The Next Big Thing (No.15) : Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee! No, we didn’t sneeze, we were saying one of the new artists. Waxahatchee is a solo project of Katie Crutchfield, a songwriter and a former member of P.S.Eliot (Just FYI, P.S.Eliot were an indie punk band).  Kati grew up in the Birmingham, the Alabama’s underground punk scene. She started her career with her identical twin sister, Allison, for P.S Elliot. Katie was the vocalist and Allison was on drums, but the band were disbanded in 2011, then the twins found their different in making music. Allison goes to front the guitar pop group, Swearin, and Katie dedicates her life to her solo project, Waxahatchee.

Katie in Waxahatchee definitely sounds much quieter, her debut album which was recorded in her bedroom, ‘American Weekend’, contains of her honest and emotional lyrics wrapped by a sweet acoustic guitar. The debut was released in 2012 and it was named as the top album in 2012 by Dusted Magazine, and even Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 is a fan of her song, ‘Be Good’. Her highly praised work on the debut is followed by the second album, ‘Cerulean Salt’. The second album still sounds as good as the first one, but the materials are quiet different. Both of the albums have a different state of the emotional states, “The first record comes from this place of emotional desperation. The second record comes from an observation of being at a certain place in your life, realizing that your childhood is over and realizing where your life is going to go. It’s more of an observation of a certain point in your life. It’s raw, and sad. Both records are sad. The first record is broader than the second.” said Katie on the materials of both of the albums.

Waxahatchee is just pure, you might think most of her songs are just narrating about sad stories, but there is actually more in it. It tell about the point of view in her life, it’s just not the plain sad story that has nothing in it. Musics like Waxahatchee don’t come really often lately, that is why Guardian.com also gives an A to Waxahatchee, “No wonder she is being greeted so warmly: older critics haven’t had one of these for a while, and younger ones won’t have experienced one in real time. She reeks of 1993, does Crutchfield, and she recalls the heyday of college radio and alt rock”