Eliot Paulina Sumner (born 30 July 1990) is an English singer, songwriter and actor.
Career
I Blame Coco
Sumner began writing songs at the age of 15,
and signed a multi-record deal with
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, an ...
at age 17.
They spent six months writing and recording a debut album, ''The Constant'' (2010), in Sweden with producer
Klas Åhlund,
keyboardist Emlyn Maillard, and multi-instrumentalist and producer
Al Shux under the band name I Blame Coco. The album included elements of pop music,
electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
,
ska, and
punk. The first single, "
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
", featured Swedish pop singer
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...
.
The next single, "
Self Machine
"Selfmachine" is a song by the English band I Blame Coco from their first album, ''The Constant''. Produced by Klas Åhlund, it was released as the album's second single in digital format on 11 July 2010, with a 12" vinyl released the following d ...
", was released in July 2010.
According to Christian Wåhlberg, Sumner's manager, Åhlund, had been keen to work with Sumner because she saw the "punk rocker" in them.
Wåhlberg said that the electropop sound of the album was influenced by Darcus Beese, president of Island Records, and that if Sumner had signed to a different record label, the music would have been different.
Solo career

In 2014, Sumner said their music would be released under their birth name, Eliot Sumner. Later that year, they released the EP ''
Information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...
'', and in 2016 the full album ''Information'' appeared. Sumner's contributions to other musicians' albums include vocals for the song "End of the Road" by
Sway
Sway may refer to:
Places
* Sway, Hampshire, a village and civil parish in the New Forest in England
** Sway railway station, serving the village
People
* Sway (British musician) (born 1983), British hip hop/grime singer
* Sway Calloway (born 1 ...
and the single "
Splash" by
Sub Focus
Nicolaas Douwma (born 13 April 1982), better known by his stage name Sub Focus, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, musician and sound engineer from Guildford, Surrey. He has been releasing records since 2003. On 12 October 2009, ...
.
They sang a cover version of the Radiohead song "
Creep
Creep, Creeps or CREEP may refer to:
People
* Creep, a creepy person
Politics
* Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), mockingly abbreviated as CREEP, an fundraising organization for Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign
Art ...
" with
Clint Mansell
Clinton Darryl Mansell (; born 7 January 1963) is an English musician, singer, and composer, born in Coventry. He served as the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist of alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself before embarking on a career as a fil ...
for the soundtrack to the movie ''
Filth'' (2013).
Acting career
Sumner appeared briefly in the films ''
Me Without You'' (2001) and ''
Stardust
Stardust may refer to:
* A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space
Entertainment Songs
* “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael
* “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974
* “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012
* ...
'' (2007). They made their adult acting debut in
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the '' Sherlock Holmes'' films starring Robert Downey Jr.
Ritchie left school at age 15 and wo ...
's ''
The Gentlemen'' in 2020. They appeared in the
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...
film ''
No Time to Die'' (2020).
In December 2021, Sumner was cast in Showtime's drama series ''Ripley'' in a recurring role. They played a hiker in the thriller, ''
Infinite Storm'', appearing before Naomi Watts' character begins hiking to the summit of
Mt. Washington.
Personal life
Eliot Paulina Sumner is the child of musician
Sting (Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner) and actress
Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler (born 6 January 1954) is an English actress and film producer.
Early life and family
Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the daughter of Pauline and Harry Styler, a farmer and factory worker. When Styler was two years ...
.
Sumner was born in
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ...
, Italy, grew up in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...
, England,
and was educated at
Bryanston School
Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928 ...
and then the
Fine Arts College in London.
They grew up at
Lake House
Lake House is an Elizabethan country house dating from 1578, in Wilsford cum Lake in Wiltshire, England, about seven miles north of Salisbury. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade II listed in the English Heritage Register ...
, the family estate near
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...
. Eliot has two brothers (Jake and Giacomo), a sister (Mickey), an older half-brother (
Joe), and a half-sister (Kate). Their family gave Sumner the nickname "Coco". Drawn to the outdoors, Sumner spent a lot of time alone in the woods. Their family gave Eliot their first guitar at age four or five. They wrote their first song at age 13 and signed a record deal four years later. After recording and touring with I Blame Coco, they lived alone in a cottage in the
Lake District of England and became interested in
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the late 1970s, as DJs began altering ...
. Sumner also works as a DJ in European dance clubs under the moniker "Vaal".
Sumner's sense of smell was lost after a brain injury in 2009.
In December 2015, Sumner said that they did not believe in gender labels and did not identify with a particular gender.
They use gender-neutral pronouns.
Awards and honours
* I Blame Coco was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Virgin Media Music Awards in 2010.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Other: Remixes
* Eliot Sumner – After Dark (Mr Tophat's Alterned 303 Remix)
* Eliot Sumner – After Dark (Dixon Remix)
* Eliot Sumner – Firewood –
Lakker
Lakker are an Irish electronic music duo consisting of Dara Smith and Ian McDonnell, both from Dublin, Ireland. Formed in 2003, they have released a number of albums and singles on the independent Belgian electronic label R & S Records merging " ...
Remix
Music videos
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Eliot
1990 births
Living people
People from Pisa
People educated at Bryanston School
People educated at Fine Arts College
British indie rock musicians
English electronic musicians
English rock singers
English pop singers
English film actors
LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom
Island Records artists
Sting (musician)
21st-century English musicians
Eliot
LGBT singers from the United Kingdom
Non-binary musicians
British non-binary actors
LGBT actors from England