‘Chasing dreams’ seems to be working in reverse for Kim Garrison…it appears the dreams are chasing her. Born and raised in a small beach city in Southern California, Kim moved to San Francisco intending to pursue a graduate degree in Transpersonal Psychology when she found herself with a guitar in hand, deciphering the enigmatic sounds she could hear, ever so slightly, digging their way out of her.
Kim's sound is at once forceful and intimate, ethereal and captivating. She effuses rock and folk genres with lavish, demonstrative vocals, electric guitar and raw, honest songwriting, drawing comparisons to Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Jeff Buckley and even Sarah McLaughlin, The Cardigans and early Liz Phair.
Her first performance was at ‘Fall in Light - a Jeff Buckley Tribute’ for over 300 people, and it was then she realized that the intimacy of the live music experience lay at the heart of who she really is. In 2003-2004 she played a Tuesday night residency at Club Deluxe in San Francisco for nearly one year. Since then she has played over 100 shows at venues such as The Living Room, Pianos, Rockwood Music Hall and Arlene’s Grocery in New York City, Safari Sam’s and the Derby in Los Angeles, and The Make-out Room, Café du Nord and Hotel Utah in San Francisco. She has also amassed over 5,000 MySpace friends and over 50,000 MySpace views . She did all of this without having so much as a demo recorded.
Based solely on the intrigue of her ‘live recordings’ up on MySpace (‘live’= using the built-in mic on her ibook to capture the sound in a room), Kim has booked shows and garnered fans and friends across the globe. In 2006 it brought her into the good graces of British photographer David Renfrey who has since photographed her in London, Los Angeles and New York. It also opened the door to admired producer Brad Albetta (Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson) who heard her songs, met with her in Los Angeles in September of 2006 and soon after agreed to produce and record her first album.
Kim moved to New York City in April of 2007 fueled with the desire to create a band that would fully capture the energy of the songs that were coming through, and then record an album. While couch surfing for eight months she played over 20 shows and began conspiring with fellow San Francisco expiates Alex Nahas on chapman stick (Laughingstock, John Vanderslice) and multi-instrumentalist Harry Green on drums. They played their first show at Rockwood Music Hall in October of 2007 and recorded their debut album at Monkeyboy Studios with Brad Albetta and Brian Fulk in the Spring of 2008.
Inspired by the cities of Paris, San Francisco, New York, Galway, and the art of Anais Nin and Gustave Moreau, Kim’s songs embrace memories and moments of love and lust, longing and forgiveness...creating a space for shadow and light, gently deciphering the path of acceptance and growth. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and her debut self-titled album will be out this summer (2008). She has a not-so-secret love of country music, Muse, Bloc Party, Editors and Oldschool Jungle.
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