PRONUNCIATION: It's Johanna like the Bob Dylan song, and Kunin like KOON-yin, with the "oo" just like "book."

Johanna Kunin is a writer of songs living in Seattle. You might hear her on your radio on stations like KEXP, WFMU, or KCRW, or see her play at a local club, art space, or house show.  She grew up in Minneapolis an avid listener of music that sounded nothing like her own would come to be, and with neighbors like Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum mowing her lawn and vice-presidential candidate Walter Mondale handing out Halloween candy.  She also spent some of her youth at a family cabin near the Boundary Waters.  She didn't start writing songs until 2004, after going to school for jazz, and that background as well as the classical piano music she grew up playing can be heard in her songwriting.  The surreal atmosphere of her songs along with her melodic vocal lines and often minimalist piano accompaniment have brought about comparisons to a lot of different-sounding musicians - Tori Amos, Laurie Anderson, and Cat Power, to name a few - but she has also been described as "doing something you've never heard before" (Casey Jarman, Willamette Week).  She doesn't remember stories very well, so her songs don't usually tell them.  Instead they tend to proceed in a dream-like fashion from one image to another, often dealing in the parodoxical and/or ambiguous.

Johanna's recording career began in 2005 with 3 simultaneous recording projects.  The first came about when, on the strength of her first few demos, she received a recording grant from Seattle's Jack Straw Productions.  She then enlisted her friend Karl Blau (K Records) to produce a few songs, which they began at the studio and completed in Karl's garage in Anacortes, WA.  These partially lo-fi recordings wound up on a split with Brooklyn's Garrett Devoe (Pure Horsehair) called Sigh Lens, which Blau released as issue #21 of his audio periodical Kelp! Monthly.  Her second endeavor, a full-length called Clouds Electric, Johanna entrusted to producer Tucker Martine, known for his work with Laura Veirs, Bill Frisell, and The Decemberists.  To create this sonically complex and not so lo-fi album, Johanna and Tucker compiled a Pacific Northwest dream team of musicians including drummer Matt Chamberlain, violist Eyvind Kang, and keyboardist Steve Moore (Stebmo).  Quietly self-released in 2006, Clouds Electric perked up some influential ears, most notably at Santa Monica's KCRW, where Johanna would appear on the station's flagship show, Morning Becomes Eclectic.  Her third 2005 recording, an EP called Up North, included songs recorded by Blau, Martine, and her sometimes-drummer Eric Eagle.

The first several months of 2008 saw Johanna listening to a lot of classic rock radio while shuttling to and from Miracle Lake Studios just outside Portland, OR.  There she co-produced her second, as yet unreleased full-length Hidden Systems with Skyler Norwood (Talkdemonic, Horse Feathers, Blind Pilot).  With Hidden Systems, Johanna and Skyler set out to make an album with more of a live band sound than her earlier work.  As it took shape in the studio, its instrumentation came to include not only drums, bass, piano, keyboards, and guitar, but also Johanna's arrangements of woodwinds, brass, strings, and vibraphone.  A parade of friends from Seattle and Portland made this possible, including members of such varied bands as Point Juncture, WA, Velella Velella, Loch Lomond, and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.

Live, you may find Johanna playing alone, accompanying her vocals with piano, keyboard, and some live-recorded looping of percussion or vocal textures,  or with any number of other musicians backing her up.  She has toured the US several times, opening up for artists like Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Horse Feathers (Kill Rock Stars), and Karl Blau.  Since July, 2008, she has also been a member of the Seattle electro-funk band Velella Velella.  Johanna sings and plays the piano, keyboards, and occasionally flute on her recordings.  Although she loves the guitar, she does not know how to play it.