Smoke Fairies To Release New Album: Darkness Brings The Wonders Home Out January 31st, 2020
Interview conduct Oct 29, 2019
by Dan Locke
Smoke Fairies have announced the release their first album in four years. Darkness Brings The Wonders Home will be released on January 31st, 2020.
Smoke Fairies are Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire who first met at school in their native England. For this LP they traveled to Seattle to record Darkness Brings The Wonders Home with producerPhil Ek (The Black Angels, FleetFoxes, The Shins) and over the course of a rigorous month-long session in Seattle, adopted a purposely intimate approach to achieving a singular sonic tone.
In the making of Darkness Brings The Wonders Home,Smoke Fairies drew inspiration from mysteries both real and imagined: sea monsters, flocks of crows taking flight in extravagant formation, strange creatures dwelling in the mud near their new South London abode.
“Times of darkness are when people are often the most imaginative,” says Jessica Davies in reflecting on the album’s title. “It helps you to see all the wonders of the world you hadn’t noticed before – the things you’ve been blind to because you’ve been on autopilot for so long.” The new album Darkness Brings The Wonders Home is available to pre-order now. To mark the day, the first single taken from the album‘Disconnect’ will be available today on streaming services world wide.
Katherine Blamire talking specifically about the harmonic and spiky riffed track: “It is a song about the idea of switching off your emotions – It’s hard to settle and commit to one person. Meaningless encounters are so normal that it can leave you foolish when you desire something more from someone. I’d come across someone who gave the impression they didn’t need love, and made it look so simple. It’s a show I’ve acted out before, but it hurts when you’re on the rejected side. Teach me to disconnect so I can go along with this and be cool with not needing love in return.
Band Members
Katherine Blamire
Jessica Davies
Dan Locke: You met at school in England and travel to New Orleans in 2002. You both worked as car park attendants at the Sidmouth Folk Week Festival. Being from England, how did you get jobs in the States?
Jessica Davies – We’ve never really worked in the States besides touring. I actually have a US passport because my mother is American but every time we tour the States Katherine and our band has to get US visas. It’s quite a nail-biting experience and its very expensive. We’re really worried that the touring situation in Europe is about to become that way for UK acts if we leave the EU. That would be really damaging for bands of our size. Sidmouth is in the Westcountry of England in Devon.
What bands inspired you to start playing together?
J: From an early age we were both captivated by 1970s bands like Crosby, Stills & Nash and America. Life on the road seemed so romantic. We became fans of Hanson who were the same age as us at the time, touring the world. Our obsession with them led us to believe that at any minute we would be discovered and have to be taken out of school to go on tour.
How did you start playing music together?
Katherine Blamire: We have been playing together since we met at school, aged 11. Singing together came quite naturally as a way of connecting as friends, it felt like the most interesting thing to do. It sparked excitement and ideas and felt like a way of accessing a different way of thinking. Maybe you also want a way of standing out at that age. We used to go busking in town and spent hours singing our weird songs as loudly as possible to the disinterested shoppers of Chichester – who would say stuff like “here’s 50p – don’t spend it on drugs”. We would take our guitars everywhere really. It’s nice thinking back to those times, when the world seemed full of opportunities.
We have recently started a podcast, called Smoke Signals – just recorded at home. In the first episode I read out my teenage diary from that time and it is pretty hilarious. It’s good to remember the pure unadulterated love for the music we had and how it started our friendship. We had no idea where it would lead.
What was the first and last concert you saw?
The first concert we saw was Sheryl Crow at Wembley Arena. It was a mission to get our parents to allow us to go. If you tune into our podcast we tell the tale of that first gig and how monumental it felt. The last gig we saw together was Endless Boogie.
How did you get your band name?
It was just a thing we thought of when we were young, which referred to the mist that gathers on the Sussex lanes where we grew up, It used to look like smokey figures in car headlights at night. People read all kinds of things into it and think we are quite mysterious and use a lot of words like “ethereal” and “whimsical” when describing our music. I guess sometimes you want people to dig a bit deeper.
What were the first guitars you played?
K: We found some unused acoustics in our parent’s houses, stashed in the cupboard and started playing any songs together that had 3 chords – but nowadays we prefer vintage electrics of various kinds. Browsing a vintage guitar shop is something I love doing. Recording the album was great because Phil Ek, the producer, sent us off to this great guitar shop down the street and we basically could choose guitars to find different sounds and hire them for a few days. I played an old Kay on the latest single Disconnect and it totally shredded my fingers, but it was worth it for the sound. We got to play some valuable Les Pauls that we had never really considered being a part of our sound before.
Since you are from Sussex, I am going to ask you about some bands from the Brighton/Sussex area. I would like you to tell me something about each if you can.
Popguns, Keane, The Kooks, Bat for Lashes, The Go! Team, Blood Red Shoes, David Clarke, The Pipettes, Becki Pipette, Rose Pipette, The Ghost of a Thousand
What a great list of amazing bands. We’ve lived in London for the past 14 years so we’ve never crossed paths with any of them. When we were growing up in Chichester we never went to Brighton, it was always Portsmouth. There is a great record shop down there called Pie and Vinyl. I would highly recommend a trip there.
Tell me about your 2010 tour of the United States in a tiny van?
J: In 2010 we toured the US with Laura Marling in a van. It was the summertime so it was hot and some of the journeys lasted 13 hours. We’d spend the whole day driving and then have to get out and play a show feeling a bit car sick and deranged. Everyone on the tour was really into Whole Foods but we were desperate for some American junk food. Every day I’d plead that we stop at a Wendy’s but we never did. Despite the lack of Wendy’s and hours on the road, it was a great experience and we visited so many amazing cities.
How do you stay healthy on tour?
K: I think it’s mostly in the mind. It’s important to feel some sense of control, maybe by driving the van or setting up the merch stand, doing some exercise. Make sure you give as much to each audience as possible, even if you start feeling a bit low. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you exposed your negative side to an audience who have chosen to come to see you above all the other things they could be doing. Remembering it is a privilege to play for people is important, it keeps you healthy mentally. If that fails. break out the whiskey and carrot sticks.
J: I like to do the Cindy Crawford workout backstage.
Have you ever seen Rocky Erickson perform?
We saw Rocky Erickson at the Royal Festival Hall once and he was great.
You played SXSW at the British Embassy showcase. How was SXSW for you?
K: I remember standing in the queue to sign into SXSW and get a free bag with all the other hundreds of bands and musicians. I was struck by how silly we all looked like a collective and made a note to always have hair that goes down instead of up and to not wear colorful trousers.
How was it to record in Seattle?
K: It was great to get out of our normal life, live in a different city for a month, and focus entirely on the project. It was challenging but we learned a lot about ourselves and how to be stronger singers and players. I can still hear Phil Ek in my head sometimes when I know I’m not playing something as well as I could be. Everyone needs a Phil Ek on their shoulders.
How did you like the rain?
K: We used to it, we live in London. There was a chocolate factory just down the road from the studio, so that always created a nice chocolaty atmosphere in the air. I ate a lot of free samples there.
Your new CD comes out at the beginning of the New Year. Are you ready for it?
k: We’ve had a long break, so it feels exciting again to be able to release something. We’ve been sitting on these songs and recordings for a while, so we can’t wait for them to be heard.
Are you planning to do any touring in the United States to promote the CD?
K: Definitely
How do you see yourselves in 5 years?
K: hopefully still writing and recording
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