Sierra Bohnet’s dream school wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She may have been one of the most talented musicians in her class when she graduated from Truckee High School in 2018, but it didn’t mean much on arrival at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“My biggest lesson was figuring out what I want to do. Now I’m just learning and soaking things in superfast … trying to figure out the business side and how to get people to listen.”- Sierra Bohnet
“I wouldn’t say it was a bad experience,” says the 20-year-old musician. “It was good for growth. You go through this thing where your confidence gets knocked because everyone around you is so amazing. For the first year and half I was trying to figure out what my sound was and trying hard not to compare myself to other people there. Now I have my own sound and there’s not really anyone else at Berklee doing what I do.”
As she sings in “I Want More,” her latest synth-pop single: “Won’t you listen to me and my wildest dreams?”
After ditching a catty friend group and a lame boyfriend, Bohnet returned home to Tahoe midway through her sophomore year, Coronavirus having put a swift halt to the semester. She had already switched majors from songwriting and performance to music production around the time a collaborator tried to take her to court over a few tracks they recorded together.
“My biggest lesson was figuring out what I want to do,” she says. “Now I’m just learning and soaking things in superfast. If you are looking at a graph, it’s like the acceleration path. I’m still trying to figure out the business side and how to get people to listen.”
Inspired by her college turmoil, Bohnet hit the production hard on moving back in with her parents in Truckee, which culminated in the May release of her self-produced debut EP, “Ëradøn.”
“The pandemic was a blessing in disguise,” she says. “I was so ready to leave Boston.”
The album title is comprised of two words: era and done. Through a tight lattice of swirling synths, thick island drums and layered harmony vocals, the six songs on the album paint a vivid, emotive portrait of an artist leaving the past and moving on. A strong indie-pop vibe evokes other young independent artists of the day such as AURORA, Grimes and Allie X.
Newly armed with the confidence of a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who can also produce, Bohnet is more inspired than ever. She recently returned from a trip to Moon Rocks in Nevada where she filmed an otherworldly video of black cyberpunk dancers for her upcoming single, “Machine.”
“The song is about giving love and light and not hate,” she says. “I wanted to capture crazy people doing crazy dancing without caring. My recent writing is more philosophical. I’m trying to dig a little deeper or put myself in someone else’s shoes even if they’re not a real person.”
There is a sound sense of independence at the core of Bohnet’s work. While she has received offers to join independent labels, she’s turned them all away.
“I think that’s why I wanted to do everything myself,” she says. “I like having all the control. It also gets done fast. I’m cranking out a song a week and a lot of people don’t work that fast. I think I need to grow a little more and reach that hump where people are finding me on their own and the growth will go from there.”
It wasn’t always so easy to be her colorful, creative self. As a teenager, Bohnet was crippled by anxiety and panic disorders.
“I think it comes from when I was little,” she says. “I had to get over it multiple times. And now I know how to deal with it. I think I take a lot of inspiration from that. For me, it’s always been easier to write about sad emotions like anger. They are just stronger for me. I’m not sure why. With this new music I’ve been trying to get out of that.”
In the music video for “Wild One,” she performs a sensual freeform dance through a rainbow of light and costume. It’s a moment in time for an artist discovering her own powerful, provocative image at just the right time.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is people want to see me talk and sing and they want to see the process,” she says. “I have to get used to posting videos and showing people what I do. Now it’s getting easier. Because of the image, I’m starting to feel my music more, whereas before I was pretty awkward. I’d just kind of stand there.” | sierrabohnet.com
