As their name would suggest, Smoke Fairies have a sound that's high on whimsy and ethereal ambience.

Recording their much lauded 2010 debut, Through Low Light And Trees, at the uber- atmospheric Sawmills studio in Cornwall with producer Head (PJ Harvey) at the controls, the female duo of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies created a spectral and shivery blend of alt folk-rock and a more rustic, bluesy brand of Americana, that was as haunting as it was beautiful.

Exploring the darker side of love and simmering with painful emotional intimacy, the album drew much from the dark, brooding surrounds of the remote and heavily wooded area where it was recorded at the end of a long winter and seemed as wrapped in the allure of nature as it was the girls' own lyrical laments.

Catching Jessica Davies amid writing and recording sessions for their next as yet untitled record, ttt was keen to find out if Smoke Fairies' sophomore release will be as high on atmosphere as their debut...

Ola! How's tricks?
Well, this morning we've been rehearsing for a gig we're doing in Norwich to raise funds for the Japanese Tsunami, but recently we've been working on the new album, trying to demo songs and work out what direction we want to go in really.

Ooh, that's exciting... How's it sounding?
It's hard to say, because everything's at a demo stage. We've demoed a lot of stuff and done it in a lot of different styles so it's just a matter of picking the song that sounds best and hoping that when we do it the songs are going to actually sound relatively coherent. It's quite frightening because at this point we just have no idea which way it's going to go.

Are you deliberately trying to go in a completely different direction from the last record?
Well, I think it's actually just happening that way kind of naturally. Though we have been out and bought some totally different new pedals. I think we're trying to make it sound heavier and more psychedelic, but some of the songs that we've come out with are actually quite spacey, so it's actually the opposite of what we were trying to achieve in some places. Hopefully there will be a balance. You want to develop as a band but also have some kind of continuation. People need some sort of sense of continuity. You don't want to shock them too much...

How does your writing process work?
Well, me and Catherine demo stuff at home but we also have a band that we take on tour with us and we try to involve them in the writing, so we've been practising with them a lot and just seeing what we're all capable of together and what they can bring to the songs I guess.

How close are you to putting the songs down in the studio, and where do you think you'll record it this time around?
Yeah, we have a list of songs written and demoed now. I don't know if any of them are going to make it to the final album or not, but I guess that's just what happens really. I think we're going to be recording in the summer time so it would be amazing to go back to where we did it before in Cornwall because they have a lake where you can go canoeing and fishing, but I think if we went back we'd just spend all our time canoeing and very little recording. I think we'll try and do it in the countryside though...

You tend to go for a lot of atmosphere on your records. Does the atmosphere of the place you make the album in have a big affect on how the record turns out?
Yes, it does. It definitely did on the last album. We were out at the Sawmills studio in Cornwall in February and everything was coming back to life again. We were out in lots of woodland and it was very atmospheric and the atmosphere of that place definitely came across on that record.

How was Head to work with on the last record? Did he have a big influence on the sound and do you think you will you use him this time around?
Well, we have no idea who we'll work with this time around. We need to work that out. I think he just had this ability to bring out all the sounds that we wanted to create. He had a way of capturing sounds we wanted and realising our visions which we could never have done without him. He was able to capture the atmosphere of the studio and of our performances which I think is a really special talent.

Lyrically, the last record explored the light and darker sides of love. Any idea what the central lyrical themes will be on the new album?
I'm not sure what this record will be about lyrically; I don't know that there will be a theme. I think it will be a lighter album. I think it will have that same idea of taking a specific place and concentrating the atmosphere on that place, but I think it might just be a lighter place. It might be like the countryside or a desert or something; while when I listened back to Through Low Light And Trees it feels like a very dark album, like a winter woodland album.

Smoke Fairies live dates:

12 June @ Rockness, Inverness, Scotland
23 July @ Secret Garden Party, Cambridge
London date TBC