Heather Phillipson was born in 1978 in the borough of
Haringey in North London and brought up in
Greenwich, South East London. The youngest of three children, her mother was a social worker and
feminist activist and her father a teacher, artist, jazz musician and writer. Phillipson and her siblings were raised with an interest in the arts and music and Phillipson, while still a child, was awarded Grade 7 from the
ABRSM on both violin and piano. At the age of nine, Phillipson won a London-wide poetry competition for the borough of
Lewisham. As a teenager, Phillipson and her family moved to West Wales, where Phillipson attended
Ysgol Dyffryn Taf School. She later went on to study Art & Design at
Pembrokeshire College in the town of
Haverfordwest where she also worked part-time in a record shop, building up her collection and knowledge of UK dance and
electronic music, which later informed her practice as a DJ, playing
house,
jungle and
drum and bass. Phillipson went on to become active in the late-90s UK rave and free party scene. As Phillipson noted when interviewed on BBC Radio 3's
Private Passions in 2020, this has had a significant impact on the sampling, rhythmic and tonal structures of her work. == Personal life ==