Born in Fullerton, California, USA on November 30, 1958, Stacey Lynn Swain took an interest in dancing at a young age and, after high school, joined the Barnum & Bailey Circus as a dancer and rider in the elephant show.
In 1981 via her then-boyfriend, a musician, she met Jon St. James and became part of a project called
Q shortly thereafter. Swain was brought in as a producer, but when the group was ready to record its first track, "Sushi," they realized that they had no vocalist and St. James asked her to sing the track. She did, and the group had found their new vocalist.
Swain and St. James continued the Q project with the formation of
SSQ, a full-blown synthpop group. The group released one album,
Playback, on Enigma and EMI America records in 1983.
Stacey released her first single, "Shy Girl," in 1985 on On The Spot records.
The core of the band remained, and attention shifted to Swain as the project renamed itself one final time. Now known as Stacey Q, the band signed a deal with Atlantic Records (who, ironically, had passed on the SSQ project) and released three dance-oriented albums in the later half of the 1980's. Stacey Q's biggest chart success came in 1986 with the club hit "Two Of Hearts" (#3 US). The follow-up, "We Connect," was also a chart success (#23 US). After 1989's
Nights Like This, the group disbanded.
Stacey released a solo acoustic album in 1997 called
Boomerang that had roots in early pop music and reflected her conversion to Buddhism. Today she still performs live shows and works in the studio.
She released a new album in 2010 entitled "Color Me Cinnamon", with the first single being "Trip".