Childhood and youth
Hitch was born in the south England countryside in London. For a time being, she was resentful towards her parents for giving her the birth name, Neon, wanting to change her name to a more conventional name, such as Melanie. Her father was a lighting technician. Her mother bought a caravan to live in when their house burned down. They then began street performing, making and selling jewelry and clothing around Europe. As a result, she never attended school as they did not stay in one location for prolonged periods of time. By age four, she was traveling and performing with the Archaos circus. She trained as a trapeze artist, fire swinger and stilt walker and had performed all over Europe by the time she was a teen. Her family was featured in a BBC documentary. At age ten, she began writing poetry which led to her writing lyrics. Her boyfriend noticed that she could sing and encouraged her to hone her singing. She left home at sixteen to live in India for a few years before settling in London for her music career.
Career beginnings: 2007-2010
After singing on several tracks for Greensleeves Records, Hitch was signed to Mike Skinner's label The Beats, later going on tour with him.She also toured with Neneh Cherry and Professor Green and opened for 50 Cent at the Nottingham Arena before The Beats closed in 2007. Soon after, Hitch was flown stateside by James Johnson, owner of Pilot Creative Services Inc, who asked her to go to New York to meet with him and his client, songwriter Benny Blanco, on MySpace. She was homeless at the time, occasionally checking her MySpace account at friends' houses, and could not afford the plane ticket to meet him. A little over a year later, she signed James and Pilot as her management and quickly landed a publishing deal with EMI. Within the next year she co-wrote and sang background vocals for pop punk band Friday Night Boys' song "Stupid Love Letter", Kesha's "Blah Blah Blah" and 3OH!3's "Follow Me Down" from the Almost Alice soundtrack. She was also featured on Benny Blanco's remix of Miike Snow's song "Burial". Another feature song is 'What's Urban' with WanCee. In early 2010, she was signed to Warner Bros. Records by Kara Dioguardi after a writing session between the two. Hitch later performed atLollapalooza in the summer. She also co-wrote "Traces" by Sky Ferreira.
Beg, Borrow and Steal: 2011
Hitch began recording her debut album, Beg, Borrow and Steal in March 2010 with Blanco. She released her debut single, "Get Over U", co-written by Sia, for free in January 2011. The single was released digitally on February 22, 2011. Hitch performed at the 2011 editions ofSouth by Southwest and The Bamboozle.
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