For Stancioff, music has always been a natural outlet. Born and raised in rural Maine, she learned traditional Bulgarian tunes from her paternal grandfather’s side of the family and reveled in singing American folk and roots songs with her friends. She picked up piano and fiddle during her elementary and high school years, and in college, she launched a band with her cousin Matt called Dyado (a play on “Diado,” which means grandfather in Bulgarian). Based first out of upstate New York and then later calling Asheville, NC, home, the pair crisscrossed the US on tour for nearly three years without ever staying in a hotel, camping and couch surfing their way around the country until 2020, when Stancioff decided to strike out on her own. “When I left Asheville, it also marked the end of a complicated romantic relationship I’d been in for a while,” Stancioff explains. “It was time for me to move on, and I knew the only way I could truly do that was to leave North Carolina altogether."
