Nataly Dawn
The daughter of missionaries, Dawn spent much of her childhood in Europe where she attended Lycées Français in France and Belgium before returning to the US to study art and French literature at Stanford University. It was there that she met Conte and formed Pomplamoose, eventually performing, recording, and editing songs and videos entirely on their own in their Northern California home. Their first upload to YouTube was an original collaboration, “Hail Mary,” which was featured on the YouTube homepage. In 2010 the duo began releasing creative covers of pop songs such as Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and Lady Gaga’s “Telephone,” which grew their fanbase even further. Pomplamoose played 20 live dates in 2011 to sold-out audiences across the US. Before coming to Nonesuch, Dawn raised more than $100,000 via Kickstarter to make How I Knew Her.

In 2010 Pomplamoose released its first compilation of original songs with lyrics by Dawn entitled Pomplamoose VideoSongs, as well as an album of covers titled Tribute to Famous People. That same year, the duo also released The Holiday EP, in conjunction with Amazon.com, as an incentive for a charity book drive, raising more than $130,000 in books for the Richmond, CA, school system. Pomplamoose’s music can also be heard in a series of national television spots for Hyundai and Toyota. Nataly Dawn’s previous solo album, 2009’s Her Earlier Stuff, was a compilation of 12 songs that she had put up on YouTube over the course of the previous two years.