Johanna Warren

Johanna Warren first surfaced as a singer-songwriter whose soft, flowing vocal tone and reflective approach to lyricism defined her acoustic solo debut Fates, released in 2013. Across later projects that examined grief and doomed romances, she broadened her sonic range by merging introspective folk elements with 1990s alternative rock textures on Chaotic Good in 2020 and her sixth album, Lessons for Mutants, which arrived in 2022.

While attending college, Warren assembled the Brooklyn indie folk group sTickLipS, whose lineup also included Jonathan Nocera on electric guitar, Chris St. Hillaire on bass, and Jim Bertini on drums. The band issued It Is Like a Horse It Is Not Like Two Foxes in 2009 and followed it with Zemi in 2012. The following year she provided backing vocals as part of Iron & Wine’s touring ensemble, an engagement that included a May 2013 appearance on the late-night program Conan. That October she issued her first solo recording, the all-acoustic Fates, which was captured and mixed by engineer Bella Blasko.

Warren contributed backing vocals to Natalie Merchant’s self-titled album in 2014 and toured alongside Andrea Tomasi, joining her onstage for portions of the sets. After relocating to Portland and resuming work with Blasko, she expanded her use of intricate rhythmic patterns and atypical chord progressions on the 2015 sophomore album Numun, issued by Conor Oberst’s Team Love Records and dedicated to lunar phases and nature’s recurring cycles. Two companion releases exploring a turbulent relationship with a Gemini, Gemini I and Gemini II, appeared in 2016 and 2018; both incorporated electric and electronic textures while engaging occult imagery. Wax Nine and Carpark Records later released deluxe editions of each that added bonus tracks and instrumental versions.

Warren’s fifth solo album, the self-produced Chaotic Good, advanced further into abrasive textures, at times stretching her vocals past their customary ethereal folk register. Former sTickLipS members St. Hillaire and Bertini performed on the record, which surfaced via Wax Nine/Carpark Records in 2020. She supplied voice work for the Netflix animated series The Midnight Gospel and premiered original songs, written with J. Landon Marcus, for a musical adaptation of Euripides’ The Bacchae. A comparable blend of folk and rock coalesced on 2022’s Lessons for Mutants. Although its earliest segments originated during Chaotic Good sessions, the bulk of the album was tracked live to two-inch tape with a band at her new base in rural Wales.