Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Unofficial Bio

It seemed appropriate to write an Unofficial Bio in earnest. Here you go:

You could say that music is one of my passions, but those words aren’t entirely adequate—music is a part of me, one of the ways in which I both express and define myself; for me, home is a piano in a dark room. I’ve been singing, writing, and playing that instrument for almost my entire life.

But there’s a problem with classical training: the ability to improvise doesn’t come naturally. You spend so much time learning how to read someone else’s music, how to interpret the piece correctly based on compositional style and era that you don’t learn how to create the tapestry yourself, no matter how strong the Muse. Enter my freshman year at the University of Michigan and a new instrument: the guitar. I’d wanted to play for years, but when I finally sat down with the strings I found total anarchy—suddenly there no key signatures on manuscript filled with black dots to guide me: all I had were chords. “But how do I figure out how I’m supposed to strum this?” “Just do what seems to fit.” What? After my confusion passed, the proverbial new world opened its doors to me. Two months later, I performed my first original song.

Now this singer-songwriter thing has consumed a large part of my life, and I’d be happy to have it overwhelm more. Five years after I first picked up a guitar, I count 70 songs in my catalog. And I released my first album in October, a four-song EP entitled First Verse (why only four songs? Because studio sessions are expensive). The rest of my time goes to a “minor” obsession called swing dancing—I’ve danced in cities around the country and taken workshops and lessons with nationally and internationally respected instructors; writing both articles and creative work; freelance graphic/web design; a bit of modeling; and University Reformed Church, where I’m on staff working with worship/music (surprise, surprise) and the arts. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English Language & Literature and Theatre & Drama—concentrations considered impractical in the so-called real world, but hey, I haven’t hit the real world yet. And I hope I never do.

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