Quit Your Day Job: Lau Nau

Unless you were born with one of those silver spoons, you likely work a day job, sneaking time for your own business when not taking care of someone else's. You're not alone. Brandon Stosuy finds out how our favorite indie artists make ends meet...

I'm a big fan of Finnish free-folk -- or whatever you want to call it -- especially the work of Laura Naukkarinen, aka Lau Nau. I was lucky enough to catch her, along with some of her scene comrades, live in Greenpoint three Augusts ago, where the already naturalist, uncluttered (though swarming) sounds were stripped to a purer state. Surprisingly, the music remained otherworldly, even when you saw how they crafted it. Lau Nau's 2005 full-length Kuutarha's a true overlooked gem you should seek out if you don't already own it. Same goes for her recent sophomore full-length Nukkuu. We posted the lopsided lullabies and bedroom psychedelics of Nukkuu opener "Lue Kartalta" at the beginning of last month. Following my discussion with Naukkarinen, you can find another standout -- the dreamy, bell-gonging "Rubiinilasia."

Laura's featured in Quit Your Day Job because she works as desk clerk at a town library on Kemiö Island ("We're on an island so the town is full of small fisher and farmer villages"), as a freelance translator of Spanish and Swedish, and organizes sound workshops for children with her "companion" Antti Tolvi, who I should add, makes his own great music in various guises.