Fiona began playing piano at eight years old. At eleven, she began psychotherapy, because her teachers thought her to be antisocial (I wonder what her teachers would have though of me). Fiona told Spin Magazine, "Basically, I was young, and I wasn't running around with a yo-yo and a jump rope all the time, so people thought there was something wrong with me. I refused to go to school for weeks straight 'cause everyone was calling me 'dog of the school,' 'crazy,' 'weird,' 'stupid.' When I switched to an alternative school, my principal thought that I was emotionally disturbed. Which I am."
At twelve years old, Fiona was sexually assaulted and began to show disturbed behavior. As a result of this disturbed behavior, her parents got her medical help. They even thought that she had a drug problem.
When Fiona was 16, she moved to Los Angeles to finish her senior year of high school and to make a demo of three songs. She finished her entire senior year in two months of home schooling and ended up making seventy-eight copies of the demo.
Only one demo was distributed (which left Fiona with seventy-seven tapes). She signed a record deal with Sony Music.
Her debut album, Tidal, was released in July of 1996. She won a Grammy in March of 1998. Tidal has sold over two million copies in the US.
She is currently working on her sophomore album. The title of her sophomore album was originally titled Corrupt, but it was changed to Okerupt. Fiona can also be found on the Pleasantville soundtrack.
Fiona is a vegetarian and has helped out People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
"This is a song about knowing your anger and knowing what your focus of anger is for. There's so many assholes in the world. And as long as you can recognize them, you can avoid them."
"I just had something on my mind and I just said it... and that's really the foreshadowing of my entire career and my entire life. When I have something to say, I'll say it."
"This world is bullshit, and you shouldn't model your life about what you think that you think we think is cool, and what we're wearing, and what we're saying and everything. Go with yourself."
"It's psychologically and chemically impossible for me to be happy. I know I'm going to die young."
"The way I feel about music-any song, any style-is that there is no right and wrong, only true and false. If the music and lyrics are conceived out of honesty, and if the production of the song goes along with its original message, then what has been expressed is art regardless of what anyone's opinion is of it. So things are a lot simpler if you just tell the truth."
"My album is called Tidal partly because all this has hit me like a tidal wave but also because 'tidal' refers to ebbing and flowing, and that's really what life is, a constant ebb and flow."
