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American singer-songwriter (born 1991) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker (born July 9, 1991) is an American musician. She is the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of the band Big Thief, as well as an established solo artist.
Adrianne Lenker | |
|---|---|
Lenker performing with Big Thief in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker |
| Born | July 9, 1991 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Origin | Plymouth, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Genres | Indie folk |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | |
| Member of | Big Thief |
| Website | adriannelenker |
Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian cult until the age of four,[1][2] but primarily grew up in Minnesota.
When Lenker was 5 years old, she was hospitalized when a railroad spike fell from a treehouse roof, lodging itself into her skull, nearly killing her.[3][4] She recounts the incident in the song "Mythological Beauty" from Big Thief's second album Capacity.[5]
Her parents rented homes in Coon Rapids, Nisswa, and Bloomington, Minnesota, before settling down in Plymouth, Minnesota, where she lived for 10 years, excluding a brief time spent in Santa Cruz, California. She spent a summer traveling throughout the Midwest and living out of a Ford cargo van.[6] Lenker was homeschooled. Her parents divorced when she was 12, and she began experimenting with substances in her mid-teens.[7]
Lenker's parents eventually ceased their involvement in cult activity, after which Lenker became interested in music and songwriting.[8] She taught herself to play guitar by writing her own music; she wrote her first song at the age of eight, and recorded her first album at age 13.[6][9] She also studied martial arts extensively, and was state karate champion three years in a row.[10][11]
She moved to Santa Cruz for a year and a half, living with a family friend and working at a local McDonalds. She dropped out of Santa Cruz High School halfway into her sophomore year, moved back to Plymouth, and got her GED at the age of 16.[6] She attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and started her first band.[12][13]
On February 28, 2006, when Lenker was 14, she released her first solo album, Stages of the Sun.[14] On January 9, 2014, Lenker released her second solo album, Hours Were the Birds.[15]
On May 1, 2014, Lenker, together with future bandmate Buck Meek, released the LP records a-sides and b-sides.[16] In 2015, Lenker and Meek, alongside Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia, formed the band Big Thief. Their first album, Masterpiece, was released in May 2016 to rave reviews.[17] The band has since released four more albums, and has been touring every year since their formation.[18]
Lenker released her third solo album, Abysskiss, on October 5, 2018.[19][20] The album consisted of songs Lenker wrote while touring with Big Thief, and two of the songs received full arrangements, which were rereleased on the band's album U.F.O.F. a few months later.[21]
While in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lenker wrote and recorded two albums, Songs and Instrumentals, which were released on October 23, 2020.[22] The albums focused on less production and a more acoustic sound with traditional folk songwriting and improvisation. Both albums were recorded without any digital processes, utilizing an analog-analog-analog (AAA) recording method.[23]
In January 2024, Lenker partnered with School of Song to teach a four-week course on songwriting, which focused on ways to expand creativity through different guitar techniques and lyrical focuses.[24] In the same month, Lenker also announced her sixth studio album, Bright Future, which was released on March 22, 2024.[25]
On March 11, 2024, Lenker released an EP, I Won't Let Go of Your Hand, exclusively on Bandcamp with proceeds going to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.[26]
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Lenker elaborated on her mindset and approach to songwriting in an interview, where she likened her process to a "collaboration with the universe or a higher power". She said:
"It doesn't feel like it's just originating from my brain. It feels like I'm following an invisible thread of intuition, from one choice to the next [...] maybe I don't even fully understand once I've written it, but it just feels right. And I just trust that. And then over time, it reveals its layers of meaning to me. That's a mark of what I feel is a good song. It keeps me wanting to play it."[27]
Lenker met the future Big Thief co-founder Buck Meek at a concert when she lived in Boston. She then re-encountered him at Mr. Kiwi, a small grocery store in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the day she moved to New York.[28][17][29] The pair began to play together, and married when Lenker was 24.[28] They divorced in 2018, remaining in Big Thief as "deep friends".[28] She later spoke of continuing to work with Meek in the band following the divorce:
"It’s felt sustainable because there’s an extraordinary amount of love. Bucky and I are like family and we fell in love, we were together for seven years. We got married, we got a divorce, all while still being on tour. We figured out our way through it day by day. I know that for all of us, it’s not about maintaining a career or about continuing to have income. What I really have that doesn’t come and go is my love for the craft and for my loved ones. Those are the things I need to nurture first and foremost"[30]
In 2019, Lenker was in a relationship with the artist Indigo Sparke, and the two separated sometime in 2020.[28][31][32]
While Lenker is comfortable with the label "queer", she has expressed a desire not to define her sexual orientation beyond that.[28] Her lyrics often contain discussions of gender and the gender binary. In an interview with The Brag, Lenker said of those lyrics, "I feel within myself a constant dialogue between my masculinity, my femininity and the part of me that is neither of those things. I'm just trying to talk about it because I feel like I'm something that is very ambiguous."[33]
Lenker enjoys visiting breakfast diners and swimming holes while out on tour.[34]
| Adrianne Lenker discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 5 |
| EPs | 3 |
| Live albums | 1 |
| Compilation albums | 1 |
| Singles | 1 |
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Folk [35] |
US Heat [36] |
US Indie [37] |
US Sales [38] |
AUS [39] |
NZ [40] | ||
| Stages of the Sun |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hours Were the Birds |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| Abysskiss |
|
— | 10 | 39 | — | — | — |
| Songs | 12 | 11 | — | 43 | — | — | |
| Instrumentals | |||||||
| Bright Future |
|
18 | 5 | 40 | 28 | 53 | 28 |
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Live at the Southern |
|
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| a-sides and b-sides (with Buck Meek) |
|
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| a-sides (with Buck Meek) |
|
| b-sides (with Buck Meek) |
|
| I Won't Let Go of Your Hand |
|
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Cradle" | 2018 | Abysskiss |
| "Symbol" | ||
| "From" | ||
| "Anything" | 2020 | Songs |
| "Dragon Eyes" | ||
| "Ruined" | 2023 | Bright Future |
| "Sadness as a Gift" | 2024 | |
| "Fool" | ||
| "Free Treasure" | ||
| "Once a Bunch"[41] (Bonus track) |
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Carousel" (Ginla featuring Adrianne Lenker) |
2022 | Everything |
| "Dresser Hill" (Mary Elizabeth Remington featuring Adrianne Lenker) |
2023 | In Embudo |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Grammy Awards | Best Alternative Music Album | U.F.O.F. | Nominated | [42] |
| 2021 | Best Rock Song | "Not" | Nominated | ||
| Best Rock Performance | Nominated | ||||
| 2023 | Best Alternative Music Performance | "Certainty" | Nominated | ||
| Best Alternative Music Album | Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | Nominated | |||
| 2025 | Best Folk Album | Bright Future | Nominated |
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