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Concert Sat Dec 16 2006
Losing It
Katrina Ford, singer for avant-rock group Celebration, is merely trying to lose herself.
Live performances tend toward the exuberant, with Ford and bandmates multi-intstumentalist Sean Antanaitis and drummer David Bergander whipping the audience into a frenzy with their restyled rock-meets-dance-meets-art style of music. In doing so, Ford, speaking during a soundcheck before a show in San Francisco, says she tries to attain a flamenco concept of duende, in which the artist completely loses themselves to the moment. It’s a state Ford says she’s accomplished during shows, when she finds herself “a complete animal to the rhythm.”
“The goal is to be completely consumed by the moment of creation and to lose your sense of self. It’s almost like a burning ghost in you,” she says. “You’re not judging what you’re doing, you’re just experiencing. That’s a wonderful moment; you are just lost, and there’s no ego in it.”
It’s been a long road toward reaching that Nirvana-like bliss, starting with Ford and Antanaitis’ first band while they were high schoolers in Chicago, the no-wave group Jaks. They later formed the far more subdued group Lovelife, which eventually led to the formation of Celebration. Currently based in Baltimore, the trio’s self-titled debut album is a fierce study in rhythm, couched in Ford’s unique, near-androgynous voice. After screaming her fool head off in Jaks, she’s matured to a point where she can whisper and moan as much as she can howl.
With help from their friends, the equally avant TV on the Radio (Ford contributed backup vocals on both TVOTR albums), Celebration will continue exploring their sonic space with a new album, which will begin production in January 2007. Don’t expect the same sound, however. “The new stuff is more vocal-based melodies, with less complicated rhythm snafus,” says Ford. “It’s good, since we get ourselves into complicated corners with our music a little bit. We just want to make it sound a bit more classic or human.”
Catch Celebration (and perhaps attain that elusive duende yourself) when they open for local heroes The Eternals on Monday, Dec. 18 at Schuba’s.
