With her debut album ‘Transparent Things’, Gia Ford steps into the spotlight as a musical storyteller, weaving tales of outcasts and misfits. From serial killers to lonely housewives, she invites us into a world where fact and fiction blur. Check out our latest Hype playlist cover feature.
Words: Stephen Ackroyd.
Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.
Gia Ford is a storyteller. Yes, also a musician, but at heart, she’s more akin to a novelist than a diary keeper. This isn’t just music from the perspective of a songwriter out to level scores and build narratives through music like they’re tabloid pages. While the personal has a place, there’s more to her than that. Instead, her upcoming debut album ‘Transparent Things’ features a gallery of carefully crafted portraits – outsiders from serial killers to lonely housewives – each existing in a world where fact and fiction blur.
As Gia gears up for the release of ‘Transparent Things’, she’s juggling the usual pre-release preparations with some rather special collaborations. “I’ve dipped into London to rehearse for the Byrnes Night Green Man slot, where I’ll guest on ‘Girlfriend Is Better’,” she shares. “A lot of musicians in one room. It’ll be fun!”
Byrnes Night – a celebration of both Robert Burns and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne – seems a pretty good place to find Gia Ford. Classic poetry, top drawer art-pop-slash-rock music – even the fact it’s a mash-up of cultural icons plays into her versatility as a performer.
‘Transparent Things’, even Gia has to admit, has been a long time coming, but its gestation wasn’t a straightforward process. “I’ve had a few hurdles along the way,” Ford confesses. “I collected most of the songs over about a year, bar a few old ones. But I never imagined I’d get to make a full-length album in the way that I have been able to, so in that sense, it’s happened very quickly after the songs were gathered.”
Interestingly, Ford didn’t set out with a grand vision for the album. Instead, the themes emerged organically as she compiled her work. “I was just collecting songs,” she reveals. “Only when I had the opportunity to record an album did I put them together and realise there were a few strong threads running through all these disparate stories. I think because I wrote them all relatively close to each other, they carry the inspiration I must’ve had at the time.”
“A debut should show the full scope of what you can create”
Gia Ford
This approach to album-making might seem less calculated than you might expect, but it’s resulted in a record that feels both cohesive and yet pleasingly diverse. When asked about the most important considerations for a debut album, Ford emphasises the need for variety within a consistent artistic vision. “I’d say to keep it varied whilst maintaining its character,” she explains. “For me, that meant some big alt-pop tunes to balance out the stranger, more poetic ones. I guess a debut should show the full scope of what you want to create and what you are capable of.”
Lyrically, ‘Transparent Things’ delves into some weighty themes. “Alienation, loss, obsession… a bit of rage and confusion,” Gia lists. But rather than exploring these emotions through personal anecdotes, she takes a different creative approach. “I found myself wanting to write the imagined stories of outsiders – people who can’t be explained,” she explains. “I wanted to imagine what these characters see and feel about the world. To play out their inner monologues, and see why they have those outlooks and feelings.”
This fascination with outsiders and their perspectives is a thread that runs throughout the album. Delving into the inspiration behind her characters, Gia unravels a tapestry woven with thread from both real-life events and pure imagination. “YSome of them are [based on real-life events],” she confirms. “For instance, ‘Paint Me Like A Woman’ is based on the movie Monster, which tells the story of Eileen Wuornos. ‘Falling In Love Again’ is about a true story my friends told me. Then the personal ones are true, like ‘Alligator’, ‘Our Mutual Friend’ and ‘Don’t Drown Me Out’. ‘Poolside’ is imagined, same with ‘Buzzing On You’ and ‘Housewife Dreams Of America’.”
Ford’s interest in these fringe characters isn’t new. “I’ve always been interested in characters like that,” she says. “In high school, I did a case study on serial killers for social studies. It’s not unusual, and I think it’s just that thing that many people want to know about – what makes someone so different from you and what occurred for them that made them that way?”
That curiosity about the hidden aspects of human nature inspires much of Ford’s work. “I like to imagine people’s secrets, their histories, and all those bits you don’t see,” she expands. “All the stuff under the surface. And often, you find things within people you might’ve ostracised, that you can relate to – elements to people that you can sympathise with. I find it interesting how we affect each other. ‘Paint Me Like A Woman’ is kind of the epitome of that, actually.”
Not all of Ford’s songs can be placed neatly into one narrative box, though. Even as she explores the stories of others, her own experiences and emotions still find their way into her music. Her new single, ‘Try Changing’, is one that takes a more personal approach. It’s “a slight outlier,” she explains; “a song about wanting to parent your parent when they’re going through something.”
When it comes to finding inspiration for her stories, Ford’s process is far from methodical. “I’m definitely not a history buff!” she admits. “Inspiration is such an ephemeral thing. ‘Poolside’ was a photo in a coffee table book; ‘Housewife’ grew from the first two lines that I just sang with no point of reference. If something feels right, I just go with it.”
That ability to find inspiration wherever it strikes opens the door to some more experimental approaches to her graft. “I’m wanting to experiment with completely meaningless songs as well,” Gia reveals, “where the words are just phonetically pleasing and have some iconic quality to them.”
The recording of ‘Transparent Things’ took Ford from Sheffield to Los Angeles, an experience she describes as “like a dream!” The whirlwind nature of the trip seems to have added to its impact. “It was planned and executed so quickly, it felt like a whirlwind,” she recalls, but it wasn’t the glamour or excess of LA that left an impression on Ford, more the day-to-day stuff. “I liked the 7/11, the laundromats, driving to the studio every day. Just the normal bits really. I don’t know if I can see myself living there, but making a record there was brilliant.”
“I like to imagine people’s secrets and all the stuff under the surface”
Gia Ford
Beyond her music, Gia has a deep appreciation for poetry, seeing it as another form of storytelling. When asked about poetic musicians to watch, she doesn’t hesitate: “Jacob Alon. Angelic music, voice and person.” This poetic sensibility is evident in her own writing, too, even beyond her music. “I write poetry and little musings on my open stage account, which you can follow if you like, via my Instagram bio,” she shares.
Her love for both poetry and music stems from a healthy fascination with the power of words and language. “I like words and using words to paint an image or an energy,” she explains. “That’s what I like about poetry; a good poem makes you want to read it again and again, just because it pinches something within you and makes your skin prickle or makes you think bigger, makes you feel human and less disassociated. Same with music; it’s all instant and forces you into being alive and gets to those feelings in a strange magic way.”
As for the future, Ford’s calendar is quickly filling up. “I’ve got a hometown festival at the end of August, then I’m going on my first headline tour in November around the UK,” she shares. “The album is, of course, released in September, and I’ve got some in-store acoustic shows, too.”
Supported by a character of her own complex, often flawed, but utterly human characters, Ford has crafted a record that holds up a mirror to society, challenging us to look beyond our own horizons, spark our imaginations and remember, there’s more going on with people than the things inside our own minds. It’s a world of dreamers and lost souls, with a touch of the personal for good measure. As she embarks on this new chapter of her career, Gia Ford is certainly ready to take that next big step, one outsider’s tale at a time. For this storyteller, the next story could go anywhere – but one thing’s for certain: it’ll be a tale worth hearing. ■
Gia Ford’ new track ‘Try Changing’ is out now. Their debut album, ‘Transparent Things’, is out 13th September. Follow Dork’s Hype Spotify playlist here.
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