The duo met at school in Sussex, UK during the late 1990s. They spent 2002 in New Orleans, LA, where they absorbed American blues music. When they returned to England they discovered British folk music at the Sidmouth Folk Week Festival while working as car park attendants. They later settled in Vancouver, Canada, for a year before returning to London, UK in 2006 to start performing.
Smoke Fairies’ outstanding album, the eponymously titled Smoke Fairies, shows the band in top form, combining their classic approach whilst exploring new forms of musical expression – but it is an album that they nearly didn’t make.
There was a moment after the release of Smoke Fairies' previous album (Blood Speaks, 2012) when Jessica Davies turned to musical partner Katherine Blamire and told her she was no longer sure whether Smoke Fairies should continue.
For Smoke Fairies the suggestion of not playing music together would potentially impact more than just their band – theirs was a friendship forged by music, by a shared ambition that had carried them from their schooldays and on to songwriting and performing together.
“We started considering what would we do if we didn’t do music,” recalls Davies, “and it was just a massive void.” Deciding that giving up on the band was “not an option,” Davies wrote a musical apology to Blamire that would become the stunning opening track of their new eponymously titled album, Smoke Fairies. “I just wanted to say sorry to her – sorry I scared you like that.”
In the years since Smoke Fairies first entered a recording studio, they have made critically-acclaimed albums, supported on tours with Bryan Ferry, Richard Hawley and Laura Marling, and had a single released on Jack White’s Third Man Records; but for all the perceived glamour of a musical career, they were still sharing a house in Peckham and waiting for something to happen while they worked temp jobs around London.
But with the question now raised, Smoke Fairies were able to really take stock and reassess what the band truly meant to them. “We realised that this is our life,” says Davies. “And we just have to see it as this wonderful thing, every gig we get to play and every record we get to make – we’re just incredibly grateful for that.”
More than this, it allowed them to think about the type of album they wanted to make. They had earned a reputation for impressive live performances, for harmonies and intricate guitar playing, but what they now craved was something simpler and more direct. Blamire talks of secretly listening to pop music on the bus, trying to figure out “why it was popular, why it was good.” Davies tells how her own personal yardstick had become “anything with a drumbeat that made me dance around the kitchen.”
Smoke Fairies yearned for movement and forward momentum. They wanted to make an album that wasn’t simply recorded live, but rather presented songs that were pored over, puzzled-out, polished and produced. “We wanted to feel that we had dissected everything back to its basic bones,” avers Davies, “and then for every song to kind of shimmer.”
In 2013 Blamire and Davies took themselves to a remote recording studio in Kent with producer Kristofer Harris. “It was on a very old industrial estate,” says Davies. “It was a really eccentric area – it used to be a council office, now there’s a bubble car garage, a tattoo parlour and a granite workshop. It just physically felt so distant from anything to do with the music industry.”
It was there that they set about crafting their latest album, Smoke Fairies, calling on their bandmates and old touring friends such as drummer Andy Newmark (Sly and the Family Stone, Roxy Music, John Lennon) to help out. “It felt very warm,” says Davies. “These people really came together to encourage us, as if we had retreated into a world of only ourselves and the people who mattered.”
The distance and sense of introspection also allowed for a shift in their songwriting techniques. “We used to do a lot of harmonies,” says Blamire. “But this album gave us the opportunity to actually be two voices, rather than two voices as one entity; two people talking to each other as distinct characters. They’re the messages that we send to each other.”
Their lyrical style, too, has changed: “We scrapped lyrics right from the start if they were too flowery,” asserts Davies. “Unless the lyric really got to the point and said something, it got cut.” Blamire agrees: “As songwriters, I feel we’re really starting to sum things up properly, to nail them down. For me, it was a testament to how long we’ve been together that we could just say to each other ‘that’s shit.’ There really was no ego on this record.”
The result is a remarkable set of songs, notable not only for their strength and robustness, but also a sense of experimentation. The sheer liberation Blamire and Davies felt at using synths for the first time is evident in tracks such as the irresistible “Your Own Silent Movie” and the beautifully compelling “Drinks and Dancing”. Davies and Blamire’s sublime voices still stand to the fore, and tracks like “Want It Forever” are lined with a deliciously bluesy skuzzy-ness. This may not be the sort of album you ever expected Smoke Fairies to make, but it is an extraordinary record – bracing, sensual and defiant – and one that promises an exciting musical future.
