Dawson became well known as the female counterpart to Adam Green in the band The Moldy Peaches.Since the Moldy Peaches went on hiatus in 2004 Dawson has released a string of lo-fi homemade albums and toured widely in North America and Europe.
Dawson recently finished work on Alphabutt, a new album of children's music that was released September 9, 2008. Song titles include "The Alphabutt Song," "Seven Hungry Tigers," "Little Monster Babies," "Wiggle My Tooth" and "Pee Pee in the Potty," and collaborators include former Third Eye Blind guitarist Kevin Cadogan and a number of Dawson's other musical friends and their children. She has also been invited to participate in the Sesame Street television program.
Soundtrack work
Dawson's songs are featured in the films The Guatemalan Handshake and Glue, both of which were shown at the Olympia Film Festival in November 2007.
In 2008 Dawson contributed the song "Anthrax" — about 9/11 — to the soundtrack of the Body of War documentary.
Six of Dawson's solo songs, one from Antsy Pants, as well as one from the Moldy Peaches, are included on the Juno soundtrack, released in December 2007.Composer Mateo Messina also based the film's score on Dawson's music.
The soundtrack album, after two weeks topping Billboard's Digital Albums chart, reached #8 on the Billboard 200, in its first week of release. In its first full week of physical release the album sold 68,000 copies, reaching #3 on the Soundscan album chart. It missed out on the #1 spot by only 2,600 copies. The following week it jumped to #2, while selling 15% fewer copies (58,000), just 2,000 copies behind first place.In the album's third week of physical release it finally made the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 and Soundscan charts, selling 65,000 copies.
Dawson has two new songs that were released on April 8 on a follow-up album Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs that is available exclusively on iTunes.
Other collaborations
Dawson is well-connected with many other musicians, appearing in songs by Ben Kweller,They Might Be Giants, The Mountain Goats, John Wayne Shot Me, Your Heart Breaks, and The Terrordactyls. The Third Eye Blind track "Self-Righteous" on their album, Out of the Vein features a duet with Dawson and Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins. Kimya is also slated to appear on the new Third Eye Blind record, Ursa Major due out in Spring of 2009, on the track "Why Can't You Be". Regina Spektor collaborated with Dawson on the song "Fire" on the Hidden Vagenda album. Kimya Dawson also collaborated with fellow antifolk Jeffrey Lewis. They made a band called 'The Bundles' though released the songs under the name Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis, on a split with Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck.
Personal life
A sometime resident of Bedford Hills, New York, Dawson moved in December 2005 — with her mother, father, brother, Akida Junglefoot Dawson (Akida is "Chief" in Kiswahili), and nephew — to Seattle, Washington. She is married to a musician named Angelo Spencer and, on July 28, 2006, Kimya gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Panda Delilah, and moved with her new family to Olympia, Washington in November, 2006. After Panda ("sow" or "climb" in Kiswahili) was born, Dawson and Spencer took a break from touring for a few months, playing only occasional local shows. However, they now tour together with the baby.
Dawson has knuckle tattoos which read "LAFF LOUD". She also has a freebird tattoo on her left calf.
Dawson once started a rumour that she was a cousin of The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
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