Katie Crutchfield on Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood, and KC ahead of Thursday’s tour kickoff at The Uptown

Waxahatchee. // photo credit Molly Matalon

Kansas City’s own Katie Crutchfield, the lone member of indie rock act Waxahatchee, just recently released her sixth studio album under the moniker less than four weeks ago. Tigers Blood has been met with consensus critical praise, many claiming it to be the artist’s best work yet.

Her five-week U.S. tour begins this Thursday, April 18, at the Uptown Theater, a venue she’s previously played for the Thundergong fundraiser.

The Pitch: We heard that the initial idea was for Tigers Blood to be with Kevin Morby until MJ Lenderman (from Wednesday) came into the picture. Is this accurate? And can we expect a Waxahatchee/Kevin Morby collaboration down the line?

Katie Crutchfield: That song [“Right Back To It”] kind of sat on the shelf for a while, that melody. Like, maybe come back to that and Kevin and I can make a record together, which we had talked about doing a bunch. And then eventually when I started writing the lyrics I thought this was just a song that’s about Kevin. It was bringing up Kevin to mind when I first wrote it. And then MJ being on that song was like a spur of the moment thing in the studio. I knew I wanted MJ on the record and we were just jamming and demoing and stuff. Him actually being my singing partner on that song was something that happened super spontaneously, and once it did, it really directed things for us.

Talk more about MJ Lenderman. I heard you say he was a major catalyst into realizing that was the direction you wanted to go with this record. You had an idea with producer Brad Cook that you wanted to follow the same path that Saint Cloud had. Then, once he got into the picture you had a clearer mind about what you wanted.

I feel like with my last couple records it’s helped me to kind of surround myself with people whose music I’m really excited about right now. Hearing my songs interpreted by musicians that are making my favorite music right now helps me have a clearer mind about what I want my record to be. It helps me get really hyped on what shape it all could take. So I did that with Bonny Doon on Saint Cloud, and then on this record, it was MJ. I just felt like it was hearing his voice on my songs, hearing his guitar playing on my songs, and just kind of having his energy in the room, it helped the whole thing take a shape that started to have it make sense and feel cohesive.

Album cover art.

Do you have an approach when you begin thinking of a record? I heard you say that it’s not until you start doing the interviews when you begin processing what the albums are about.

There’s so much magic to all of it. It’s kind of hard to overly unpack or overly process what’s happening as it’s happening. It’s all very abstract in my mind as it’s all coming together, especially when I’m writing the songs. You kind of can’t look too closely at it, you kind of just have to invite them in and be present for that process. Once you get most of them written you can notice some themes or throughlines. At least that’s how I operate with it. I think if I overly plan out what I want to say and do that too much, that will kind of affect the potential of what I could come up with. A lot of the time I notice all the connections and the throughlines after the fact. There’s some sort of magic that makes this all cohesive and I just sort of have to think less and just let it kind of flow.

I heard you say you kind of want your poetry to speak to as many people as possible. You want to write it so that anyone’s story can be imagined when they listen to your lyrics. Has this always been your process for writing or is it kind of a new thing?

That’s really changed, I think for a few reasons. When I was younger, I was almost overly protective. I was like “I want to write hyper-specific experiences and if people relate that’s fine”. But if not, I’m being true to my experience. And I think now, I want to still be true to my experience because that’s an exchange for me. I get a type of catharsis from really excavating what’s happening for me emotionally. It’s a part of how I process my emotions, in general. Still, even as it is my job

 I still want to be doing that but I want to try and write it in a way that feels kind of like it’s just getting to the core of an experience. There are always going to be hyper-specifics in those things, but trying to find this balance where I do that. But it’s most just about what it’s evoking, and I’m being more considerate of the listener as my audience grows. I know there’s a lot of different people with a lot of different stuff going on listening to my music. So I want them to kind of be able to get something out of that and feel like I am relating to the core of the emotion.

Do you have a specific way that you approach writing your lyrics? I listen to a lot of music that I couldn’t recommend to people, but I told my mom about you, even though she is really picky, and she loved it. I could recommend you to as many people as possible, but when I listened to the album the first time, the lyrics did seem a little disjointed. Some of them are immediate, but some of them take a little time to come because it feels like you’re combining separate experiences. But the more and more you listen you realize it’s deeper than you expected.

