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 concurrently held a mixed media art exhibition, Darling, they've found the body, which was shown at WOOM Gallery in Birmingham.

Garside and Whittingham subsequently formed a new musical project called Liar, Flower, under which they released the album Geiger Counter in April 2020.

[12][1] She spent her early years in Salisbury, Wiltshire,[13][14] though her family relocated frequently as her father was in the British Army;[1] he also had a musical background, having played in local bands in London.

[13][17][18] Garside has said that spending her formative years living on the sea gave her a "different perspective on things":[17] You have no reference points, so everything you know ceases, including time on the long passages.

[20] Garside, who had recently been offered a scholarship to attend art school, forewent her enrollment and instead spent approximately a year collaborating with Ethan at his father's studio, writing and recording material, which she later described as "atrocious... but we were learning, you know?

The group quickly became well known for their raucous live performances,[24] and her appearance described as a "Gothic street urchin image, complete with dead flowers meshed into her dreadlocked hair".

[23] In a review of one of the band's concerts in 1991, an unnamed journalist for Bust magazine wrote: "KatieJane Garside is either in drastic need of psychiatric help or she deserves an Oscar for best actress.

The album spawned "Love Your Money", which was the band's most popular single; they performed the song live on British television show The Word in 1992.

"[14] Due to her manic onstage histrionics and bizarre behaviour in interviews, rumours circulated that Garside had succumbed to mental illness.

"[29] While living in the Lake District, Garside began to write her own material,[30] as well as collaborating with the industrial band Test Department in 1995 on their album Totality.

[36] In 2007, shortly before the release of Queenadreena's final album Djin, Garside formed the musical duo Ruby Throat with Chris Whittingham, an American guitarist from Hawaii[37] whom she met while he was busking at a train platform on London Underground.

In contrast to Queenadreena's metal and noise rock style, Ruby Throat is a more ethereal, vocal based project primarily featuring acoustic guitar.

[41] Ruby Throat subsequently released Tour EP in 2009, which featured handmade artwork, followed by their second full-length record, Out of a Black Cloud Came a Bird (2009).

[42] In 2012, they released their third album, O' Doubt O' Stars, which featured a limited edition packaging with a book of lithographs and Garside's art, as well as handwritten lyrics.

[48] Garside held a mixed media art exhibition at the WOOM Gallery in Birmingham in 2007, titled Darling, they've found the body, featuring a collection of photographs, film, and other visual works.

[55][56] While Garside's musical output with Daisy Chainsaw and Queenadreena were marked by abrasive, rock and metal-influenced instrumentation and vocals, her work with Ruby Throat is more restrained;[1] a review published in PopMatters noted: "Garside’s breathy, nearly childlike voice is the dominant element of [Ruby Throat's debut] The Ventriloquist, gentle acoustic guitars and lap steels setting the stage for her voice.

[58] In a 2020 interview with American Songwriter, she divulged that one of her earliest musical inspirations was Petula Clark's "Downtown", as well as the works of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.

[56] Describing her in 1999, the Evening Standard wrote: "With her eerie voice and piercing eyes, Garside is one of the scariest women in alternative music.

[63] Russell Senior, guitarist of Pulp, recalled that at one 1989 concert in London, Garside wrapped the microphone cord so tightly around her neck onstage that she lost consciousness, and the show had to be ended early.

"[34] In her early career, Garside's stage presence was noted by critics for its disheveled appearance, marked by torn clothing and her body covered in dirt.

[65] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian writing in 1992: "In clinical terms, Garside is probably no loopier than Belinda Carlisle, but her fizzing nervousness imparts a sense of great fragility, and her candour is almost embarrassing.

"[65] Despite her often animated and aggressive performances, Garside has admitted to having stage fright, particularly in her early career: "I feel things really intensely, and the absolute horror of walking onstage—you know, that sort of sense of exposure and being on a precipice...it just flicked a switch in me...  if I got out of my own way and stopped trying to try, I just had access to a big 'let[ting] go.

The boat was damaged in a storm in St Mawes, Cornwall in June 2012; they made repairs in Falmouth[68] and left England shortly afterwards with the intention to sail around the world.