FEATURE: Spotlight: Gia Ford — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Gia Ford

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A lot of artists…

will be struggling at the moment and will have plans disrupted. Whilst it is sad to see big artists lose out, I feel extra sorry for the smaller, less well-known artists whose financial stability is especially fragile at the moment. It is hard to know how best to help everyone but, through the weeks, I will spotlight a few artists that warrant some serious focus. I think Gia Ford is an artist you definitely need to know more about. I love her POSTER BOY E.P. and it is a confident and original work from one of music’s brightest new talents. I will bring in a couple of interviews Ford conducted, as I think it is illuminating and important to learn more about Gia Ford. It seems slightly odd highlighting artists who will define 2020, as we are not sure how many months of the year we will get to see gigs and have albums released. In any case, Ford is a fantastic artist who is going to be a bigger name very soon. The first feature I will source from is a feature in The Line of Best Fit from October:

“Ford is only at the beginning of career and has a lot she wants to achieve on her bucket list. “I’ve always been picky and do my own thing from start to finish, so that’s first...I want to know what would come out of my own influence. I’d also want to expand my live element. I’d like for people to sing my songs back to me because I’ve never had that happen before.”

She hopes to write with Mark Ronson and Lady Gaga someday and she already has a feature from a big name just on her debut: “Writing with Dev Hynes of Blood Orange was really memorable. I was massively into their records as a teenager and now I’m about to put out music that I’ve worked on with him. That’s just unbelievable to me”

Picking up the call for her first ever interview while away on holiday, 22-year-old Gia Ford, is an undeniable star. Coming across equal parts impressively confident and charmingly nervous, we dive straight into the topic of debut single "Turbo Dreams" and her debut tape Poster Boy from which it was taken.

Ford, who recently signed to The 1975's label Dirty Hit as a solo artist, made a strong impact with the dreamy single, prompting a lot of anticipation for what was to follow. But putting the seven-track tape was no easy or short-lived task. She explains. "It’s been a long process to make this tape. It’s a product of a few years of finding my sound. I had to settle on a few of the million ideas I have. The album is a reflection of all the influences I’ve grown up with. It’s a snapshot of the 22 years of my life – my childhood, teen years and now.”

Working with Spector’s Fred Macpherson, who Ford credits as the person central to bringing out the story-telling aspect of her music, Poster Boy is a brilliant showcase of not only the young Londoner’s powerful voice but also of her experimental creative side.

This artsy aspect of her music-making process is made clear when she reveals her personal favourite track from the tape: “I gravitate towards ‘High Class Tragedy’. It’s about the meta pretentious parties you attend. The attitude of, 'why are you here?' I wrote it off a visual of a penthouse party in which people seemed to be very self-involved”.

There are a lot of great artists emerging right now, and I think the industry is as diverse and exceptional as it has ever been. I, like many people, first heard of Gia Ford when she released her debut single, TURBO DREAMS, back in August of last year. It was an intriguing and memorable release from the young musician:

“The latest Dirty Hit recruit, 22-year-old Londoner Gia Ford, has just shared her dreamy debut track and get ready to be mesmerised.

“The song kind of came out of a general feeling I had at the time; in its final form, it has only a vague connection to the real life situation that owned those feelings,” Gia explains. “I wrote the hook first, and then it became this song of contradictions - of opposing feelings - a little microcosm of the rest of my mind at the time. Perhaps all the time. So to have a video that almost directly contradicted the narrative of the song felt fitting in a weird way”.

In future editions of this feature, I am going to look at some of the great bands emerging and those that are offering something different. Right now, I am discovering so many great solo female artists who stick long in the mind. This is a time to explore new music, so spend some time around Gia Ford. I am not sure what else she has planned for this year, but it would be nice to think there is some music coming and a few dates a bit later on.

Certainly, so many people are reacting to her music, and she is building up quite an impressive fanbase. When she spoke with The Love Magazine last December, we learned more about Ford’s start:

“LOVE: Do you remember the first piece of music that you heard that changed your perception and defined your music style?

GF: It’s one of those things you realise in hindsight. Both of my parents are massively into music, my mum was into Portishead, BJÖRK, and Queens Of The Stone Age, and my dad was into Electric Light Orchestra and Duran Duran. I can’t remember listening to it and feeling inspired but now I look back on it and think, ‘I get it.’ Portishead literally changed my perception of music. But no, there isn’t one particular moment when I realised I wanted to do music because I liked a band, it wasn’t really like that, I was just constantly surrounded by it. But Electric Light Orchestra really changed my perception because they build their music so well and they’re really overlooked by people who like The Beatles, who forget about people like that. Now we look back on it actually, they were so theatrical with what they did, and I loved that about them. It was visual, and they built music from the visual and made it kind of spacey and I love that.

LOVE: What was your starting point for the new EP?

GF: My manager found me 2 years ago through Instagram. I had a SoundCloud link and it was the shittiest thing ever, but he thought it was cool, so a lot of it has been about development for me. I’ve collected songs that I have reworked, I produce my own stuff with Fred and someone else sometimes, so I’ve had to kind of come to a realisation about what I wanted my sound to be, because I couldn’t settle on that for so long. The first one, Poster Boy, was me realising this whole thing and Poster Boy, the name, encapsulated that because I wanted to be like a boy when I was a kid and then I realised there was women like that as well – Grace Jones, Marlena, some characters from films – who had the same energy the boys had, that Leonard DiCaprio had, who I wanted to be like when I was a kid. So that was the realisation of that stylistically.

LOVE: How long did that take you to come to?

GF: It’s not like every day I thought, ‘alright what what do I want?’ It just happened gradually. My girlfriend really helped me because she’s such a visual person so she was able to translate the audio side bits, so now people can understand it. Whereas before, I didn’t know how to convey that. For the second one or the third EP which I think might happen, I want them to be just, like the interludes on the first one, where it happened to be listening to at the time, what movies I was watching, even the conversations I was having, so the second is a slight growth from that and me realising stylistically who Gia Ford is.

PHOTO CREDIT: Melony Lemon

LOVE: Do you like having fans?

GF: Yes, for now. I don’t know if I will in the future or if I’ll even get more. It’s sweet and it’s really nice. The first video was basically a fantasy that I had as a kid and I never saw on TV, so we made it happen in real life and loads of young girls told me it was so beautiful and got really emotional about it which was amazing. So it’s nice to have fans in that way. It’s an identity thing, it’s not just art, it’s what I missed as a kid. I finished Poster Boy and then everyone was like it's ready to go out now. I think the social media presence is so strong, but I think if I can successfully put that on stage, because I’m lowkey doing this because I want the experience of singing and performing, I’ve only ever performed in open MIC nights which is such a powerful experience. That’s what I’m missing now, I really want to go on stage and bring it because that will solidify my persona even more”.

It would be great if people could follow Gia Ford (links are down below) and show some love for a great artist! As we start to adapt to a (temporary) new way of life, music will play and even bigger roe. I have been listening to Gia Ford’s music since her debut single, and you just know she will achieve so much. I will leave things there; dig into her music and get behind someone who, not long from now, will…