Come All Ye Indie Faithful

There’s something in the eggnog – on the cusp of 30, four indie stars running in the same circles have stumbled on the same idea, aiming to recapture their youthful excitement for the season in song. In one stocking, we have This Is Christmas from Emmy The Great and current beau, Tim Wheeler of Ash. Sounding suitably twee and loved-up, it contains enough winning songs to make for a fine work. In the other, Andy Burrows, once of Razorlight, has teamed up with Editors’ Tom Smith on Funny Looking Angels, a more ornate and wintry effort that escapes the Christmas shackles through sheer quality.

When we catch up with Emmy, she’s a tad under the weather, and is stuck in her parents’ Sussex home. A similar situation last Christmas started the album ball rolling.
“Myself and Tim got snowed in,” she explains. “Like really, really snowed in. We were just bored. We’d watched the two movies that I’d got in for Christmas, we’d played a game his family plays at Christmas and made snowmen… We were stuck here for a week so we ended up writing some songs.”
From there, the record took wings this summer. New love can be tough enough, so surely relations were strained in a studio environment? Apparently the couple didn’t really argue at all. A Christmas miracle.
“We had ‘team talks’. We’d have band meetings that were just the two of us. If things got a little bit heated we’d be like, ‘Right, band meeting!’ but we didn’t really fight. Tim is a really, really good person. He’s also a good producer, and is excellent at getting the best performances out of people. Also, we’re just a good team. We’re not bad at getting motivated.”
Turning to Andy Burrows, Funny Looking Angels is the latest in a long line of collaborations since his departure from Razorlight in 2009 (he’s worked with Mr. Wheeler too).
“I wanted to work hard,” he says of his solo path. “I didn’t come out of that brilliantly massive and successful band and do nothing, just sit on my arse. But work hard and enjoy myself. You get into music as a kid because it’s enjoyable and more fun than… most other things! I wanted to make sure that I embraced that, that I wouldn’t look back at this stage of my life as being miserable the whole time.”
Before all that, he’s got Smith & Burrows to concern himself with.
“Tom and I have been good chums for a long time and over the last couple of years we’ve been hanging out a lot more. We knew we wanted to do something. We went in the studio and recorded ‘Wonderful Life’ with a view to nothing, just thought we should try it and it turned out really, really well. ‘Right, what are we doing? Are we trying to do something here or are we just two mates having a laugh in the studio?’ We decided that it was good enough to pursue. Then eventually it had a bit of a festive edge to it. We thought we should try and write our own songs for Christmas, because no-one really does that anymore.”
Burrows reckons this partnership will have legs long past December 25. Keeping with the Christmas spirit, as well as Andy’s reputation as the British Dave Grohl (an extraordinarily nice guy as at home writing songs as he is behind his kit), he continues to extend goodwill to all men, even when the subject of Johnny Borrell pops up.
“Johnny and I still haven’t spoken and I don’t know if we will. It’d be nice to think that one day we might. Whether it was to do with the situation we were in or the people we were with, our relationship just became very tense and there were a lot of pressures. For me, it just got too miserable, more miserable than a band should be irrespective of how much money you’re making. I just felt, ‘I’ve had a really amazing five years and I’m going to jump. I can’t do this anymore.’ I was very sad that it came to that but at the same time, I was also very lucky to have the opportunity to come out and do loads of great stuff. I’m going to try and do that forever basically, as long as I’m here. I’m intrigued to see what Johnny does next, on many levels. I care about him… It’s an interesting move, calling it Razorlight and not having any of the old band members. At the end of the day, each to their own and I’m definitely interested to see what happens.”

This Is Christmas by Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler is out now on Infectious Records. Funny Looking Angels by Tom Smith and Andy Burrows is released on PIAS recordings.