FRAZEY Ford believes artists must constantly undergo a process of rebirth to realise the full extent of their creativity.
It's a cycle the Canadian singer-songwriter has constantly striven for during her 20-year career, firstly as the lead vocalist of folk band The Be Good Tanyas and then as a solo artist.
"You have to have almost a birth and death cycle with any creative project," Ford says from the picturesque hamlet of Gabriola Island, an hour from the west coast city of Vancouver.
"I recognise it now. Often before I'd go into writing, I'm in a dark period where I'm digesting. There's a natural creative rebirth, otherwise you'd just repeat yourself."
Ford is preparing to revisit that cycle in the next six months. But firstly she's still exploring her latest rebirth which resulted in her third solo album, U Kin Be The Sun, released in early 2020.
The album with it's '70s-style neo-soul grooves was written through band room collaboration with Ford's long-time bassist Darren Parris and drummer Leon Power.
U Kin Be The Sun also holds a more anchored focus. The songs are more grounded to Ford's experiences and environment, whether that's survival from trauma (Azad), break-up (U and Me) or expressing her displeasure at the US' toxic political climate (The Kids Are Having None Of It).
In her own words Ford "used to really live in an ether". But on U Kin Be The Sun she made a concerted effort to be more present.
You have to have almost a birth and death cycle with any creative project.
- Frazey Ford
"I've been on a long trajectory coming into myself," she says. "I've been on a - it sounds cheesy - but I've been on a journey of reclaiming a lot of the pieces of myself.
"I had a pretty traumatic childhood and I'm recovering from trauma and coming back into my body and being present."
Ford is the daughter of Vietnam War draft dodgers who fled the US for Canada, where they lived in a hippie commune with their four children amid poverty and violence.
While Ford is still processing her complicated relationship with her upbringing, she attributes her artistic nature to growing up with free-thinking parents who encouraged her to "see outside of the box and question societal norms."
"If you choose to be an artist you're operating against capitalist values in a certain way," she says. "You're doing something for passion. You're doing something for love."
Ford also credits her mother for helping develop her trademark vocal style that's been compared to Macy Gray and Joni Mitchell.
Ford's innate ability to twist and bend melody is one of the features of her catalogue, despite some reviewers criticising the sometimes indecipherable nature of her vocals.
"I started singing really young with my mum," she says. "A lot of my style came from her, but I also listen to a lot of old gospel, old blues and I was always more interested in how something feels.
"It doesn't have to be perfect, it's more interesting to me the expressiveness of how somebody comes across."
After a decade with folk and alt-country three-piece The Be Good Tanyas, Ford released her debut solo album Obadiah in 2010, which began a shift to a more soulful sound.
Indian Ocean followed in 2014, before U Kin Be The Sun in 2020.
The long delay between albums hasn't always endeared Ford to her record label, but she refuses to rush the creative process.
"I tend to start painting or ceramics, not even thinking about music for quite a while," Ford says.
"I almost have to wait until I have a very strong urge to start playing again. That's what allows me to keep feeling committed to it. I always feel like I have to have been through a life experience in order to have something to say about it.
"I've heard various artists talk about it. Like Joni Mitchell talks about craft rotating. She'll go paint for a while between records and that makes so much sense to me.
"I try not to write on anyone's time. If a record label is like 'we'd like an album now', I don't give a crap.
"It's not about that to me. I don't want to create on behalf of a marketing cycle."
Due to the outbreak of the pandemic Ford only performed five shows in Canada for U Kin B The Sun before lockdown. However, she's made up for lost time touring Europe and North America this year.
Next month she'll begin her third Australian tour, which includes an appearance at Dashville Skyline. Ford was supposed to perform at The Gum Ball in 2020 before its cancellation.
Even as international touring has resumed, Ford says the impact of COVID is lasting.
"It was a deeply spiritual time, it was like there was this stillness, this trauma," she says. "It's such a historical marker. What I find now, we're all as busy as we were pre-COVID, but it's way more exhausting.
"We've all been through this trauma and we're not able to deal with trauma as a society. Everyone is kind of burnt out.
"We're on the precipice of big changes and we're all feeling that. It's definitely a different time now."
Frazey Ford performs at the Northcote Social Club, Melbourne (September 29); Caravan Music Club, Archies Creek (September 30); Dashville Skyline, Hunter Valley (October 1); The Vanguard, Sydney (October 4); Eltham Hotel (October 6); Sol Bar, Maroochydore (October 8) and Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane (October 9).
