'Wild Winter' Inverts The Holiday Album Formula

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The band Smoke Fairies seems a little ambivalent about the holiday season. I mean, they've got a holiday album, but it includes a Captain Beefheart song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STEAL SOFTLY THRU SNOW")

SMOKE FAIRIES: (Singing) Black paper between a mirror breaks my heart. Moon frayed through dark velvet lightly apart. Steal softly through sunshine, steal softly thru snow.

SIMON: Smoke Fairies' new album is called "Wild Winter," and we're joined, from London, by the singers Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies. Thanks very much for being with us.

JESSICA DAVIES: Oh, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having us.

SIMON: So how does this Captain Beefheart song get on your collection?

DAVIES: So we've been fans of Captain Beefheart for a while. And I was looking up songs that had references to snow in them and this one came up.

SIMON: So you Googled snow lyrics.

DAVIES: I Googled snow and then I thought, Captain Beefheart, oh, no.

KATHERINE BLAMIRE: Jessica kind of brought up the fact we should do this song. And I said, of all of the Captain Beefheart songs, this definitely sounds like the hardest. But we just sat down for, I would say, hours is fair, and working out every single riff, every single part of it and kind of wove it together in a way that hopefully sounds like our own.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STEAL SOFTLY THRU SNOW")

SMOKE FAIRIES: (Singing) Breaks my heart that I can't go steal softly through sunshine, steal softly thru snow.

SIMON: Most of the other songs of the album are originals. And I gather you wrote these during the summer.

BLAMIRE: Yeah, it was pretty much one of this hottest we'd had in a very long time.

SIMON: Yeah.

BLAMIRE: But it was interesting 'cause the writing about the winter seemed to come pretty naturally to us, regardless of what was happening outside. We really enjoyed just having a concept to write around. It wasn't something that we tried before, and it was really inspiring. There's so much to say about that time of year.

(SOUNDBITE OF SMOKE FAIRIES SONG, "WILD WINTER")

SIMON: Let's listen to the title cut, if we can, "Wild Winter."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILD WINTER")

SMOKE FAIRIES: (Singing) You've got a shiver inside you under the ice where the stream still flows. Wind coming up behind you, you're 21 degrees below.

SIMON: This is a very beautiful song.

DAVIES: Oh, thanks.

SIMON: And what put it in your mind?

BLAMIRE: Well, it was interesting. I was just listening to it then and there's that lyric in there that says, I've got a shiver inside me. And it's kind of that feeling - a lot of our songs kind of address that slight emptiness that's there all year round. But, so yeah, sorry about that.

SIMON: Slight emptiness, yeah. Let me ask you about a quote that's attributed to Smoke Fairies. Quote, "sometimes winter provided us with a sense of togetherness and love, and sometimes it leaves us feeling alienated, cold and playing a glockenspiel in a darkened room." Now you had me right up until the glockenspiel (laughter). I don't believe I've ever felt like I wanted to play a glockenspiel in a darkened room, but go with that, if you could.

DAVIES: You're missing out.

BLAMIRE: Yeah, it's a great experience. My neighbor actually gave me the glockenspiel and we started to mess around with it. And there's a song on the record called "Snow Globe Blizzard" which is an instrumental that kind of revolves around that sound. We're just trying to create something a little bit haunting, I guess.

(SOUNDBITE OF SMOKE FAIRIES SONG, "SNOW GLOBE BLIZZARD")

SIMON: Let me ask you about your interpretation of the story of the "Three Kings."

DAVIES: Yeah.

SIMON: And I want to stipulate, I have respect for those who feel the original version is also pretty compelling.

BLAMIRE: I just sort of imagine they might be a little bit - I mean, they could be a bit annoying because, you know, they've got all this sort of finery and they're taking these amazing presents, they're traveling on this epic journey. And this song is kind of about them being at a party and just sort of boasting to everyone about everything that they've seen. And it's a bit ridiculous really.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "THREE KINGS")

SMOKE FAIRIES: (Singing) I've seen the midnight, sun over tundra. And I've followed stardust and silver in wonder. And I think I've seen the future. I think I've seen the future

SIMON: All right, we may not hear it at the Canterbury Cathedral, but that's a very strong song.

BLAMIRE: That would be pretty great, playing it there, to be honest.

SIMON: Yes, it could (laughter).

BLAMIRE: I think we might ruffle a few feathers.

SIMON: Well, and is that the idea, you want people to take a different look at the holidays?

BLAMIRE: Yeah, maybe some of the kind of darker songs or songs reflecting more troubled feelings are sort of just to point out that, you know, not everybody is having this sort of forced sense of joy and it's nice to actually give voice to that other side of Christmas where people, you know, are kind of struggling and are reflecting on their year that might not have been perfect, and yeah.

SIMON: Well, there are a lot of people in this position. I do feel compelled to point out, some people actually have genuine joy this time of year.

BLAMIRE: Yes, and fantastic then. They can dance to "Three Kings." There's things on the record for them too (laughter).

SIMON: Well, I hope your chestnuts roast on an open fire, or whatever (laughter).

BLAMIRE: That's a brilliant phrase (laughter).

SIMON: Or what, in your case, they burst into flame or something?

BLAMIRE: (Laughter).

SIMON: Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies of Smoke Fairies, their album is "Wild Winter."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE KINGS")

SMOKE FAIRIES: (Singing) Moon glow movers, death star shooters. We're sky watchers, starlight's buttons, moon glow movers, death star shooters. We're sky watchers, starlight's buttons...

SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.