Katrina Jane Garside (born 8 July 1968) is an English singer, songwriter, and visual artist. She is known for her musical projects in an eclectic range of genres including noise rock, alternative metal, acoustic, and neofolk, and vocals that range from childlike whispers to harsh scream singing. The London Evening Standard once described her as "one of the scariest women in alternative music."
Garside had an itinerant childhood, growing up in several locations throughout England due to her father's service in the British Army. She spent a significant portion of her adolescence aboard a yacht sailing the high sea with her family. As a teenager, she was discovered by record producer Glyn Johns, and collaborated musically with his son, Ethan, for approximately one year. She later rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of the indie noise rock band Daisy Chainsaw, which she formed in 1989 in London with guitarist Crispin Gray.
After quitting Daisy Chainsaw in 1993, Garside went into seclusion for several years before reuniting with Gray in 1999 to form the rock band Queenadreena, with whom she released four studio albums between 2000 and 2008. In both Daisy Chainsaw and Queenadreena, Garside received critical attention for her alternately harsh and childlike vocals, manic onstage behaviour, and raucous live concerts.
Garside self-released a solo album, Lullabies in a Glass Wilderness, in 2007. The same year, she worked with composer Hector Zazou on the collaboration album Corps Electriques, and began writing and releasing material with her project Ruby Throat, an acoustic collaboration with her partner, American guitarist Chris Whittingham. In late 2007, Ruby Throat released their debut album, The Ventriloquist. Garside concurrently held a mixed media art exhibition, Darling, they've found the body, which was shown at WOOM Gallery in Birmingham. Ruby Throat self-released their subsequent albums Out of a Black Cloud Came a Bird and O' Doubt O' Stars in 2009 and 2012, respectively. During this period, Garside and Whittingham resided on a yacht with their children, sailing the world.
Ruby Throat released their fourth album, Baby Darling Taporo, in 2017. Garside and Whittingham subsequently formed a new musical project called Liar, Flower, under which they released the album Geiger Counter in April 2020. Garside discusses this album at length in a career spanning interview on Conan Neutron's Protonic Reversal.
