Katie Crutchfield, the artist better known as Waxahatchee, is at home and relaxed in Breeders T-shirt and cardigan, her hair piled up high around her headphones. She is feeling reflective about the decade so far. “There’s a lot more room for happiness in my 30s – it’s really interesting. I wake up every day and I’m like: ‘I’ve changed.’” She lets slip a rueful chuckle. “I’m different now.”
Crutchfield, 35, credits the shift to maturity, sobriety and success – although, she makes clear, they are all linked. Having played in bands since she was a teenager in Alabama (often with her twin sister, Allison), Crutchfield broke through to the mainstream with Saint Cloud: her fifth album as Waxahatchee, and one of the most acclaimed of 2020. Released in March of that year, Crutchfield’s collection of introspective, country-tinged indie rock songs – about her 2017 decision to quit drinking, and exploring her newly sober self – resonated with listeners getting to know themselves again during lockdown.
