There is a tendency in our world to refer to music created by women as “beautiful” or “angelic” or some other variation of those words. Don’t get me wrong, the songs crafted and given life by Taylor Holland and Heather Scott are beautiful, but there is something so much deeper to them than words like that can properly portray. There is a brutal and devastating forcefulness in their collective voice and the way in which it is able to shake the listener to their core. The movement of their songs and the stillness they can instill. The airiness of their voices and the weight that they can imprint. The balance of their intertwining and, occasionally hushed, whispers that is equal parts heart wrenching and brilliant luminance. Its that verging sentiment and theme that is also present in the words of the band’s latest single release “Honey & Fire”.
They tell us, “Honey & Fire came out of a dream that Heather had, a dream of two people speaking to each other from two hilltops, asking questions about where they are and where they’re going. It explores the illusion of duality, how apparent opposites meld when brought beyond their original contexts. For the video, we worked with the idea of this dream as a physical space, from which to enter memories and ideas, traveling into different areas of consciousness.
The crow in the song is an omen of transformation: in many different traditions, crows are keepers of sacred law, and therefore have the ability to shape shift, be in two places at one time, and serve as a gateway to the spiritual. Crow merges the light and the dark, seeing past, present, and future simultaneously.
The idea of ‘honey and fire’ is that to communicate and transform, one has to be both sweet and strong: to go slowly, but show up fully when the time is right. To understand the medicine of kindness, but also that you must let out your fire—your righteous anger–before it consumes you.“
Just like fire, the words, voices and arrangements of Hawthorn are, of course, beautiful, but there is also an undeniable strength and power. Beauty isn’t something that should be utilized to describe something delicate as it may have connections to in some people’s minds. It should be used in the context of how art can overtake you in overwhelming ways and make you feel and be alive. That is what lives in the voices of these two.