![]() On this song, you seem to be examining your past self as a means of coming to terms with your current place in life. That was one of the big moments where I was like, “Bonny Doon is my band.” It was a nice color to add to the palette of the song, especially since his voice is so beautiful and low. ![]() They tried it out and Bill started singing along with me organically. We were jamming together and I was so excited by how they were interpreting my old songs that I threw “Can’t Do Much” at them. Bonny Doon is my backing band on this record and for the next tour. How did that moment come to be?īill sings on that song. This is the only song that features another vocalist harmonizing with you. That was at the heart of my approach to this song: “How do I write a love song that conveys the frustration that you can experience while still being totally smitten with somebody?” I love that this is a very unsentimental love song.įriction-y juxtaposition is my favorite thing in songwriting. I’m trying to find ways to say a lot without using that many words. I feel like I’ve been so wordy in the past. I wanted to communicate a struggle but have it feel hopeful and big and beautiful. A lot of the songs are about an internal fight with myself. The two big things that come up on this album are addiction and codependency. The song ends with you repeating the phrase “I want it all.” What are you reaching for in that moment? I was figuring out a lot of thematic things in this song, and I want it to feel that way-like we’re all getting comfortable. Intimate, like I’m talking to one person, while also sounding big. ![]() I wanted the lyrics to feel poetic and a little bit conversational. I remember thinking, “This is the beginning of a new chapter of my life.” “Oxbow” tells that story in a loose and abstract way. I had gone back and forth a lot about my substance issues, and I woke up one day and said, “I’m done with this forever.” I went and got my own hotel room in Barcelona and started to work on music. My bottom was very high, it’s not a dramatic story. If we’re going to talk about the record, we have to talk about my sobriety. I always saw it as the beginning of the story, which is the decision to start taking better care of myself. I wanted it to be a big-sounding, genre-confusing song that makes you wonder what the rest of the record will be. Katie Crutchfield: I always knew that “Oxbow” was going to be the first song. Pitchfork: Why open the record with this track? I feel inspired by the idea of writing about exactly where I am.” “I am approaching everything in life with a softness, which I think is important to keeping myself in a healthy place. ![]() “I started to reject the idea that you have to live your life clumsily and be a big mess to write anything that’s exciting or interesting,” she continues. And if something didn’t sound just right, then we made it sound just right.” “If somebody wasn’t available, then I waited. I didn’t do any of that on this record,” Crutchfield says. “In the past, I have been gunning for something at all times, and making compromises along the way. After years spent writing brutally intimate songs about turbulent romances and gnawing anxieties, Crutchfield sounds clear-eyed in sentiment and sound on Saint Cloud, as the uncertainty of her 20s gives way to the self-assured perspective of her early 30s. She emerged with Saint Cloud, the warm and twangy fifth Waxahatchee album, which she created with assistance from producer Brad Cook and Detroit band Bonny Doon. Only after total upheaval was Crutchfield able to reapproach songwriting with new eyes. She quit drinking, holed up in Kansas City alongside her partner, musician Kevin Morby, and committed to relearning how to be a “person person” instead of just a “music person.” While promoting 2017’s Out in the Storm, her fourth album of raw indie folk under the moniker Waxahatchee, she realized that she had run herself ragged and needed a drastic change. Since starting her first band alongside twin sister Allison as a teenager in Birmingham, Alabama, Katie Crutchfield has been touring nearly non-stop for well over a decade. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |