* En anglais uniquement
With a gentle, lilting voice and melancholic demeanor to her songwriting, singer/songwriter
Johanna Warren emerged with her acoustic solo debut, the wispy Fates, in 2013. Through albums that dealt with topics like loss and ill-fated relationships, she gradually strengthened her sound, bringing together elements of meditative folk and '90s alt-rock by her fifth full-length, 2020's
Chaotic Good.
As a college student,
Warren formed Brooklyn indie folk band sTickLipS, which also featured Jonathan Nocera on electric guitar,
Chris St. Hillaire on bass, and Jim Bertini on drums. The group released It Is Like a Horse It Is Not Like Two Foxes in 2009, following it with Zemi in 2012. The next year,
Warren earned a spot singing backup as a member of
Iron & Wine's touring band, which included an appearance on late-night TV's Conan in May of 2013. That October, she released her solo debut, the all-acoustic Fates. It was recorded with engineer/mixer
Bella Blasko.
In 2014,
Warren's backing vocals appeared on
Natalie Merchant's eponymous release, and she toured with
Andrea Tomasi, performing with her during her set. Collaborating again with
Blasko and relocated to Portland,
Warren incorporated even more of her complex time signatures and nontraditional chord progressions on her sophomore album,
Numun. Dedicated to the moon and nature's cycles, it was released by the
Conor Oberst-founded Team Love Records in 2015.
Two companion albums about a rocky relationship with a Gemini,
Gemini I and
Gemini II, followed in 2016 and 2018, respectively. They incorporated electric and electronic timbres while also delving into occult symbolism. Wax Nine and
Carpark Records issued deluxe editions of both albums that included bonus tracks and instrumental versions of each set.
Warren's fifth solo long-player, the self-produced
Chaotic Good, made further strides toward grungier textures, with
Warren sometimes pushing her vocals beyond her typically ethereal folk style. Featuring performances by former sTickLipS bandmates
St. Hillaire and Bertini, it arrived on Wax Nine/
Carpark Records in 2020. ~ Marcy Donelson