Ingrid was born January, 1965 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in Marietta, Georgia. She moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1986 to follow her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. She worked with a number of local musicians building a body of work. During that time she met Prince. Impressed by Ingrid's voice and poetry, Prince took Ingrid under his wing. Ingrid was known as the 'Spirit Child' on his 1988 'Lovesexy' album. Prince encouraged Ingrid to write 21 poems with the promise that they would make a poetry album together. When she finished her poems, she and Prince went into the studio. Prince sat at a keyboard and played while Ingrid read through all 21 of her poems. This was the original recording that would later become her only album ever released on the Paisley park label. Shortly after this session the project was put on hold indefinitely.
In 1989, Ingrid formed a band called 'Skyfish' with Richard Werbowenko. They created a six-song album released only on cassette. Ingrid ran into Prince a year or so later and handed him a copy of the 'Skyfish' demo. Shortly after the exchange, Prince contacted Ingrid and wanted her to listen to a track that he had just finished with the poem 'Heaven Must Be Near'. Prince asked Ingrid to finish the poetry album.
Chavez's debut solo album, titled 'May 19, 1992', was initially intended to set her spoken-word poetry to music supplied by Prince. Although the album was meant to be purely spoken-word over music, Ingrid pushed for a few tracks with sung vocals. Five of the album's tracks have spoken word with atmospheric music by Prince under his Paisley Park alias. The remainder of the album is tracks with poetry combined with catchy vocal hooks. These tracks were co-produced by Ingrid with Prince's studio hands Michael Koppelman and Levi Seacer, Jr..
It was at this time that Ingrid was asked to play the part of Prince's romantic interest in his 1990 film 'Graffiti Bridge'. It was during the filming that Ingrid went into the studio with Lenny Kravitz and Andre Betts and co-wrote and recorded what became Madonna's sultry 1990 hit 'Justify My Love'.
In 1992, Ingrid recorded vocals for recording artists David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'Heartbeat' single. Soon after, Ingrid married David and over the years contributed her trademark breathy vocals to a number of her husbands releases. During the mid-1990s, Ingrid worked with Sylvian and Werbowenko on a second solo album entitled, 'Little Girls with 99 lives'. These songs were eventually released as B sides on two separate EPs of Sylvian's released on Virgin records. In 1996, Tommy Roberts, a former Minneapolis recording engineer who recorded the Skyfish demo, contacted Ingrid and asked her to be in a band with him. She joined the band 'Ova' and recorded a four song EP and an E.P.K. Ingrid became pregnant and decided to let go of the project and focus on her family. Ingrid currently lives in New England with her children focusing on photography, writing and a new recording project.
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