On her debut solo album What A Relief, to be released on Saddest Factory Records, Katie Gavin proves herself as one of her generation’s most deft songwriters, able to articulate discomfiting feelings with grace and pragmatism. What A Relief scrutinizes our collective need for intimacy and romance without judgment or harshness.
Today Gavin is also releasing “Aftertaste” a song which indulges in the headrush of new romance, effortless in the way all Gavin’s best pop songs are. “Aftertaste” leaps and stumbles forward toward desire, its recklessness part of the fun. “That song takes place inside of the magnetic force, when I’m really drawn to somebody and still feeling like it’s gonna work,” she says. “Sometimes it’s fun to surrender to that feeling – I think a lot of songwriters have a strong relationship with romantic fantasy.”
“I thought this song would be a good place to start because to me it kind of serves as a bridge, sonically and thematically, between MUNA’s world and the world we are going to with the solo record,” Gavin says of the track.
“‘Aftertaste’ is a sweet song about carrying a torch for someone, realizing that you are going out to concerts and parties hoping to run into them there. The song is a playing out of a fantasy, really, both because it involves confessing your crush and finding out that it is reciprocated. Naomi McPherson helped me come up with the idea for the video, in which I’m the subject of a nude drawing class, and Alexa Viscius co-directed with me and brought in an amazing team of Chicago creatives to bring it to fruition. Filming in the city I’m from felt very right for introducing this solo work. Back to my roots, if you will.”
Described, accurately, by Gavin as “Lilith Fair-core,” What A Relief taps into the unguarded self-possession and homespun pop sensibility of singers like Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple and Ani DiFranco, and uses their tenacity as a North Star for Gavin’s own trek towards self-discovery. Gavin tells us “This record spans a lot of my life – it’s about having a really deep desire for connection, but also encountering all the obstacles that stood in my way to be able to achieve that, patterns of isolation or even boredom with the real work of love” she says. “What A Relief explores and portrays it honestly, without shame.”
The resulting songs are stark, truthful and generous, drawing on experiences that are often felt but hard to put into words.
MUNA is set to play the historic Newport Folk Festival this weekend where Gavin will also be playing a special, intimate debut live performance. She will also be embarking on a national tour this fall playing intimate rooms across the US as well as a show in The Old Church in London in what will be a memorable night of music on September 11th.
