Smoke Fairies have shared rarity ‘River Song’ online.
The celebrated band became the first British signings to Jack White’s Third Man imprint, sparking a series of fantastic releases. Barbed songwriting, their atmospheric folk-meets-blues mixture feel stark, and sharply intense.
New compilation ‘Singles’ is out on October 28th, a rare look back from the group that coincides with a short UK run – catch Smoke Fairies at London’s Omeara on November 7th.
The pair comment: “15 years of releasing singles can go by in a flash. Creating this release has been a reflective experience as we looked back into the Smoke Fairies archive. Each single release has its own memory…”
Rarity ‘River Song’ was given a physical release as part of Third Man’s Blue Series, with original copies now going for hundreds of pounds on Discogs and eBay (if you can even find them, that is).
Placed online in full, it remains an engrossing listen, with Jack White contributing drums and guitar. The pair recall…
“When Jack White invited us to the Third Man studio to record we had no idea what to expect or what songs to bring to him. ‘River Song’ is an intricate, dark and eerie piece that we had been crafting for some years. It was recorded in a very pure way, two guitars, our vocals sung into old vintage mics, straight to tape. We flew back home from Nashville leaving the track to be worked on by Jack.”
“A few weeks later two finished versions arrived; one straight forward, haunting and simple and one complete with timpani’s and a rambunctious Jack White guitar solo. None of us had ever envisaged the song going in that direction when we began but as our mouths dropped to the floor when it first played, we knew which version we had to release. It’s hard to place it to a time or place or genre, it’s just an oddity of a track; a collision of two worlds that we will be forever grateful for.”
The animated video was sculpted by Sophie Graves, the incorporates the Scottish myth of the selkie – a creature from folklore, seals who could remove their skin to reveal their human form once on land.
Sophie Graves explains: “‘River Song’ has such a mystical and magical tone to it but with a darker edge, combined with the references in the lyrics to the water pulling you back, the selkie tale just seemed a perfect fit.”
Tune in now.
