BASED around married couple Rachel and Xavier Watkins, two biochemistry PhDs who live near Cambridge, Fuzzy Lights have been making music for around 20 years. They started out as a violin/guitar duo, making experimental post-rock with looper pedals, then added a storytelling dimension that moved them into a folkier direction. Fen Creatures is their heaviest album to date, informed by drone rock and sludge metal as much as folk.
“There are many parallels between folk and heavy metal,” says Rachel. “They both tell epic stories, with a historical resonance, and they’re both often based around drones: usually open fifths, overlaid with baroque-style contrapuntal guitar playing.”
As well as playing experimental violin drones (heavily influenced, she says, by the likes of Tony Conrad and Warren Ellis), Rachel sings her own lyrics…