For Steel City native Gia Ford, music is a vessel for stories about the weird and wonderful. Stalkers, serial killers, and the hopelessly romantic all feature in her new debut album, Transparent Things. Nick Cave-inspired sounds accompany her sinister narratives and grungy aesthetic, culminating in a truly dark and vintage-feeling record.
Words: Kathryn Schoon
Tell us about your connection to Sheffield. How did growing up here influence you musically, and what are your favourite music venues in the city?
I grew up between Sheffield and Cheshire because my parents split up when I was a baby. I never felt connected to Cheshire, but every holiday and weekend I was in Sheffield, and now I live here. I just love Sheffield and it feels like my place on Earth. It’s the most perfect place for me and feels like a magnet. I didn’t spend a lot of time going to music events as a kid, so I’m kind of new to the music scene in Sheffield. I’ve still never been to The Leadmill – which is ridiculous! Sidney & Matilda is a good little venue, and Panke Social too.
My musical inspirations came from my parents, and I think I’ve subconsciously connected that to the landscape here. My dad would drive me between Cheshire and Sheffield, and we’d go through Winnats Pass which is so beautiful. It’s quite naturally visceral in that way. As a teenager, I’d be driving through there just as I was starting to write music, and those things naturally collided.
Your musical career is really starting to take off – how did you get here?
My song ‘Sleeping in Your Garden’ is crazy, because I released that on my own and it’s got a million streams. I don’t get it! I’d just parted from my label at the time, so I was kind of afraid and felt like it was going to be difficult to get anyone to hear my music. I still consider myself very much at the beginning of something, and everything is still incrementally growing.
I was on holiday recently with my family in Northumberland in this tiny fishing village, and there was a W.H. Smith’s miles away in the middle of nowhere. It was absolutely crazy because I found an NME magazine in there and it was four or five pages of just me.
How would you describe your music?
It’s hard to liken it to something. It’s easier to meld influences, so Fleetwood Mac for the 70s feel, and Nick Cave in the darkness of it. But it’s also got soulful bluesy stuff, like ‘Drown Me Out’ by The Rolling Stones. ‘Love Shot’ is really Princey, just by virtue of the guitar line. Broadly, it’s dark, macabre, alternative rock, I would say.
Congratulations on your new album, Transparent Things! How did you choose that name?
I didn’t actually have a name for it until I finished it. I was just going to pick one of the song names, but I thought that was lazy and wouldn’t be representative. There are a lot of outcasts on the record, people that feel invisible to the world. I thought the transparency thing was quite interesting because the characters are not only invisible, but they’re transparent with their emotions in the music, when elsewhere in their life, they might not be.
I also had a book lying around my house called Transparent Things, so I reread the synopsis and it really fit the album. It’s about people’s secret histories and little transparencies within the characters. There are details about literature within the record, so it felt novelistic.
“There are a lot of outcasts on the record, people that feel invisible to the world.”
Could you tell us about some of the characters in your songs?
There’s something dodgy about all of them. I like to write about uncomfortable people because I want to know what makes them that way. It’s interesting to see what lies between me and them. People who are outcasted because they’re too difficult to try and understand. For instance, there’s a stalker on there, there’s a serial killer on there. There’s a man who’s lost his wife and tries to dress his new wife in her old clothes.
I don’t think people like to admit that they have any similarities with anyone like that. But there are threads that can lead anyone to become these people. You aren’t born a stalker, it’s your experiences. So I just wanted to explore those kinds of things. Most characters on the record have some sort of secret brewing or something that they feel alienated by.
You’ve got quite a strong vintage aesthetic. How important is image as a musician?
I think it’s necessary to take these facets of yourself and blow them up so they create an image that people can understand and define easily. My girlfriend does all of my creative direction and has been really important in that side of things. I’ve always liked good tailoring and vintage men’s suits, so I want to portray that classic writerly image. I also find vintage photos so beautiful, and the record has that vintage vibe too, especially with the way the guitars were recorded through 1960s amps.
What is your favourite song on the album?
I hate that you’ve asked me that! My initial favourite was ‘Paint Me Like A Woman’, and it’s still one of my favourites to play. But now the album is out, I’m trying to subconsciously love the ones that haven’t been in the spotlight as much. I’d say ‘Our Mutual Friend’ is the one I’m most proud of. It’s the last one on the album and would never have been a single because it’s too sad and long. I love ‘Don’t Drown Me Out’ as well because it’s like a classic song that I might have on my playlists.
What’s coming up in the future?
I’ve got a show in Paris next week at a club called Supersonic, and next month I’m playing at Left of the Dial Festival in Rotterdam. Then I’ve got a UK headline tour, which is something I’ve never done before. It’ll be fun but I’m nervous. Afterwards, I just want to carry on writing. It’s been so hectic recently and I’ve had no time to be idle and lay around. I’d love to tour some of the US in the future, especially because the album was recorded in LA.
Gia Ford’s debut album Transparent Things is out now.