On her third album U kin B the Sun , Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Frazey Ford inhabits an entire
world of shapeshifting rhythm, elevating every beat and groove with the subtle magnetism of her
mesmerizing voice. With its graceful collision of soul and psychedelia and sometimes ’70s funk, it’s a
body of work that invites both self-reflection and wildly joyful movement, and ultimately sparks a quiet
transcendence.
At turns ecstatic and heavy-hearted, gloriously shambolic and deeply purifying, U kin B the Sun is the
outcome of a certain personal transformation that Ford has experienced in recent years. “I used to speak
more in metaphors, but this album came out in a much more raw and direct way,” she says. “I’d say that’s
a result of being more in my body and more in touch with the wholeness of anger, with taking up space
and having boundaries. On this record I freed myself from the folk-writing format, and it’s been a whole
different exploration for me.”
In a departure from the guitar-driven and largely solitary songwriting that’s defined Ford’s previous work,
much of U kin B the Sun took shape from spontaneous collaboration with her longtime bassist Darren
Parris and drummer Leon Power. Over the course of several late-night sessions in the thick of summer
2018, the three musicians joined producer John Raham in dreaming up a brilliantly untethered sound,
recording as they improvised and continually tapping into their potent camaraderie. “I was excited to let
go of control and to see where Darren’s bass lines would take my melodies,” Ford recalls. “There’s this
intimacy that exists within the band now, and I wanted to explore how that would feel in the writing
process.”
The first song to emerge from that experiment, “Golden,” instantly set a sublime mood for U kin B the
Sun , unfolding in luminous grooves, dreamy piano tones, and lyrics delivered with warmth and wisdom
(e.g., “It is high time you lighten up your head”). “I told Darren, ‘Whatever’s in your head, just shout out
the chords and we’ll make something up on the spot,’” says Ford. “And then he did, and the song just
appeared in that moment.”
Another track sprung from the same charmed session, “Azad” reveals the rich emotional texture of U kin
B the Sun , embedding Ford’s lyrical storytelling with sharply rendered memories of early childhood (a
time she spent living on a commune in Canada as the daughter of American draft dodgers). With its
brightly shuffling beats and soaring vocal work, “Azad” offers a poignant message of courage (“Behold,
there is beauty in this world/So hold on any way that you know how”). “There’s something to that song
that’s about survival, and about the love that my siblings and I have for each other in coming through an
intense situation together,” says Ford.
Throughout U kin B the Sun , Ford endlessly telegraphs an unfettered joy, even when confronting and
examining pain and heartache and loss. To that end, “U and Me” takes the unlikely form of a tenderly
enchanted breakup song, while “Holdin’ It Down” brings a jazzy determination to its expression of weary
perseverance. And on the anthemic “The Kids Are Having None Of It,” Ford responds to the toxic
political climate with irrefutably bold sense of assurance (e.g., “They can’t be bought, they can’t be taught
your hate”).
One of the most powerfully affecting moments on U kin B the Sun , the album’s title track and final
movement arrives as a strangely hypnotic alchemy of smoldering harmonies, cascading piano lines, and
beautifully fluid guitar work. “It’s really just two chords and a lyric that repeats, and then there are these
different layers to it,” “It was a fascinating journey for me, to realize that you could take something so
simple and then just sink into it in that way.” Ford notes, “It’s really just two chords and a lyric that
repeats, and yet there are so many different layers to it.”
Recorded at Raham’s Afterlife Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, and also featuring Craig McCaul
on guitar and Phil Cook on keys, U kin B the Sun follows Ford’s 2014 release Indian Ocean , an album
made with members of legendary Memphis soul band The Hi Rhythm Section. Though its predecessor
showed traces of her groove-heavy sensibilities, the new album finds Ford fully embracing the soulful
musicality she first displayed in fronting an Al Green cover band in her early 20’s. “When I started
writing songs they came out sounding more country, because that’s what I grew up with,” says Ford, who
spent 13 years as a member of acclaimed folk act The Be Good Tanyas. “My mom is from an
Irish/Cajun/Acadian background and I sang with her from the time I was little, but I was always really
into soul and funk.”
As Ford points out, U kin B the Sun partly draws inspiration from several instances of serendipity that
transpired during her international touring in support of Indian Ocean —including playing separate rooms
in the same venue as D’Angelo one night in Holland, which eventually prompted her 2017 cover of the
iconic neo-soul singer’s “When We Get By.” But on a deeper level, U kin B the Sun ’s raw vitality reflects
Ford’s profound growth over the past few years. “I used to really live in an ether, and that’s part of why I
became an artist: because it was a survival space for me to exist in,” she says. “A lot of my writing came
from that place, but as I’ve changed over the last year or two, I feel like I’m more in my body. I think
there’s something about being more physically present that impacted the making of this album.”
To expand that sense of presence, Ford made a point of preserving many of the lightning-in-a-bottle
moments captured during those first sessions for U kin B the Sun . As a result, the album embodies the
same untamed and ineffable energy that guided its creation. “There’s certain songs that just appear and
there’s no art to it,” says Ford. “To me those songs have some kind of spiritual quality—sometimes I feel
like they’re these different voices that you’re able to channel. There really was something magical about
the improvisational aspect and how that shaped the album, and such a joy in the experience of really
reveling in what we were all creating together.”