Adrianne Lenker

Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian sect until the age of 6,[1] but she primarily grew up in Minnesota. Her parents rented homes in Coon Rapids, Nisswa, and Bloomington, Minnesota before settling down in Plymouth, where she lived for 10 years. She spent a summer traveling throughout the midwest and living out of a blue Ford cargo van.[2] Lenker wrote her first song at the age of 8, and at age 13, recorded her first album.[2] Her other interests include studying Taekwondo, and she was the State Karate Champion three years in a row. She did not attend high school, but instead received her GED at the age of 16.[2] She attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band.[3]

In 2006, when Lenker was 15, she released her first solo album titled Stages of the Sun.[4] In 2014, she released her second solo album titled Hours Were the Birds.[5] Lenker also released two EPs with future bandmate Buck Meek, a-sides and b-sides.[6]

In 2015, Lenker formed the band Big Thief after meeting Meek the first day she moved to New York.[7] Lenker released her third solo album, abysskiss, on October 5, 2018.[8][9]

On October 23, 2020, Lenker released two albums, Songs and Instrumentals, through 4AD.[10]

Lenker met future Big Thief co-founder Buck Meek at a concert when she lived in Boston and then encountered him again in a bodega the day she moved to New York.[11] The pair began to play together, and married when Lenker was 24.[11] They divorced in 2018, remaining in Big Thief as "deep friends".[11] In 2019, Lenker was in a relationship with the artist Indigo Sparke, although the two separated sometime in 2020.[11][12][13] While Lenker is comfortable with the label "queer", she has expressed a desire not to define her sexual orientation beyond that.[11]