Buzz had a chat with Katherine and Jessica from the Smoke Fairies about P J Harvey, pigeons in The Coal Exchange and being followed by Borat.
Q: What would come before and after Smoke Fairies in a perfect summer’s evening playlist?
K: Just some nice summery stillness.
J: Strawberries and then some Pimms.
Q: Your songs often give the feeling of motion – of travelling at a constant pace. Is this a conscious decision in the songwriting process?
K: Being on tour and feeling transient leads to a lot of time to think, and ideas for songs start to form in those long journeys and late nights. So maybe some sort of sense of motion ends up being conveyed in those songs. But motion takes a lot of different forms, so it might be looking back in time, or the changing of the seasons… London, where we live now, is constantly buzzing with activity. I think the guitar parts have a rolling feel. It’s not really a conscious decision, but there is an element of restlessness to our personalities and maybe that comes out somehow as a feeling of motion.
Q: Do you have a favourite track from (P J Harvey’s) {Let England Shake} and could you ever see yourselves taking a similar more documentative approach?
K: I like The Last Living Rose but there are loads of great songs on there.
J: I like Written On The Forehead the best at the moment but they are all pretty good. I’ve always liked that method of songwriting where artists document major events in songs – it’s something that happens a lot in folk music. I have written a song about the first dog in space, although I don’t expect a whole album on the subject.
Q: You’ll be playing Cardiff’s Glee Club in May. Do you have any memories of the city?
K: Cardiff has been a city where quite a few lasting memories have occurred… The first time we played there was supporting Bryan Ferry in 2007. There was a big rugby match on causing hundreds of people to run around the streets armed with every sort of noise maker available. When we ventured out to get a feel for the city I was followed by someone dressed as Borat.
Another visit was to shoot the video for our song {Hotel Room} with Cardiff-based directors Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris. They had hired out a room in The Coal Exchange and decorated it to look like a very broken down old hotel room. The Coal Exchange is a really extraordinary building. The half that we were in was mostly unoccupied except for pigeons. One of the last scenes of the day involved me crawling down a corridor through pigeon droppings and dust in complete darkness hoping that the floor wasn’t going to cave in.
Q: What’s your best memory of working with (producer) Head?
K: Getting to the studio on the first evening and watching him try to capture the sound of the rain. Beating him at pool was also good.
Q: Your sound can often conjure images of wide spaces, landscape and terrain; have you ever written music as an accompaniment to visuals?
K: Not specifically. I think that would be interesting though. Our songs often have a filmic quality in sound and lyrical content, and descriptions of landscapes provide an interesting metaphor for feelings.
Q: Who’s the last artist to sweep you off your feet musically?
K: I’m glad you said “musically”.
J: We went to a Black Angels gig the other day. It was a pretty good show.
Q: For your next album you get to make a wish for a mythical instrument not yet invented. How would it look and sound?
J: A hoover that plays music instead of hoover noises so that I can get some cleaning done while we’re recording.
K: Some sort of instrument that clamps onto your head and plays the sound of your thoughts. It would probably be a bit scary.
The Smoke Fairies play Cardiff’s Glee Club on Sun 22 May. for more info, click here.