It’s been different with every record and every record has its own flavor, own approach and was its own kind of experience for me, as the writer. I think with this one, as it was coming out, I was so mentally stimulated by putting it all together and I knew pretty early that this record was going to be a little denser than my last couple records. If people do sit with it and do spend time with it, they will get more out of it, I think, than they maybe did on my last two records. But it is asking a listener to really dig in. The process is just what came up, there was no moment where I was like “I’m going to make this record deeper”. It’s just kind of what was happening naturally, which is usually how it goes for my songwriting.

I know you had the option to tour bigger venues and you chose to do the venues that you’re doing for this tour because you didn’t want to skip a step in your growth. Talk me through that decision-making. What were you getting offered exactly?

That’s so funny because I don’t know where that came, and you’re not the first person to ask me that. I don’t think that’s what I said. This is good, I want to set the record straight. I think that maybe I said this to Andy [Cush], who wrote the Pitchfork article. What I said was just that it’s important to me to never skip a step. We’re in a time in the music business where people can get sucked up into this huge growth really, really fast, and that’s actually not what’s happened to me, and I am really grateful that the pace of my career has been such that I don’t ever really skip a step. So the venues I’m playing now are the venues I’m supposed to be in, and that’s great. It’s a huge growth, it’s a huge step up. I’m on track to play the next biggest sized venue with every record. That feels like a really healthy pace, or it feels like a healthy pace to me. I’m just really grateful for that. That’s what I said the first time.

I wanted to ask about the reaction that’s coming towards Tigers Blood. It’s pretty much overwhelmingly positive everywhere you can see. The Pitchfork review was extremely high. How do you think about these things as an artist when it comes to thinking about your career, when you get a lot of positive attention for something that comes out?

Not to sound overly righteous or anything, but I don’t really look at any of that stuff. When the Pitchfork score came out I saw it and I was like, “that’s cool, that feels nice”, but I don’t use any social media, I’m really kind of like an offline person. My philosophy on the last couple records, and it’s really been working out for me, is that I think it’s pretty damaging to my creative spirit and mindset to overly internalize that much noise and feedback, positive or negative. I actually think the positive is a little more damaging sometimes.

I feel like I’m firmly sort of placed on this course right now and I don’t want to get thrown off of that. So I think when people are lobbying praise or negative feedback it’s sort of just a little disorienting. While I feel like I’m thrilled that people love it, I feel like I was very focused when I made it and I was able to really keep my focus. When I finished it, I loved it so much, and to put something that you love so much out into the world and to kind of get the vague feedback that everybody is into it, that obviously feels awesome. I’m so excited to go and play the song for enthusiastic audiences, that’s going to be amazing. I’m trying to just keep driving forward and it’s really hard for me in this mindset, when I’m about to go tour a record I just put out, to think about what comes next. But I trust that that will happen [laughs] when it’s time, so we’ll see.

Waxahatchee. // Photo by Molly Matalon

Is there a venue you’d like to play in Kansas City? Do you go to shows around the area? I don’t know if you know about all the local stops. I know you played Knuckleheads and Lemonade Park, plus a few shows in Lawrence. Is there a dream venue you’d like to play?

Honestly, I’m so excited to play the Uptown! I’ve been saying for years to Kevin, “We should play the Uptown, we should play it together!” I did Thundergong at the Uptown and I’ve obviously been there a bunch to see other people, so I’m really excited for that. Obviously, The Midland is beautiful. Someday I’d love to play The Midland, but I’ve played basically everywhere else and I love it. I go to shows quite a bit. Anytime any of our friends come to town I go see them. I’ve surveyed all that this town has to offer venue-wise, I think, for the most part.

Can we expect Kevin [Morby] to make an appearance Thursday night? I know he has a show in South Carolina on Sunday.

Ummm…I won’t give anything away, but he’ll be in the building, so you guys can put two-and-two together.

I always end my interviews by asking an artist what the best thing they’ve listened to lately is. It can be something that just came out or it can be something that was released in the ‘60.

I have a good one, I have a Kansas City one! The new 1010 Benja record. It’s called Ten Total. He’s local to KC and I’ve been listening to that record non-stop.

Waxahatchee plays the Uptown Theater on Thursday, April 18, with special guests Good Morning. Details on that show here.