Tica Douglas
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Tica Douglas

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
Band Folk Singer/Songwriter

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"Little Heart"

I just came across some music that Tica Douglas graciously sent me, and I must say that her album, Summer Valentine, is a refreshingly classic yet modern take on indie art folk.

As I listened through the album, it’s Tica’s voice that truly grabs my attention. Her tone and phonetics are soft and warm with a touch of twang that gives Tica a sound all her own. A lot of the instrumentals focus on the traditional: guitars, bass, drums, and perhaps an occasional keyboard or organ. But the arrangement and execution are anything but traditional. It’s clear that a lot of attention was placed on the intricately and well thought out composition of each song. The little details and effects added to each track, along with superb and relatable songwriting, is what gives Tica Douglas an edge.

Tica Douglas’ album, Summer Valentine, is out now and ready to be loved and appreciated! - Indie Shuffle


"Tica Douglas - Saints"

SAINTS is the first single off of Tica Douglas‘s upcoming album “Summer Valentine” which drops this May. With one listen of SAINTS I was hooked. Think Sharon Van Etten meets The Cranberries. - DaniYrSelfClean


"Tica Douglas - Saints"

SAINTS is the first single off of Tica Douglas‘s upcoming album “Summer Valentine” which drops this May. With one listen of SAINTS I was hooked. Think Sharon Van Etten meets The Cranberries. - DaniYrSelfClean


"Tica Douglas + Dejas"

"Moved to Brooklyn a few years ago, it’s been a while since the songwriter Tica Douglas has played around her home town. She and her glib, bracingly honest folk songs — they once sounded like Moldy Peaches without the preciousness — were already extremely personable. Yet it seems they’ve acquired a fair amount of refinement over the years, and the real Tica taking shape is even better." - Portland Phoenix


"Premiere – Tica Douglas – Summer Valentine"

With the sun setting on a gorgeous bank holiday, I don’t think this could be a more appropriate song title for us to kick off the week with. Summer is really made for couples isn’t it, and this is a melancholic, bittersweet taste of that ideal, to be filed alongside Cat Power and even Sharon Van Etten.

Tica Douglas is a songwriter from Portland, via Brooklyn, and we’ve only gone and bloody fallen in love with her. Opening all vulnerable and aching on simple picked guitar and a hushed, dulcet vocal, it builds and bursts to a marching crescendo of harsh emotion, with an emphatic awareness of the epic. Towards the conclusion I see allusion to Explosions In The Sky and Wilsen, yet the track and the artist retain a real identity.

‘Summer Valentine’ is the title track from Tica’s forthcoming album, which will be released on the 28th of May. Prepare to be blown away. - Music Broke My Bones


"Tica Douglas' Summer Valentine"

"I was stunned by how lovely the record is. It's almost like Joni Mitchell having listened to a lot of Sigur Ros. But then, these descriptions are always kind of silly. All that matters is that you love it." - Ken Scrudato, Filter Magazine


"QUICK STRIKE: TICA DOUGLAS – SAINTS"

Despite the fact that they have the reputation for being centers of culture and creativity, sometimes there is no more stifling an environment than the city. Struck with a bout of writing block that was extending into its second year, singer-songwriter Tica Douglas found her cure last year by trading the confines of Brooklyn for the shores of her hometown of Portland, Maine. There she was able to provide a jolt to her creative side, writing her new album while staring at the ocean for eight weeks. So in many ways it seems very appropriate that Douglas would choose to release the resulting album Summer Valentine immediately following Memorial Day weekend, the “unofficial official” beginning of Summer in the States.

The album’s introduction to the world, “Saints” is a swinging, sonically captivating exercise in controlled melancholy that is wonderfully assembled and perfectly packaged. It begins in an unassuming manner, with hushed vocals on top of delicately intertwining picked acoustic and electric guitars that gives little indication to the kind of emotional power it possesses. As the song structure picks up momentum and elements are added on top of each other, “Saints” proceeds to suck you in more and more as the seconds roll by. All of the subtle little nuances that Douglas and her band of players are able to incorporate, from little keyboard lines to the backing harmonies on the final chorus, lend themselves to the mix without overpowering it. This allows Douglas to be the star of the show, and she takes full advantage of the opportunity. There’s a smoky, slow-churned quality to her vocals that is mesmerizing and almost startling if you let it sneak up on you. She seems to dart in and out of the arrangement, cutting between the notes and instrumental flourishes that line the song’s path. It’s a stellar greeting for an album inspired by this time of year, and a songwriter for whom it seems the sky’s the limit. - Striker Bill


"TICA DOUGLAS IS CHILLINGLY ‘DARK AND DREARY’"

Brooklyn solo artist Tica Douglas is about to release one of the most earnest and solemn records of the year with Summer Valentine, out on May 28. Like fellow Mainer Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Douglas approaches songwriting with honesty, stunning banjo-infused instrumentation, and lyrics that could rip your heart to shreds. With the perfect dose of belting and falsetto swoons, she finds a balance between new folk and even old-time cinematic Western in “Dark and Dreary”. Download the track for free above and look out for tour dates, including her album release show at Cameo Gallery on May 28, below. - The Wild Honey Pie


"TICA DOUGLAS IS CHILLINGLY ‘DARK AND DREARY’"

Brooklyn solo artist Tica Douglas is about to release one of the most earnest and solemn records of the year with Summer Valentine, out on May 28. Like fellow Mainer Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Douglas approaches songwriting with honesty, stunning banjo-infused instrumentation, and lyrics that could rip your heart to shreds. With the perfect dose of belting and falsetto swoons, she finds a balance between new folk and even old-time cinematic Western in “Dark and Dreary”. Download the track for free above and look out for tour dates, including her album release show at Cameo Gallery on May 28, below. - The Wild Honey Pie


