A Blaze Of Feather details new album with second single "Magpie"

"Magpie" is the second taster of A Blaze Of Feather's new album, arriving after "Clock Hands" that landed earlier this month.

A Blaze Of Feather, real name Mickey Smith, says of the new single, ""Magpie" was certainly a cornerstone. It’s a kind of love letter to West Cornwall where I’m from, so it speaks for the whole record in a way. There’s a wild old energy about the place. Mischief in the air coloured with lost things. The local clubs are the Magpies or the Pirates. Kind of sums up the vibe one way or another down here. Memories always flood my mind, every corner is a trigger. I try and appreciate the magic in the air despite this wonkiness and despair beneath the surface. Penzance is the last stop on the train tracks and it is the Wild West in its own way. I began writing the song from the perspective of dementia slowly stealing my Nan's memory. She’s never been past Truro and all she knows is here, she’s as Cornish as they come. It gradually became about that disconnect I felt in parallel though. How sometimes it’s easier to embrace apathy than deal with the real shit, whether that’s through burying your head in the sand or partying hard."

Smith adds, "Everything seems to be out of reach as a kid. The cities and the chance of work, anything of consequence is owned by someone far away. It’s like you’ve already been forgotten before you’ve even begun living. Apathy becomes the obvious option and that can have heavy consequences. There’s still this mystical energy here though: watchful, charged and present. You have to be wily enough to steal a glance at the secrets sleeping wherever you are before your chances really have gone I guess."

Labyrinth will follow on from 2017 self-titled debut LP, and was written, recorded and produced by Smith himself from a converted shed in his own garden in Cornwall.

Smith reveals that Björk was a big influence on the new record, "During the recent writing and recording sessions I listened to Bjork a lot. Her individual creative energies just strike me as phenomenal. Vulnicara in particular breaks my heart every listen. I keep Bjork's work in mind whenever creating gets challenging. How open and fearless she is with feelings and emotions, unleashing vulnerability and strength through musicality. It gives me some comfort when I get scared of voicing some hidden part of myself through my own work."

Tracklist:

1. Killing the Reverie
2. Labyrinth
3. Magpie
4. Witching Hour
5. Kanndir
6. Fields
7. Serpentine
8. Clock Hands
9. A Time of Low Frequency
10. Gentle Man