Biography
Laura Burhenn had already built a career as an independent solo performer in Washington, D.C., where she launched Laboratory Records back in 1999, before she assembled the Mynabirds in 2009. Eight years after founding the label she joined forces with fellow D.C. scene veteran John Davis to launch the experimental duo Georgie James. Although Davis had previously played in the aggressive post-hardcore band Q and Not U, the new project drew instead from harmony-rich pop acts such as the Zombies and the Kinks. The partnership proved brief, ending after a single album when Burhenn and Davis parted ways.
She chose to remain on Saddle Creek, the Nebraska imprint that had issued Georgie James’ 2007 debut, for her next endeavor. Burhenn composed fresh material shaped by the sounds of Neil Young, Motown, and Carole King, then moved to Oregon to track the songs with producer Richard Swift. Fellow Saddle Creek artist Orenda Fink assisted in recruiting a stable group of supporting musicians, and the resulting effort, issued under the Mynabirds name as What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, surfaced in 2010. A limited-edition 7″ titled “All I Want Is Truth (For Xmas)” followed in 2011, with the band’s second full-length, Generals, arriving the next year.
In 2013 Burhenn joined the reunited Postal Service for touring that continued until the group’s official dissolution that summer; afterward she performed solo, including dates in South Africa, while pausing for writing and further international travel. Bradley Hanan Carter of NO produced the Mynabirds’ third album, Lovers Know, which emerged in summer 2015 and featured lyrics drawn from those journeys along with a denser synth-pop palette that leaned more heavily toward ’80s textures than ’60s ones. Two years later the band issued the politically charged Be Here Now, captured during the two weeks immediately following Donald Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March.
She chose to remain on Saddle Creek, the Nebraska imprint that had issued Georgie James’ 2007 debut, for her next endeavor. Burhenn composed fresh material shaped by the sounds of Neil Young, Motown, and Carole King, then moved to Oregon to track the songs with producer Richard Swift. Fellow Saddle Creek artist Orenda Fink assisted in recruiting a stable group of supporting musicians, and the resulting effort, issued under the Mynabirds name as What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, surfaced in 2010. A limited-edition 7″ titled “All I Want Is Truth (For Xmas)” followed in 2011, with the band’s second full-length, Generals, arriving the next year.
In 2013 Burhenn joined the reunited Postal Service for touring that continued until the group’s official dissolution that summer; afterward she performed solo, including dates in South Africa, while pausing for writing and further international travel. Bradley Hanan Carter of NO produced the Mynabirds’ third album, Lovers Know, which emerged in summer 2015 and featured lyrics drawn from those journeys along with a denser synth-pop palette that leaned more heavily toward ’80s textures than ’60s ones. Two years later the band issued the politically charged Be Here Now, captured during the two weeks immediately following Donald Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March.
Albums
Lovers Know
2015
GENERALS: REMIXED
2013
GENERALS
2012
What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood
2010
Singles
