After graduating from the Evergreen State College in 1996, she began experimenting on her 4-track recorder with sounds that would be used on her debut album. Her first EP "Storageland" was released on Yoyo Recordings in 1997 and received a positive review in Allmusic. The 6 song one sided 12" featured an etching on the B side by artist Nikki McClure. According to Laura Leebove in "Venus Zine", listeners were "drawn to the unpolished sound...with its sometimes muffled vocals, raw guitars, and background-noise cracklings." In 1999 she self-released a second EP titled "Parts of Human Desire." The bulk of her first records were recorded at the Dub Narcotic studio space in Olympia Washington.