"I Love Mahself, Yup Yup"

Sometimes in music: the simpler, the better.  Some songs just do not require two guitars, three voices, and all of that other polyphonic texture.  Music is sometimes better when it is just simply a voice and a nice acoustic guitar.  Tica Douglas is a prime example of what amazing music one woman and a guitar can do.
This young woman, who graduated from Dartmouth College, is originally from Maine. After a musical excursion in Europe, she has decided to try her hand in the American musical scene.
Douglas' acoustic pop sound is not entirely unique but she does perfect this style of music.  Her smooth voice is a great complement to the back up acoustic guitar.  However, the true genius of Douglas' music lies in her lyrics. She has a great use of storytelling in her lyrics and behind those lyrics lies seemingly infinite wisdom.  
Douglas' first album "I Love Mahself, Yup Yup" is available through BandCamp for $10 and you can buy individual tracks for a $1 a piece.  Each song is filled with acoustic goodness and a simple yet wise message.  I Love "I Love Mahself, Yup Yup" Yup Yup! - The Dive WSPC


"Tica Douglas"

Tica really is one of the most unique performers on the circuit at the moment . . . She begins with a new song that demonstrates her inimitable lyrical and vocal style, the conversational approach mixing acute observations with fine storytelling. Not many can write a song about being mistaken for an Australian by a drunken punter . . . Hip Hop sees Tica sing over a quick staccato riff, (which, by the way, is much more difficult than Tica makes it look). Again some great lyrics . . . which begin with the banal, (discussing music taste), before exploring heartbreak and relationships, and back again in one effortless swoop.
Her third is a new one, which is a monologue over syncopated picking, and rhythmic slaps on the guitar. The long sustained chords of the chorus offer a good contrast, and offers the song a strong structure . . . Crazy Bitch is my favourite of the set. The bitter words in Tica's nonchalant vocal is really effective, and the chorus sounds really pained, but also incredulous. Again, I am impressed by a lot of the lyrical ideas in the song, but I am constantly having to remind myself to listen to the guitar work, which is really quite complex . . .
The thing that strikes me when I listen to Tica is the structural intelligence of the lyrics, which can't really be reflected by quoting a few random lines. Whilst most confine themselves to either straightforward storytelling, or purely confessional lyrics, Tica is an expert in crossing the boundary between the two. In conjunction with her unique singing style, this causes the listener to become totally immersed in her songs. Tonight was no exception, as we heard a polished, versatile, and thought provoking set."
- Out of the Bedroom, Edinburgh UK


"Tica Douglas"

Tica is relative newcomer to the old scene, and very glad she's popped across the pond to see us. She has a unique take on the singer-songwriting thing, and I am already a big fan. Her funky little chord progressions and lyrics & vocal style which vaguely reminds me of Stephen Malkmus (Pavement front-man, this is a good thing, he is practically a god) are, well, very cool. Plus she is wearing a sideways baseball cap, which has to be cool. Probably the one of the most memorable songs of the evening is her first, where she asks "does she make you happy / does she make you crazy "happy? Cos she's he craziest bitch I ever knew". Strong emphasis on the "bitch" bit. I tell you, I've had this song in my head for days since. The American twang and apparent randomness of some lyrics ("did we break his brain today?"), and melodies which veer into almost spoken word (but not quite) are refreshing - I recommend you get your hands on her CD!!
- Dr Ruby*s , Edinburgh UK


Discography

1. Summer Valentine (2013) (http://ticadouglas.bandcamp.com/album/summer-valentine)

2) Inside/Outside (2012)
(http://soundcloud.com/tica-douglas/inside-outside)

3) Apollo (2012)
(http://ticadouglas.bandcamp.com/album/apollo)

4)The Edinburgh Tracks (2011)
(http://ticadouglas.bandcamp.com/album/the-edinburgh-tracks-2)

5) I Love Mahself, Yup Yup (2009)(http://ticadouglas.bandcamp.com/album/i-love-mahself-yup-yup)

Photos

Bio

The nine songs of Tica Douglas' new record Summer Valentine explore two landscapes: Tica’s hometown on the coast of Maine, where she composed the songs in Summer 2012, and an old barn house upstate in Patterson, NY, where she recorded them during the coldest week of Winter 2013.

As a songwriter, Tica refuses to turn away from age-old themes: heartbreak, desire, vows of friendship. Yet her lyrics are filled with invention and the subtleties of her voice never cease to pioneer new sonic spaces.

As a kid, Tica naturally gravitated toward the male songwriters of her parents' generation: the Beatles, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan. Yet unlike the rest of us, Tica found comfort in a certain uncategorizable strain in these male voices, something that went beyond the regular lilt of the crooners, and the coarseness of the rockers. She heard another kind of male voice - or the possibility for a new type of male voice, perhaps heard most clearly in Dylan’s Nashville Skyline - and it furnished her musical imagination and gave her hope. It was in her childhood home, brimming with versions of this uncategorizable male voice, that Tica grew up and developed as a songwriter.

Up at the barn, Tica’s band - consisting of members of Double King (Brooklyn, NY), as well as the pitch-perfect folk prodigy Kyle Morgan (Harrisburg, PA) - set up their studio. The downstairs of the barn became the live room and quickly filled with instruments of all kinds, from electric guitars and banjos to microkorgs and glockenspiels. From there, a 100-ft snake cable led to what was once a hay loft, where producer Andrew Lappin (Vensaire, Double King, Throw Vision) recorded and engineered in his makeshift control room.

In the days that followed, when Patterson hit its low of 3 degrees, the band literally played to keep warm. If you listen to the record closely, you might hear the heat pipes just cough.