With Funny Looking Angels Smith & Burrows, aka Tom Smith and Andy Burrows, have attempted to hark back to the days of a traditional Christmas album with self penned songs mixed with a selection of covers that remind them of the holiday. A collaboration between the lead singer of Editors and the former drummer of Razorlight, now in indie band I Am Arrows, was probably an unlikely combination in most people’s books and a potential Christmas album was almost certainly completely off their radar, but the pair have actually been good friends for years. ‘We met at Glastonbury festival in 2005′ Andy tells me, and when the idea for a Christmas album was suggested earlier this year they ‘went into the studio together to see if anything good might come of it. And it went and grew from there!’
Considering both of them have ‘full time bands’ in Editors and I Am Arrows it would be fair to assume that writing and recording a full album might have been a tricky thing to balance with their other commitments. Add to this that they were attempting to write a Christmas album in the middle of the summer, as well as the fact that working as a duo can lead to an unfamiliar creative process and it looks an even more intimidating problem. However, Andy is quick to play down any problems that they may have had. ‘It wasn’t particularly tricky as the process was quite fragmented which gave us time to prioritise, and christmas-ise.’ Though Tom did find some differences, explaining that ‘It was a lot more traditional sounding record than an Editors record so probably more different for me than for Andy.’
Their desire to make a Christmas album stems from their joint belief that the festive season, especially its music, has become saturated by commercialism and therefore lost some of the innocence that made it so magical. Nowadays the Christmas number one is coveted above all others to the extent that the X Factor now devotes an entire annual tv campaign to securing the top spot. We haven’t really had a strong Christmas single for years now and the ones that we do have are classed as novelties. It’s this changing attitude towards music at Christmas time that inspired the duo to record Funny Looking Angels with Andy agreeing that ‘all of the above was pretty much what led us to writing the record!’ Our generation doesn’t have its own ‘Fairytale of New York’ or ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ so I wondered if any pressure came with writing a Christmas album and if they ever felt that they needed to live up to classic songs. ‘Well ‘Fairytale of New York’ is our favourite Christmas song’ Andy replies, ‘and the blueprint for any of our own Christmas compositions. That song is genius. You only start to feel pressure if you’re messing it up. And we’re really proud of the record we made so no I don’t think so..’
To make the record a number of unusual things were employed to create a Christmas feel, for example, I had heard that a Dyson vacuum was used somewhere within ‘The Bleak Midwinter’. To my delight Andy confirmed that this was true. ‘We wrote and recorded the album in a tiny attic in Hammersmith and yes there is a Dyson vacuum cleaner – they are surprisingly good for creating white noise. They sound like snow looks!’ That is not the end of the unusual sounds however and I was sure that I had heard the MSN alert going off during one of the tracks. ‘Don’t think so, sorry. That would be the sound of the celeste! We just checked with Tim our producer and he said that at the end of ‘Only You’, if you listen carefully, there’s the sound of a New York police siren lurking in there somewhere. Not sure why the NYPD were in Hammersmith but it’s in there anyway…’
This nicely brings us to ‘Only You’. The rest of the covers on the album, including the title track, originally by Delta, Black’s ‘Wonderful Life’ and The Longpigs’ ‘On and On’ aren’t what you’d call traditional Christmas songs. Personally I’ve associated ‘Only You’ with Christmas ever since it was used in The Office but I wondered what it was that had attracted Smith & Burrows to it. ‘Well it was a Christmas No. 1 for The Flying Pickets before The Office came out so I guess we’ve always associated it with Christmas for that reason’ Andy tells me. One of the more traditional covers, ‘The Christmas Song’, closes the album and features guest vocals from up and coming Danish star Agnes Obel. ‘We have mutual friends’ explains Andy, ‘and she heard the album and said she wanted to be involved. She sent over her version of ‘The Christmas Song’, which was stunning, and it grew from there.’
Although the covers on the album are very nicely executed it’s the self penned songs that really shine through. Whereas most acts these days tend to put out Christmas songs with very self-contained, whimsical lyrics, Smith & Burrows decided to go for a more political stance, particularly on the lead single from the album ‘When The Thames Froze’. I asked Tom if that was due to a belief that Christmas is a time for reflection generally? ‘Yes’ came the reply, ‘with that lyric I wanted the song to be current. Christmas is a time for spend, spend, spend it felt like it was the right thing to try and put in a seasonal song.’ ‘When The Thames Froze’ and ‘This Ain’t New Jersey’ especially, steal the show on Funny Looking Angels and has led to speculation that this could be a partnership that they intend to make more albums with, which the guys are happy to agree with. ‘Every review, even the bad ones, have said that the best thing about the record are the original songs, which we’re extremely proud of. So yes we will definitely be writing together again.’
Naturally both Tom and Andy are fans of Christmas, describing it as a time for ‘food, friends, family, frolics, fires and family feuds’ and, now both have become parents, it has taken on an extra quality to it. ‘Everything takes on a different quality once you become a parent’ says Andy, ‘but obviously Xmas has an added joyfulness. It’s lovely to see the excitement in their eyes! And it’s pretty tough on the wallet too!’ So what are their plans for Christmas this year? Well, despite a tour that is currently taking them all around Europe they insist that they will spend Christmas just like any other person ‘at home eating and drinking with our families!’
