Katrina Ford Bio:
Harrowing. Unhinged. Fiery. Disturbing. Forceful and delicate. These are all words that have been used to describe Katrina Ford’s acrobatic, boundless approach to singing. Or as Pitchfork writer Tom Breihan put it in a Celebration review 16 years ago, "Katrina Ford makes Polly Jean Harvey sound like Sandra Dee... [and] has the technical skill to sing anything she wants — opera, cabaret, rock, whatever."
No wonder why she's appeared on a wide range of records over the past 30 years, including starring and supporting roles for TV on the Radio, UNKLE, Future Islands, and Foals. Not to mention the many bands she's led into battle, starting with the spastic wrecking crew Jaks. (Think: Latter-day Daughters, with hold-nothing-back hints of The Jesus Lizard and Drive Like Jehu.) Between then and now, there's also been the Gothic, art-punk grandeur of Love Life, the soulful melodies of Mt. Royal, and the many elusive shades of Celebration and its short-lived predecessor Birdland. The only connective tissue between most of 'em has been Ford's longtime creative partner Sean Antanaitis, the singer's other half ever since they met in art class during high school.
"Those two things — art and music — bleed together quite a bit," explains Ford, who also makes art with collage and paper-based pieces. "Sean has always intrigued me. It’s pretty amazing — how he’s continued to surprise me for 30 years. I think it's because we're such different people."
How different exactly? Well, Ford describes Antanaitis as "a really quiet person, with a great deal of patience. I'm not patient or quiet at all." That side of Ford's songwriting will finally come to the fore this year, largely thanks to the long overdue arrival of her first solo effort. Like everything that's come before it, Ford's latest batch of bold material shacks off the shackles of the past and pens its own peculiar narrative.
As vivacious as they are vulnerable, songs like "I'm Found," "Peach," and "Peace Out" are as close as Ford has ever come to writing a pop record. Albeit with a clear avant-garde undercurrent and strains of heady experimental hooks.
"Celebration was a very democratic party band," explains Ford. "Anybody could bring an idea and we'd be like, 'Yeah! Let's do it!'"
Over the course of its 15 or so years together, "anybody" included a core trio of Ford, Antanaitis, and drummer David Bergander, as well as such recurring collaborators as producer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek and most of his bandmates from TV on the Radio. There was a lot going on, in other words.
Ford's solo work is far more streamlined, a "one idea at a time kind of thing." At the moment, that means channeling everything from Chaka Khan to the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. Moody counter melodies and richly woven rhythms also reign supreme, alluding to Detroit house, '90s hip-hop, and '80s pop expressionism along the way. They're the sort of bittersweet songs that belong on, say, the end credits of a John Hughes movie or a painstakingly curated mixtape you'd slip into the locker of someone way cooler than you.
They're also deeply personal and highly relatable, like a Joseph Campbell, Hero of a Thousand Faces-style journey that draws from decades of existential peaks and valleys, and wildly divergent paths of sobriety, self-annihilation, and sickness. As bleak as that may sound, Ford's current output is actually quite hopeful; it passes through hell but ends up on the other side, "settled and feeling good."
"When we first started this project," explains Ford, "I was like, 'How do you write a happy song? And is that even interesting? As somebody who's been drawn to dark things throughout my career, that was such a new territory to explore."
While Sitek helped shape the early sound of Celebration and Love Life, and Steve Albini let Jaks loose like the wild animals they were, Ford's debut EP had several noteworthy knob twiddlers weighing in on its widescreen sessions and mixes. Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian) and Steve Wright (Future Islands) took turns behind the boards in Glasgow and Baltimore, and Ford's continued growth as a vocalist was mentored by London-based legend Robin Millar (Sade, Everything But the Girl).
It certainly didn't hurt having Antanaitis, as producer, by her side once again, strengthening an unspoken connection even further with exquisite arrangements and baroque backdrops that are both dense and downright beautiful.
"When you listen to music, it's all about the emotion behind it," says Ford, "but it's also all about the emotions you're feeling — set and setting, you know? Sean always seems to be in the same place as me emotionally. I feel lucky that we found each other. |
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