Johanna Kunin

Though she was born in Illinois, singer/songwriter Johanna Kunin spent most of her life north in Minnesota, beginning piano lessons at age five, an instrument both her grandmother and uncle also played. In 1999 Kunin left the Midwest to attend school at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, studying jazz improvisation; still, she didn't began writing her own songs until a year after she graduated, surprising herself when she gravitated toward melodic pop songs instead of the often avant-garde and experimental music she had spent so much time with. After putting out a couple of EPs, Kunin set about self-releasing her debut full-length. Hardly the typical D.I.Y. record, Clouds Electric was produced by Tucker Martine (who has also worked with the Decemberists and Laura Veirs, the latter being someone to whom Kunin is frequently compared), and twice the single "Fireflies" was chosen as influential radio station KCRW's song of the day.