“I think I could be happy living just about anywhere. There are a lot of things I miss about home that aren’t here in New York. I miss being able to really directly interact with the community. That’s impossible in New York in a lot of ways. But I also love the anonymity of being in a big city and really having that opportunity to develop my private person, my most private self. I do feel like the record is very much a reflection of that.” 
– Johanne Swanson on her new Yohuna album, Patientness

As she blossomed outside of the Chippewa Valley, traveled the world, met knew friends, tried new things, and started writing new songs, Johanne Swanson invented a mantra for herself: “Patientness.”

As life moved quickly around her, Swanson made sure to keep the made-up word in mind, so as to not to take things too quickly. And when life brought her to Albuquerque, then Los Angeles, then Boston, then Berlin (yeah, Germany), then finally New York City, patientness was a way to stay sane.

And after a transient whirlwind of a couple of years, Swanson’s ready to make an artistic statement of growth and confidence in the form of a full-length album as Yohuna, aptly titled Patientness.

“It was kind of a self-help thing,” she told me over the phone from Brooklyn, where she now lives. “But it turned into a word that represents a lot of themes on the record, like time and distance. It really became the perfect description of an unattainable pace.”

Her 2011 EP, Revery, caught the ears of a collective of progressive DIY musicians from around the country. At the time, Swanson was buried in the Internet and avoiding the outside world while studying in Albuquerque, her first time being alone in a bigger city. She ended up making friendly cyber connections via Tumblr and Bandcamp with artists like Foxes In Fiction, HAPPY TRENDY, RL Kelly, and Elvis Depressedly, who all fall under the umbrella of one of the coolest small record labels in the country, Orchid Tapes. Swanson became fast friends with a whole slew of similar creators just like her – ones who infuse their songs with meaning and emotion, and relish collaborative output.

Friendships bloomed, plans were laid out, time passed, and Swanson found herself in Berlin, one of Germany’s most artistically vibrant cities. Berlin is fueled by synthesizers and hard-hitting electronica, so it was kind of the perfect place for Swanson to start learning about hardware-driven synths and electronic music.

“I went to a few oscillator-building workshops and meet-ups for women interested in making electronic music,” she said. “I had access to some resources that I definitely didn’t have before. Berlin’s a really special place, I think.”

After a couple of years in Berlin, Swanson and Adelyn Strei – lifelong Eau Claire pals and collaborators – made their way to New York City where they had an artist residency at the Silent Barn, a collectively directed art space in Brooklyn. They curated an upstairs gallery at the Silent Barn, and started working out the ins and outs of a potential Yohuna album during their residency.

They worked with musician and engineer Owen Pallett – a prolific, critically-acclaimed solo musician and an early Yohuna fan turned collaborator – in his home studio, to create the bones of Patientness, before finishing the album off with a full band sound joined by Pallett, Felix Walworth (Told Slant) and Emily Sprague (Florist).

On the album, Swanson sounds more confident than ever before. Her songs have always come from a place of isolation and distance, but now more than ever, you can feel her own that space, make it her own, and make it sound completely unique. Moments of synthy softness play out poignantly before being stifled by distorted guitars and crunching drums. It’s a pretty remarkable effort that’s been brewing for a long time. Without her treasure trove of experiences and friendships, this is an album that would’ve never existed.

“I think I could be happy living just about anywhere. There are a lot of things I miss about home that aren’t here in New York. I miss being able to really directly interact with the community. That’s impossible in New York in a lot of ways,” Swanson said. “But I also love the anonymity of being in a big city and really having that opportunity to develop my private person, my most private self. I do feel like the record is very much a reflection of that.”

Yohuna’s debut album Patientness is out Sept. 9 via Orchid Tapes. She’s taking her band on a tour this fall, with an Oct. 7 date in Eau Claire at house venue Vivian. For more, visit orchidtapes.com.