Piney was raised in the Bible Belt of Midwest America and was sheltered from most secular music and culture crowing up. She took piano lessons from the age of four and sang every week in church. As a teenager, Piney rebelled against this upbringing embracing all types of music, which may later explain her ability to write and create all genres of music. She then went to UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance where she majored in music, firstly playing drums and pitched percussion, but then changing her major to voice. When she moved to London, she went to Central Saint Martins and took some night classes while doing temp jobs by day; working in bars and clubs at night, she then joined synth pop duo Vic Twenty. Vic Twenty released a single on Mute records sub label Credible Sexy Units and toured the UK and Europe with Erasure. It was at Truck Festival that Truck Records saw Piney play the Trailer Park Stage and offered her a record deal in 2003, the start of her prolific career as a solo artist.