Born and raised in Pleasantville, IA, Laura Dawn yearned for an edgier, more adventurous life, so she packed her bags at the age of 21 and headed to New York City. Her lifestyle there contrasted sharply with her stable hometown environment, as she lived in a squat, played in an all-girl art-punk band and generally crashed about in a semi-self-destructive manner.
Her new lifestyle may have taken a toll on her, but it provided much more material for her songs than life in Pleasantville had. Dawn's debut album, Believer, features passionate, occasionally confrontational songs that chronicle personal stories of transformation, yearning, pain, and self-destruction. It was released in 2001 by Extasy Records.
