing songs and recording his demos that he obviously tried to pitch to secure a record deal, but in vain. In early 2002, He appeared on the web, which led him to release several only demo albums on the span of 10 years. A Lot of his underground work is now available here and there mostly on Apple Music and all others legal platforms. Around 2002/2003, he closely worked in studio with the parisian based and French Electro touch Group : " Next Evidence". This collaboration truly started after the release of the group's album named "Thrills" released on Capitol Records. Their association resulted as 3 tracks co produced by "Next Evidence" which appeared on Ethel's demo album "Venir à vous" (2004) Besides his solo project, Ethel eventually worked as a guest singer on some of Next Evidence's tracks and became the original singer for the track " Right Now", a track which was picked up later by "Bob Sinclar" who decided to rework it. Sinclar didn't work with Ethel, so he chose another vocalist and released the song under a new name : "World Hold On" which became a worldwide hit. In 2006, Lindsey has released his second and double unofficial album, a double demo album named : " Ethel II" It was soon followed by his first English Soulful Ep " Ep#1", released on itunes in 2007 with deep appreciation in the Uk and in the US, on "MySpace". Though it was rather unnoticed, this short Ep included the first versions of some quiet storm and soulful songs like, " Sophie" and "Please ! " all written, composed & performed by Ethel Lindsey. In 2010 Ethel released his sixth french album called: "La Confiserie des Sentiments", which can be considered as the maturation of his french songwriting work. This special album contained songs like: " Le doux nom de Marie ", "A Celle là" and "Bel Anniversaire" which became AOR and soulful french classics from his french repertoire. Then, from 2012 to 2015, Ethel worked as a frontman and keyboardist in several Funk cover bands and Original Brazilian jazz funk bands in Paris's area, playing intensively besides musical mate and former Bassist from his own solo project, Virgile Raffaelli (Aldorande, Setenta) The pair eventually worked with a 3 Horn Section local band, in Paris. Lindsey wrote and composed 5 more unleaked albums between 2009 and 2015. His various collaborations led him to meet french guitarist and sound engineer, David Hattab. Together they found the short lived group named: " SPARKLES (Featuring Ethel Lindsey) Hattab & Lindsey co wrote the electro funk infected single "So Good" which was originally released by their home label, Future Play, and Distributed by Universal records. In Early 2015, this track has been released on Expansion records in the UK and included in the " Soul Togetherness " compilation directed by Ralph Tee. Ethel is also known for being influenced by the westcoast/AOR/Blue Eyed Soul genre from the 70's/80's This led him to a direct collaboration with another French fellow Westcoaster Artist, Gael Benyamin Through his own group: "Geyster", the two musicians released the single "Easy" in 2016. The duet was the first single from Geyster's album titled "With all due respect", which was also released on the Japanese imprint, P VINE records These directions led Ethel to a crucial meeting with Producer and A&R, Pascal Rioux, founder of the international indie label : "Favorite Recordings". Through Summer 2023, Ethel teamed up with label mate, Thomas Blanchot, AKA « Mato » to be a part of a Bobby Caldwell cover. Together they released their version from Caldwell's Classic from 1978, « What you won’t do for love », delivering a nice and special t Reggae Dub flavored version of the famous hit. It was released internationally in the form of a 7 inch in May 19 of 2023 on « Stix Records » (a subdivision of Favorite Recordings) To be continued