Kelli Dayton, also known as Kelli Ali is a British vocalist most recognized for being lead singer for the trip hop group Sneaker Pimps.
Career
Before Sneaker Pimps, Ali was part of a group called Psycho Drama, which she joined when she was 16 years old. A few years later, she was asked by Russell Cross of the band The Lumieres to join his band. The Lumieres only had one major single, "Cinder Hearts". With the Sneaker Pimps she was featured prominently in both the songs and the music videos for the albumBecoming X, but was released from the group in 1998 when they decided to do vocals for their own songs. After leaving the Sneaker Pimps, she moved on to a solo career under the name Kelli Ali. Her first solo album was Tigermouth in 2003, which included tracks "Sunlight in the Rain" and "Kids," and featured ex-Doors drummer John Densmore. She toured alongside Garbage in 2003 and released a follow-up album, Psychic Cat, in mid-2004. The second album was more of a return to Ali's rock and roll roots and featured musician-turned-author Tony O'Neill on keyboards. In April 2006, she travelled to Japan to record and write tracks with Hoshino Hidehiko from Buck-Tick and Cube Juice for the band Dropz. The same year, producer Paul Oakenfold recorded the Kelli Ali penned song "Faster Kill Pussycat" with actress Brittany Murphy, which remained Murphy's only single release. On 24 November 2008, Ali released Rocking Horse, her third solo album. The album was produced by Max Richter in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the first half of 2008. In 2009, she self-released the album Butterfly. Ali released her 5th album in 2013, entitled Band of Angels. She has collaborated extensively with the UK band Cult With No Name. On 2 December 2016, on her Instagram feed Kelli Ali announced a new project, Ghostdriver. In her announcement Ali stated "...it will be a joint album & film project. A noir thriller and love letter to London." The project was being crowd-funded via a PledgeMusic campaign. On 30 December 2017 Ali posted an update to the site, stating, "Thanks to you, all the filming for Ghostdriver was completed and the edit is in full swing, all songs written and in the later stages of production." On 24 November 2018, Ali released the lead single from "Ghostdriver" called "The Fear Of London" as a 7 track digital remix single, exclusively to fans who contributed to her PledgeMusic campaign. This was followed by an exclusive PledgeMusic-only digital release of the full 15 track "Ghostdriver" album on 26 January 2019, with an announcement that a full commercial release of the album and single will follow later in 2019 in conjunction with the release of the final film. In the album release announcement, Ali also revealed that her former Sneaker Pimps band-mate and notable producer & engineer, Liam Howe, contributed extensively to the mix and additional production of the album, notably marking the first collaboration between two original Sneaker Pimps band members since their disbandment. As post-production work on the film continued through 2019, Ali released a stand-alone single called "Sadistic" in December 2019 as a limited edition, deluxe Lipstick USB set and a new music video. The "Ghostdriver" film's post-production has since hit additional delays due to the Coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. The soundtrack album is now expected to be released commercially later in 2020, with the film expected late 2020 / early 2021. In September 2019, Kelli Ali appeared as main feature in the Visual Collaborative electronic catalogue, in an issue themed Vivencias which translates to "Experiences" in Spanish. She was interviewed alongside 30 people from around the world such as Dakore Akande, Adelaide Damoah and Desdamona.
