Smoke Fairies invade Sawmills

 A flash of lightning shot across us last week; the debut album proper from the Smoke Fairies was recorded. It was recorded in a studio that's a good ten minute walk away from the nearest road in a picturesque area of Cornwall by a river. It's also the place Supergrass recorded I Should Coco and Oasis recorded Definitely Maybe. Sawmills is the studio of dreams, as you can see:

In the producer's chair was a smashing chap named Head. If you have a copy of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea have a look on the first page of the inlay; he's the dude in the blue t-shirt leaning over that collosal mixing desk. He's refreshingly unpretentious and focused on getting the right take, even if that meant 40 odd takes. I also loved the fact that the first song he put on the stereo in the evening post-recording was mclusky's Lightsabre Cock Sucking Blues. Full blast. Awesomeness smothered in awesome. 

He was a smart choice as producer. I've always seen Smoke Fairies more in the PJ Harvey-esque rock camp than the usual generic folk camp. This album will shake off the folk tag with a sand blaster.

All my parts were recorded in THE CAVE, which had two small windows; one where I could peer into the main live room: (and take a rubbish photo)

..and the other view was the lovely river which was my clock 'cos it's governed by the tides. At times the rising tide also acted as a depressing reminder of how many takes you've done. 

Take 1:

Take3476849301

I did all my viola parts through a juicy Music Man amp to get a nice interesting tone, I even did one take on my knees in proper  \m/ style in front of the amp with the overdrive up to 11 ...sounds unlikely but it happened!

Now, we wait for the thing to be mixed but in the meantime the Fairies take on SXSW! Hella yeah!

The Monroe Transfer need you, yes you....... really.

We're doing a project where we need people to record different parts of a song, as Line of Best Fit explain:

The Line of Best Fit can exclusively reveal The Monroe Transfer’s imaginative plans for their next song. The seven piece instrumental band from London is asking as many people as possible to contribute to ‘The Heavens Sleep, Are Sleeping Still’.

The band have already secured contributions from Her Name Is Calla, worriedaboutsatan and Braindead Collective, and now it’s your chance to add something.

Fans can download sheet music, stems and demo recordings from theheavenssleep.com and record themselves performing whichever part they like. The recorded parts can be submitted to the group through their website, and will be mixed by the group to create the final piece.

Those who take part in the project will receive a very limited physical copy of the song, while those who prefer listening to music than making it will be able to get the track when it is released as a free download later in the year.

It’s another of example of the band’s unique approach to creating and packaging music. Past release ‘Vox Humana’ was presented in a home-made wooden box, whilst their next album Trials comes in a delicately crafted cloth bag, that would make any home economics teacher proud.

The deadline for contributions is April 10th so hurry up and dig out any instrument that’s gathering dust!
The band will also be playing a few live shows in the coming weeks. Those dates:

March
31 The Lexington, London
April
20 The Macbeth, London

Finally, the band’s new album Trials will be released via Organ Grinder on 3rd May. Expect a review and an interview with the band on The Line of Best Fit soon.

Spread the word!