Smoke Fairies hit SXSW

Firstly, what the hell is up with the weather in Austin, Texas? one day its scorching sun which led to me looking like a burn victim and the next I'm wearing a massive coat and getting frost bite. It was so cold my fingers were like rocks. Karen Elson gets an Everest-sized high five 'cos she performed outside in the bitter cold wearing just a thin peach dress, if my mum were there she's be saying "wrap up warm dear or you'll catch your death!", but no, Karen and her impeccably dressed band didn't let the trivialities of weather dictate their stage persona.

SXSW was a pretty overwhelming affair, literally everywhere you go there’s a cacophony of bands jostling for attention. 6th Street in particular (a stretch of about four miles) had a huge volume of bars and restaurants all with live bands blaring out onto the street, which itself was littered with buskers of all ilk, including proper toothless hillbillies twanging their beaten up four string guitars.

Busking in Texas looked like ramshackle fun so I borrowed a violin from a duo on the street and busked with their banjo player. I earned them one dollar. 

Smoke Fairies played four shows at SXSW, the first being a set to a packed out Latitude 30 for the British Embassy showcase with buzz bands Everything Everything and Band of Skulls. It was an ace gig and it was nice to come off stage to greet a free bar. Watch a beating Frozen Heart here.

Our 'showcase' was at The Alehouse. The venue wasn't quite as exciting as the name suggests, in fact, it reminded me of Camden and I had to keep reminding myself that I was five thousand miles away.
There's a pretty dodgy mobile phone video of a potion of the set here - see, it could be Camden if it weren't for the banner.

I also added some viola mayhem to Viv Albertine's gig at Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label showcase - they tried to get me in a nightie but couldn't find one large enough.

With America being the home of the Classic Beef Burger. They certainly know how to make a tasty burger: thick juicy beef patties cooked to perfection with jalapenos, proper cheese and thick smokey bacon - yum. We also went to a seafood restaurant that was a little unconventional in their approach to serving food. They came out with bowls of prawns and crawfish and simply tipped the contents onto your table, luckily I had a bib.  

We were also attracted to pizza vans, as you can see, it's the best way to get around in Texas.



We found some great vintage shops in the South Congress, including an awesome shop called Uncommon Objects who were selling Nomadic robes and a frock coat supposedly from the1800s belonging to the Knights Templar. I should have bought it.

Lastly, we met some pandas.

RIP Alex Chilton

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!

Goodbye, Faithful Interview! with Artefacts For Space Travel

Artefacts For Space Travel headline Goodbye, Faithful Kingdom! on Tuesday 7th July @ The Macbeth, advance tickets can be picked up from here.

I caught up with Joe and posed him a few questions.

The band name comes from a William S Burroughs quote that states, "Man is an artefact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole." What are your thoughts on the statement? Are you longing to become that metaphorical frog? or are you happy remaining a tadpole?

Definitely want to be the frog. I’m very impatient about progress and I have a tremendous sense of urgency about everything. I just don’t have enough scientific knowledge to provide any answers, I can bluff a good argument though. For me the name represents an endless frustration, I believe the only things worth knowing can not be understood by the human brain.
I found the quote one night when I was researching stuff, I thought it'd be a cool band name. I’m not actually a Borroughs fan and have only read a few of his books. I basically only read Philip K Dick at the moment.

You're sent into space to start a colony on Mars, what 5 albums are you going to take with you?

Well I would definitely take 5 'best ofs' because everyone knows that a 'best of' is always a band's best album because it has their best songs on it. Anyone who says otherwise is a complete liar. I would also take in to consideration: if I end up meeting an Alien race while I’m on Mars who have never heard music before, what will I play to them to help them understand human music? I guess it'd be something like this:

Best of Beethoven
Best of Michael Jackson
Best of The Kinks
Best of Bob Dylan
Best of The Beach Boys

Not really sure why I left out the Beatles and the Stones, I think Martians prefer the Kinks.

Two of your members share the same surname as me, are we related?

Yes, Sam and I (Joe) are brothers, we have another brother called Luke who plays the drums, we're going to start a family band, we'll be like an uglier version of Hanson. Oh . . . Are we related to you? I don’t know, do you have any money you can lend us? If you do then you can be in our family. But unfortunately there was only three brothers in Hanson so you’ll have to be the manager.

You site West Coast American bands like Melvins, Nirvana and Pavement as influences ... what particularly interests you about those bands?

I was raised on Guns and Roses and Nirvana. Brit pop bored the shit out of me. I liked metal in my early teens, then I started get into weird Rough Trade indie type stuff. Now I just listen to everything. We're not JUST into 90's American stuff, though Sam and I went to see Melvins and Dinosaur Jr concerts recently, I’m a massive Mark E Smith fan, and I like a lot of 60's stuff. I guess bands like Pavement have that laid back, slacker appeal which we relate too, we're really easy going people. We want to make 'stoner indie rock'.

Has anyone written anything wildly inaccurate about the band so far? how do you feel about terms like "toxic punk sludge" being used to describe your music?

It's really dumb. We find it both funny and depressing. Our favourite live review came from Manchester News and said we were 'either really good or really bad', at least make a fucking decision! Jesus. But yeah it's depressing because we want journalists to listen to us and not just say, 'oooh, loud guitars, they must be influenced by the Pixies'. We like noisy, heavy music, it's not because we're trying to bring back grunge.

If Artefacts for Space Travel ever found themselves in a tricky situation, who would have instigated it?

We've had a lot of punch ups after gigs, it's actually normally us standing up for a friend who has come to watch us and ended up getting into a fight. Some of our friends are a bit rowdy. We once had to fight our way out of Southampton University, luckily students are pussys and we beat them all up with ease. Sam also causes a lot of problems, we thought he'd been kidnapped by Mexican coke dealers in Texas, he tends to wander off and find new friends when he's wasted. Alex's car is always getting stolen too, or towed away by gangsters. Everything is always a challenge with our band. If it can go wrong it will. But it’s normally all just down to too much beer. So I guess the answer is beer would've instigated it.

Are there any new bands that you're particularly fond of?

Don’t know if they're new but I’m listening to a lot of Blank Dogs, it's right up my street. We saw lots of cool bands out in SXSW mainly at a bar called Miss Beas. I want to go see a new band called A Grave With No Name, I like the tracks on their myspace. I'm going to see Ariel Pink on Sunday which I’m looking forward to, he's a sexy fellow.

How did the EP 'Power of The Brain' come to fruition? Any reference to popular brain based game shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire? or Eggheads?

Power of the brain is the name of one of our songs, it's all about telepathy and transhumanism. I watch Egg heads a lot though, I get really angry at the show. I hate that old lady who knows everything, they're such smug arseholes.

Any plans for a follow up?

We're ready to release more, just waiting for the all clear, we have loads of new songs that we like playing, so ASAP for another EP on Stolen Recordings.