Noah Gundersen

Pop-folk singer and songwriter Noah Gundersen was born May 31, 1989 in Olympia, Washington into an extremely religious but also very musical family that frowned on secular music, a view that he eventually abandoned. Gundersen began taking piano lessons before he was a teen, and after inheriting an electric Epiphone guitar from his father in 2002, he began tracking songs on his father's recording equipment. By the time he was 16, Gundersen was gigging in the local cafes, and in 2006 his sister, Abby, an excellent violinist, cellist, pianist, and harmony singer, began to accompany him. The duo added a rhythm section and began performing as a full band under the name the Courage. Gundersen also formed the post-hardcore group Beneath Oceans in 2007, but after finishing an unreleased EP, the band called it quits in 2008 and Gundersen resumed his solo career. His first solo release, Brand New World, recorded in Eugene, Oregon in a home studio and featuring plenty of his sister's playing and singing, appeared that same year, as did a live album with the Courage, Live at the Triple Door. Two more EPs followed, Saints & Liars in 2009 and Family in 2011. A full-length solo debut, Ledges, appeared from Dualtone Music early in 2014.