In Conversation…
Interview & Words By: Libby Matthews
Images By: Melanie Lehmann
On a rather gloomy, autumnal evening in Camden Barfly, Gia Ford and her band bring liveliness to their rehearsal, performing newly released album ‘A Room Within A Room’. Naturally rocking a hair of pin curls during soundcheck and in prep for an evening on stage, we caught a glimpse of what the audience was in for. A night of spirited music, great humour and songs you can feel to your very core. In a backstage interview, we asked Gia Ford all about her second album, those core musician influences and how she could never part with her Nan’s light switch – it’ll make sense later.
CLASH Magazine’s ‘striking indie it-girl’ was discovered once-upon-a-time and unintentionally on Soundcloud. Stumbling onto her demos, Gia was approached by her first manager through her inbox, a message that was almost missed, “I never check my Soundcloud inbox and I did one day”. For the artist, her unexpected journey in music has brought with it a bumpy road of ups and downs; “the journey’s been a bit mental to be honest, it’s quite a slog but I’ve had so many amazing experiences in being able to tour and make two albums”.
Known for her characteristic songwriting, vivid storytelling and multifaceted genre of sound spanning across alternative, pop, soul and experimental, Gia Ford’s soundtracks are an assortment of music. ‘A Room Within A Room’ intimately explores human connection, identity and gives a space for social outcasts to see themselves reflected in the characters. In an increasingly digital world, Gia notices how we are starting to revert back to the simple things of wired headphones and physical records, but also the need to get back to human experiences and a beautiful sense of ordinary imperfection.
Musical inspirations are rooted back to her teenage self, the darkly cinematic songs her Mum used to play and a certain curiosity towards the backstories of serial killers and how they came to be the way that they are, “I’ve always wanted to write about darker things and have a kind of macabre sense to things”. Finding a sense of beauty in the dark and strange, the albums Dummy by Portishead and Mezzanine by Massive Attack have remained records of reoccurring inspiration, “I think they’re the most beautiful looking things, films or songs, they always have some kind of shadow”.
Whilst many artists mine their own lives and write lyrics based on personal experience, Gia Ford oWers metaphorical self-representations through illusory personalities as a way to stay engrossed in the process. “If I’m imagining myself in a certain scenario, I get bored or thinking about myself and ruminating on things. I get to transpose myself into a diWerent world and imagine being someone else” Gia explains, “I’d get bored of swamping around in my own sadness or confusion”. It’s through the characterisation of her music that Gia gets to live out her could’ve been career of being an author:
“I’ve always wanted to write books, I think that’s coming into the songwriting”.
Working in creative partnership with producer and guitarist Conor Houston, the album is built upon the natural gelling of a musicianship, one that cannot be forced nor planned. Often requiring consistent back and forth idea sharing, their long-distance musicianship
was held together with the connection of WhatsApp across SheWield to London. “With Conor, we have really similar tastes and a few diWerent tastes, so he gets to bring his metal influences”, Gia explains that the creation of her music comes from a place of friendship and trusting each other’s concepts.
Extending to Melanie Lehmann’s creative direction over the visuals of ‘A Room Within A Room’s album cover and promotional materials, “with Melanie, I never tell her what the song is about, she listens and comes back to me with whatever came into her mind”. Allowing space for interpretation and the fusing of creative worlds. A musical persona previously depicted as grunge indie, enters a world of softer colour palettes with 70’s references and playful objects through the mind of Lehmann. Visuals interweave a sense of physicality through objects and explores memories being collected and identity being formed in the metaphor of an unfinished puzzle of Gia Ford herself. Perhaps suggesting the idea that we are ever evolving and growing into the next version of ourselves, and for Gia that journey is reflected within her new album.
With the coherent visuals of puzzle pieces, envelope, keyrings and objects that you can hold, when asked what object Gia couldn’t part with, she responded, “I’ve got my Nana’s hanging light switch from her bathroom. When she died, we went and cleared the house out, and there was nothing left but a little man [figurine]. He’s got no arms or anything, just a head and a body that was hanging from the light switch and I cut it oW. I’d be really upset if I parted from that”.
Before taking the stage, Gia admits to not having a strict ritual prior to performing but has started to implement vocal steaming, which requires a strict no speaking policy 15 minutes after doing, so to not risk damage of the vocal chords. Leading up to the show, the band keep each other in good spirits and try not to “overthink things and avoid worrying...It’s about maintaining a sense of excitement and genuine approach to the songs”. The interview concludes with a closing sentiment to her younger self, pre-music career: “don’t start a music career – I’m joking. Everyone says things like this don’t they, but I’d say to stick to your gut instincts, it’s always correct”.
