“There was a period of time when I wanted to be a guitarist – like Slash or something – but I’ve always liked writing stories and I think the two things just naturally came together,” says singer-songwriter Gia Ford of her musical beginnings.
Last year, the rising star signed with Chrysalis Records and headed out to Los Angeles’ famous Sound City Studios with renowned producer Tony Berg to record tracks for her debut album, due out later this year. When we speak shortly after a London showcase event, she’s still aclimatising back to life in Blighty.
Not from her stint in the States. “I’d been out with my girlfriend’s family in Thailand and literally got back the day before, so it was kind of an out of body thing,” she laughs. “But it was good – maybe I should aim to do that for more shows!”
Recent singles like Falling In Love Again and Alligator came to life on stage, backed by a tight band that captures the essence of an artist whose inspirations range from classic Fleetwood Mac and Dusty Springfield, to Lana Del Rey.
But her earliest recordings were worlds away. “I wrote my first song when I was 10; my dad used to make trance music and I thought he could record it for me in his little studio. It was called Do You Wanna Rock? and it was stupid,” Gia admits. “Actually, it was pretty hooky – I wasn’t always this way – but I went through a period in my teenage years that was all about electric guitar-led, quite dark and wayward kind of stuff. I’m also a huge fan of Massive Attack and Portishead, though, so I think I was bored of formula and wanted to do something that was a bit more interesting, looking more towards the dark corners of things, and that shows up in terms of structure as well, I think.”
Now in her mid-20s, the transition to making albums was a natural progression, Gia says. “It was written quite sporadically, but I obviously like to write about similar characters and they’re all kind of alienated from life,” she reflects. “So I just pulled from loads of different sources – some real life sources, and there are some songs about myself on there – but they all kind of have a theme of being an outsider with lots of dark thoughts and stuff like that. I’ve always liked that, weirdly – even though I’m not necessarily a very dark person, I’ve always liked serial killers and creepy stuff like that.”
She elaborates: “I like the psychology of it; there’s a lot to untangle with people who are hiding something. It doesn’t have to be crimes or even have to be dark, but there are people that have a facade and I like it when I can untangle and interpret that in interesting ways.”
For a writer whose work is so rooted in the human condition, it’s interesting that, although there are autobiographical songs on the album, Gia largely shies away from making herself the subject of her recordings. “There’s two songs on there that are vaguely about me – like ‘this could be about me, maybe…’ – and I feel like I’m gradually working towards writing honestly about myself, but at this point I just find it really boring,” she maintains. “I don’t like to wallow in all of my intricacies, because I’m a bit annoying, so I like to write about other people. You know, the concept of writing a whole album about the times where I felt a certain way and then having to tour it – why would I want to do that?”
Instead, her previous release, the dreamy Poolside, takes the perspective of a poolboy working under the glare of the Los Angeles sun and taps into a feeling of disconnection that, in some way, everyone can relate to. It was inspired by an image from a coffee table book depicting Los Angeles’ affluent scene in the 1960s, but having already started writing tracks for the follow-up to her as-yet-untitled debut, Gia is working to “unlock the ability to find myself interesting enough to write about”.
“But I like telling stories as well,” she grins. “I’m not really into realism very much, because I like metaphors; I like to compare things to other things and sometimes I do think that I’d be more suited, eventually, to writing books, because in my personal time I like to write long form stuff that is more detail oriented. But maybe the challenge of telling such a rich story in so little time is why I like songwriting so much…”
Gia’s next single, Loveshot, is another observational track, this time exploring people’s interactions on a daily basis, as observed by the musician – who was born in Sheffield – whilst in London. “I was on the tube on the way to a session and I saw all these different kinds of people, and I thought about how, in the north, we talk to each other – it can be anyone – but that doesn’t happen in London,” she sighs. “I was like, ‘God, it’s really sad because we could probably come away with so much more knowledge and emotion about people and the world we’re living in if we just chatted to each other’. So I started to write about loads of different characters and tied it together with this sentiment that we could probably do nicer and better by each other and befriend each other a bit more. So really, just another excuse to write about loads of characters – I should be writing books!”
With only a handful of singles to her name, Gia’s already making waves and building a solid fanbase online, which is only set to get bigger as the album release date approaches. “I’d love to be able to tour it properly and give it a real good shot at life,” she beams. “Maybe play it from start to finish, which I think would be really fun, because I just want it to be heard by as many people as possible. I’d like to be in a place where I know it’s done what it can do.
“I’m really proud of it and there’s actually quite a lot of pop in there, so I think it will appeal to a lot of different people…”
