Sam Phillips

Leslie Ann Phillips born June 28 1962 better known by her stage name Sam Phillips is an American singer and songwriter She is also an actress best known for her film acting debut as the mute terrorist Katya in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Die Hard with a Vengeance Phillips made a cameo appearance in the 1997 Wim Wenders film The End of Violence singing part of the song Animals on Wheels from Omnipop Phillips also began writing music for and scoring the TV series Gilmore Girls and appeared in the final episode of season six performing Taking Pictures from her Fan Dance album She also composed scores for the television shows Bunheads The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life She began her musical career in the early 1980s in the contemporary Christian music industry where she sang background vocals for Christian artists Mark Heard and Randy Stonehill Phillips was signed as a solo artist with Myrrh Records under her given name and recorded four Christian pop albums Beyond Saturday Night Dancing with Danger Black and White in a Grey World and The Turning The Turning teamed her with producer T Bone Burnett whom she would later marry Several of Phillips songs became Top 10 singles on Christian radio and Myrrh records promoted her as the Christian Cyndi Lauper Phillips was never comfortable with this image and it was a bone of contention between her and her label She began using the name Sam professionally in 1988 when she left Myrrh Records and signed with Virgin Records in order to distance herself from her prior persona With The Indescribable Wow Philips moved into mainstream music Cruel Inventions was released in 1991 and included a guest performance by Elvis Costello 1994s Martinis and Bikinis was nominated for a Grammy Award her second nomination In 1996 she released Omnipop Its Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop which featured a song cowritten by REM After releasing a contractually obligated best of album in 1999 Virgin Records dropped Phillips from its roster In 2001 she signed with Nonesuch Records evolving her musical style to a strippeddown acoustically based sound on her album called Fan Dance In 2004 she released A Boot and a Shoe another collection of acoustically based songs similar in style to Fan Dance Her album Dont Do Anything was selfproduced and released in 2008 In October 2009 she launched The Long Play a music subscription service offering digital releases without a record label The first subscription only EP Hypnotists in Paris was recorded with the Section Quartet and a Christmas collection Cold Dark Night Magic for Everyone Old Tin Pan and Days of the One Night Stands followed with the fulllength album Cameras in the Sky released in early 2010 In Spring 2011 she issued Solid State a public CD release Push Any Button was released on August 13 2013 In 2013 her first live concert album Sam Phillips Live Largo at The Coronet was made available digitally through her website In 2016 Phillips released a downloadable EP Human Contact is Never Easy which included four new tracks off her next album World on Sticks In September 2018 Phillips released World on Sticks