Blamire and Davies see the track “Hope Is Religion” as the song that best sums up their experiences of the past few years and their continued devotion to making music. “It’s one that we wrote together,” affirms Davies. “It’s about writing songs with someone, putting those ideas out into the open and sharing them with somebody; but it’s also about how with music you’re always hoping for more – that this will happen or that will happen. For us it felt as if music had become our religion, we believed in it without any evidence that we’d actually be able to make any money or be successful. I guess that sums up the situation we were in; but we realised we had no other option but to keep on believing.”
Awake
Smoke Fairies Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Soft lines of dawn in the room
The world, so quiet
Dreaming in ultra-violet
Are you awake?
Do you feel the space that was once filled by me?
Sends shivers through the morning
I keep falling from here
Blurring the lines of what's real
It still creeps through the blinds
An anxious feeling undefined
Are you awake?
Do you feel the space that was once filled by me?
Sends shivers through the morning
When you sleep your mind can start it's wishing
We could wake to a world where nothing's missing
The night lifts it's cloak
I fall through kaleidoscopes
Through cracked mirrors of dreams
I saw the broken parts of me
Are you awake?
Do you feel the space that was once filled by me?
Sends shivers through the morning
When you sleep your mind can start it's wishing
We could wake to a world where nothing's missing
The song "Awake" by Smoke Fairies is a hauntingly beautiful tune that explores the feelings of a person who wakes up feeling alone and disconnected from the world. The first verse talks about waking up too early, with the soft lines of dawn in the room, and feeling the world is quiet and dreamy. The person feels lost in the undefined anxious feeling that creeps through the blinds, blurring the lines between reality and dreams, and falling from reality. The chorus repeats the question of whether the person they left behind still feels the space that they once filled and the shivers that come along with that feeling.
The second verse talks about how one's mind can start wishing for a world where nothing is missing when we sleep. It explores the idea that the night can lift its cloak and let us fall through kaleidoscopes of dreams where we can see the broken parts of ourselves. The song ends on a hopeful note with the idea that we could wake up to a world where nothing is missing.
The lyrics of the song touch on deep emotional themes that are universal and relatable. They deal with the way we wake up feeling in the morning, the anxiety that we sometimes feel when we are alone, and the way our mind starts to drift and wish when we are asleep. The haunting melody and ethereal harmony make the song even more powerful and moving.
Line by Line Meaning
I woke too soon
I woke up earlier than I should have
Soft lines of dawn in the room
The light of the sunrise fills the room
The world, so quiet
The world is silent and peaceful
Dreaming in ultra-violet
Having vivid dreams
Are you awake?
Asking if someone else is already awake
Do you feel the space that was once filled by me?
Asking if the other person notices the absence of me
Sends shivers through the morning
Causes an emotional response to the absence
I keep falling from here
I keep losing my grip on reality
Blurring the lines of what's real
Confusing reality with imagination
It still creeps through the blinds
The light of day still enters the room
An anxious feeling undefined
Feeling worried without knowing why
When you sleep your mind can start its wishing
Dreams can make you yearn for something
We could wake to a world where nothing's missing
A world where everything is complete
The night lifts its cloak
The darkness of the night fades away
I fall through kaleidoscopes
I experience a series of colorful, changing images
Through cracked mirrors of dreams
Looking at broken reflections of myself in my dreams
I saw the broken parts of me
I saw the flaws and imperfections in myself
Contributed by Elliot J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
emerald764
Not only are they exceptionally talented singers, songwriters and guitarists, but they also have excellent taste in footwear.
CHSHV
Хорошая группа! Приятно слушать!
GnB
I Love The Smoke Fairies, and this kind of performance will only enhance that feeling. Plus, the video of this is so exquisite. The forest sounds at the beginning and end are nice bookends to a chance to see and hear Kaff do lead vocals (which does not mean I prefer Kathrine to Jessica. Lovely song and performance. As I've already said, I Love The Smoke Fairies.
Eagles Soar
"We could wake to a world where nothing's missing." Indeed...
Congrats on a haunting and exquisitely well-played ballad. I too have had the wild birds respond during and just after playing guitars outdoors. It's magical. Like the Fairies ;)
Kayla Altemose
I wish I was there with them. ♥
Thomas Pullen
LOVE IT
Mark Huckerby
Fantastic. Beautiful in every way.
adamcrookedsmile
love this song ... but especially the alto voice parts
Juan Sebastian Rojas Perez
Beautiful, really BEAUTIFUL!!!
Tiara Zhané
Wonderful!