I'm a singer/songwriter/producer/political activist. I was born and raised in Pleasantville, Iowa, (population 1,000). My first band was the all-girl punk band Fluffer. We were fierce. A reviewer from Time Out once said that we "lured you in like poisonous flowers". I thought that was an apt review. We played a lot of shows, put out two albums, and toured with the Melvins and Skeleton Key and some others. We were on MTV for like 5 seconds. Ok, ten seconds.
Then I got a solo record deal on extasy/warner brothers and in 1999, put out an album called "Believer". It was a bunch of songs I wrote when I was 25 or so, all about moving to New York City with $300 bucks in my pocket and living at the YMCA and then in a squat with east german artists and drug addicts in the East Village back when the East Village was actually still a rather scary and edgy (and in my mind, exciting) place to live. I co-produced the album with Ted Niceley (yes, the man who produced FUGAZI, and a genius and a teddy bear). A lot of people loved it. Reviews were good. SPIN magazine said it was a ".sweetly vicious debut, which is equal parts power pop and sugary punk, like Siouxsie Sioux meets Jewel". My record label went under while I was making my second album, which never got finished. Ahh, life.
Interesting factoid: my now husband and I lived right beside each other on 9th street in the East Village for about a year in the mid-90s and never met. A friend of his took him to see Fluffer at the seminal indie rock club Brownies on Avenue A one night and he (my now hubby) thought to himself: "who is that weird girl singing?" Two years later we ran into each other at a party, where he says that I snubbed him when he tried to talk to me--(it's probably true).
A year after that we met again while drunk as skunks and he claims I was rude to him again (ok, probably true) until someone dared us to kiss.and then we made out so violently that we both nearly fell to the floor. And then I went home to my boyfriend and he went home to his girlfriend. Ahem.
A year later he walked up to me at a party and said, "are you single now? Cause I'm single now." I said "yes", he said "for fuck's sake give me your number".and three months later we were married. In Las Vegas. Yes, Elvis was present. So that's how musicians meet cute in the east village. We've been married for 5 and 1/2 years.
These days I'm a full-time political activist and I also sing with Moby. I'm the vocalist on his album "Hotel" and I was the featured vocalist on his world tour this year. The reviews for the tour were really nice. The Evening Standard in the UK said (after saying great things about moby) ".the true eye-opener was co-singer Laura Dawn.she was made to co-habit Moby's stage. She could wail like Claire Torry did on Pink Floyd's 'The Great Gig in the Sky'. She could deliver a lyric such as Spider's "let peace and beauty reign/and bring us love again" and make it sound uplifting rather than corny. And when she wrapped herself around a funerally paced version of Play's formerly brisk "Natural Blues", she could stop traffic." Personally, I'm very glad they didn't think I sucked, as that was my first tour of that magnitude. We've also performed at lots of political events--me, Moby, and my husband Daron. The most amazing was performing to 1 million people in DC at the March for Choice in 04. Hearing a million people sing along with you is quite the moment.
I work full-time for MoveOn.org. If you're not a member, you should be. MoveOn allows disparate people to come together to form a consensus on how they want to be governed. Historically, government panders to the few at the expense of the many. I'd like to see that stopped. Some scary shit has been going down in this country, starting with a stolen election in 2000 and frankly, it's all been down hill from there. Some well funded right wing extremists have been leading our country into war, lies, corruption, and corporate oligarchy and if you care (as well you should), please join MoveOn and get involved. I also work with organizations like Amend.org. Basically, I'll work for anyone who's trying to make the world a better and more equitable place for it's inhabitants.
What kind of work do I do? I come up with national media campaigns and events that propel progressive ideas into the popular culture. At least that's what I do in theory. Basically, I organize artists. I work with writers, directors, actors, musicians who care about our country and who are a part of the fight to take it back. Historically, artists have always been great instigators of social change. The right wing likes to denigrate that idea, but history has shown it to be true. I believe in the power of art and I believe in the aggregate power of people. So that's where my heart is these days.
I still do music--my husband and I do music for films, tv shows, commercials etc. I still hope to do another album-- a solo album or collaboration with Daron--and we have our own studio now.
I also have recently edited a book, called "It Takes a Nation." It will be out on Palace Press this August. It's about MoveOn's Hurricane Housing program, which housed over 30,000 evacuess in private homes in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. All proceeds from the book go to organizations that are continuing the fight for evacuees' rights. Cause those people are still screwed. Our government let them down. Please check out the book and read their stories.
