Snowbound in Alabama.
In a way, it's difficult not to be inspired by surroundings such as these. But when Katie Crutchfield began sketching out plans for a new material, it wasn't the outside world she took inspiration from – it was the internal mechanisms which clicked past inside of her.
Recorded over the course of a week at her childhood home, debut solo album 'American Weekend' became a cult success, the sort of thing fans passes to fans in hushed admiration.
Using the name Waxahatchee, Crutchfield has now completed a follow up. 'Cerulean Salt' is rather more fleshed out than her solo debut, but the material is still bracing, still deeply personal.
'Swan Dive' is already a highlight of the singer's live set, but Katie Crutchfield refuses to be drawn on its origins. "it ('Swan Dive') was the last song I wrote for the record ('Cerulean Salt')" she explained recently. "We've played it live a lot of different ways but I prefer to play it solo."
Clash is able to premiere a special clip featuring Waxahatchee's lynchpin in premium solo territory. Recorded on a windswept roof, Kate Crutchfield's sparse, fragile rendition of 'Swan Dive' exposes the emotions running through the songwriting, as well as the simple, affecting beauty of its construction.
Watch it now.
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'Cerulean Salt' is out now via Wichita. Waxahatchee are set to play the following shows:
October
19 Oxford Gathering festival
20 Cardiff SWN festival
22 London The Scala
24 Glasgow Broadcast
25 Manchester Sound Control
26 Dublin Workman's Club
28 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
29 Brighton Green Door Store
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