Natural High

Once described by Courtney Love, no less, as one of the chief progenitors of the short-lived riot grrrl phenomenon in the early 1990's, Katie Jane Garside certainly made her presence felt. As the former lead singer with Daisy Chainsaw, her guttural vocal howl and raging stage persona made a lasting impression on the London scene at the time. But just as the band were on the brink of success she opted out and went to live a solitary life, spending seven long years in the Lake District.

"I just decided to jump ship," she says. "If I hadn't left it would have killed me. But like a rat I found my way onto a floating piece of wood. For a long time I heard only the true music of nature. My little scribblings or warblings can never compare to the majesty of the howling wind, a starry sky or even a blade of grass."
Reuniting with former band mate Crispin Gray and reincarnated as Queen Adreena, Garside returned to the fray last year with a blistering single 'Cold Fish' and an album, Taxidermy. It was, she says, an inevitable move, despite her long sabbatical from music.
"I'd been back in London for a while and everything was upside down and inside out. I hadn't seen Crispin for seven or eight years and he moved around the corner from where I was living. He walked in wearing the same stuff that I was wearing. It felt right. There was a synchronicity there.
Sitting in the offices of her Dublin record company on the day her band support The Foo Fighters, Garside (who has been described in some quarters as the new Kate Bush) looks decidedly fragile and distant. Does she worry about her mental health or her emotional stability?
"I've had my moments," she relates "But if I've gone crazy then I was born crazy. I've had some extraordinary black holes but I feel more and more transparent these days. Nothing can cling to me any more.
Has she ever attempted to cure this condition chemically.
No, never. I want to know what's behind that door. I want to know what's under those floorboards, even if it's not pretty. To take chemicals would close the door on infinity and that would terrify me.
"Besides I've got the best drug on the planet. I've got the sky and the mountains and I get to do a tap dance on stage and show my knickers. I don't need any more than that."

Taxidermy is out now on Blanco Y Negro