After high school, Dienel moved to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music, having turned down an offer of acceptance from Sarah Lawrence College.

Dienel studied with many notable musicians at the conservatory, including jazz vocalist Dominique Eade and composer Lee Hyla.

During the winter of 2005, Dienel was offered the chance to record for free at an abandoned caretaker's house on a farm in Leominster, Massachusetts.

[2] With some conservatory friends and a piano borrowed from the lobby of a local hotel,[2] she recorded a number of her own songs without any intention of releasing them.

[4][5][6] On November 29, 2006, Casey Dienel announced that she was working with producer Djim Reynolds on recording an EP titled Vessels, and that she hoped to release it in early 2007.

Dienel had this to say about the project: I've had my head shoved in the books for several weeks now, attempting to finish a little EP for your ears that I'm calling Vessels.

Led by the talented Casey Dienel, White Hinterland have crafted the mysterious Phylactery Factory, which will arrive in record stores worldwide on March 4, 2008.

A song from this album, "Icarus", was selected by Revlon to be used in their 2010 commercial for Just Bitten Lip Stain, starring Jessica Biel and directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

Later the same year, "Icarus" was featured in an episode of the ABC Family drama "Pretty Little Liars," as well the fashion show of the winner of the Project Runway (season 8) finale, Gretchen Jones.