Smoke Fairies Interview
Described by Channel 4 as ‘girls Bob Dylan dreams about’ the have announced themselves as a revolutionary mix of folk meets blues. As one Amuze reader commented “The Smoke Fairies are a mix of the best of the Indigo Girls and ”
and we couldn’t agree more, in our opinion “Living with Ghosts” is eerily moody, musical brilliance! We took an opportunity to interview Katherine and Jessica ahead of their ‘Old Blue Last’ show.
So tell us a little about the Smoke Fairies how did the band get together ?
J - We met at school when we were 11 and just started messing around writing songs. At the time we thought that we were so good we would have to leave school to go on tour, I guess things always take longer that you expect.
K – We used to sing at every opportunity. We put on concerts at lunch time in a drama hut, which I had the keys to because I had a job putting out chairs there before school and at lunch. If a teacher came by we used to have to stop playing and pretend to be putting out chairs while the audience hid. It wasn’t very professional.
You music is dark and moody at times do you draw from your own personal experiences when writing material ?
J- I think all of our songs are drawn from personal experiences whether it is some major event in our lives or simple observations about everyday things like waiting for the bus or going to work. Little descriptions of normal things help us to set the scene in our songs.
K – We are both very influenced by nature and something as simple as a change in the weather can spark off a song.
Do you write your material together ?
J- One of us will write the basic outline of a song and then we will come together and add more guitar parts and harmonies. Sometimes we will be working on songs separately and realise that we have both been writing about and the same thing so we are able to merge the two songs together.
K- I Always feel like a song is never fully complete until we have come together and figured out how we are going to play it live.
What attracted you to acoustic and slide guitar ?
K – I like the atmosphere slide guitar can bring to a song. I remember hearing Johnny Dickenson playing a song called She Moved Through the Fair at a folk festival. It was really beautiful and the audience was silently memorised. I got so overexcited that I started trying to play slide in my tent afterwards. I always liked listening to blues slide players, but when I heard him I realised that you can play it in quite a delicate way and it seemed to work well with Jessica’s picking.
You released your debut single in August with rave reviews. Is there news of an upcoming album ?
We are going to record an EP very soon and release that and then take things from there.
You recently toured with the great Bryan Ferry how was it touring with him ?
J- We really learnt a lot having to play to large audiences night after night. Playing in Big concert halls is so different to small noisy bars, you have to be more of a performer.
K-It was challenging but also affirming to know that we could play to large audiences without freaking out. I felt that our confidence grew as the tour progressed. The great thing about being on tour is that if you feel you could have played better at a particular show then you get a chance the next day to forget all about it and try again. It’s a great way to improve. You are in a new town and those people have never heard you before, it was brilliant.
What was the last record you bought?
J: I bought Smog; it has a really great song about a train.
So what does the immediate future hold for the Smoke Fairies ?
We are going to continue gigging around London, our next gigs are at the Old Blue Last on 29th Oct and the Macbeth on 10th Nov. Also, we’re looking forward to being part of the Twisted Christmas show at the Barbican. Elf costumes at the ready!
Links:
Smoke Fairies site Here
Smoke Fairies on iTunes
