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The best bands create their own worlds. Explore the work of the acclaimed London group Fire In Her Eyes and you’ll go on a special journey. From psych-folk and progressive-rock to pop and soulful jazz, the sisters invite you to share their vision. Track them down on the live circuit and you might find a lineup dressed straight out of Woodstock with a modern twist, accompanied by homemade visuals and original paintings, blurring the lines between art forms. Their work is timeless. Study their lyrics and you’ll find multi-layered meanings including a recurring message of oneness and self discovery.
In the age of immediacy, Fire In Her Eyes is not a band that can be summed up with a glib soundbite or measured by a single Spotify stream. But ask Daniella (Topaz) for the message that binds this immersive cultural tidal wave together and she doesn’t miss a beat. “However bad it gets, you have to follow the light. If you get lost in yourself, you can be found.”
Formed in 2016, Fire In Her Eyes have known both sunkissed triumph and desperate hardship on the road to their forthcoming debut album We Are Fire. Session players come and go, but the core of the lineup is bonded by blood, with 24-year-old Daniella Livingstone (Topaz), (piano/guitar/flute/sitar/vocals) and 21-year-old sister Natasha Livingstone (bass/ keys/percussion/vocals) bonding a rare synergy from the age of two.
“We were very quirky,” recalls the younger sister. “Me and Daniella started making music together from about two years old. We’d do shows in the lounge for our family, playing jazz and Motown songs, and the harmonies just came naturally. We barely fight and when we do, it’s probably harmony related.”
By 14, Daniella had written and tracked a solo album, before forging a writing partnership three years later with childhood friend Gabrielle Gordon. The material they uploaded to SoundCloud picked up influential ears, with the London soul singer Jordan Jackson offering a support slot in January 2016.
As the clock ticked, the band was born in white heat. “For that gig, Gabrielle started playing bass and Natasha learnt the drums, both of them picking up the instruments for the very first time,” remembers Topaz of the moment that Fire In Her Eyes became official. “We went on that journey for about four years, bunking off from school, singing harmonies in the kitchen. Around the same time, all three of us went to London’s Institute Of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP), with me and Gabrielle studying for a BA in Songwriting and Natasha doing a BA in Creative Musicianship.”
The first coming of Fire In Her Eyes spoke of the three musicians’ deep appreciation of the last century of music. “There’s so many influences,” says Topaz. “In terms of the Sixties and Seventies vibe, I’d say The Beatles, David Bowie, Crosby Stills & Nash, Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Heatwave and the harmonies of the Bee Gees. Then there’s progressive rock like Pink Floyd, Camel, King Crimson, Sweet Smoke, Focus and Jethro Tull – Ian Anderson was the biggest influence on my flute playing. For our psychedelic folk-rock vibe, it’s bands like Renaissance or Strawbs. And then, I also love Hendrix, Zeppelin, Cream, The Doors, Kate Bush, Hungarian jazz guitarist called Gábor Szabó as well as having a strong love for Indian music.”
Natasha states that songwriters such as Rod Temperton, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a huge influence on their approach. At school the girls were all heavily into creative writing, therefore this had a huge effect on their style.
Hearteningly, in the age of manufactured bubblegum pop, Fire In Her Eyes’ fiercely individual sonic melting-pot found its audience on early releases like Aladdin’s Cave, with venues filling up, tracks playlisted by BBC Radio 1 and Radio X, and praise from journalists including Henry Yates of The Guardian, Classic Rock, NME and Guitarist (“Spellbinding… like nothing I’ve heard before”).
Then came bumps in the road. As Covid shuttered the live circuit, Fire In Her Eyes were sidelined with the rest of the global music scene, and after months of stasis, Gabrielle made an announcement. “The lockdown broke everything apart,” recalls Topaz. “We stopped gigging and then Gabrielle left the band and moved away because she wanted to follow a solo career. At the start, me and Natasha were so upset about it. But from that day, two days later to be specific, we started doing sets just the two of us… this was not the end, it was only the beginning.
“We did Beardy Folk Festival,” she continues, “which was really nice, and we were going to make our album. But literally on the same day we were about to start recording, I was diagnosed with blood cancer.”
For the next year, Daniella (Topaz) placed much of her focus on recovery, co-writing songs with Natasha when circumstances allowed. Since completing her treatment in June 2022, her creative wellspring has returned as a torrent. “I’ve just finished the first draft of my first novel, The Circus Diaries, and all of our songs link into the story. Obviously, the music is the main thing, but there’s wordplay and spoken-word poetry, incorporated with visual elements and paintings, because I’m also an artist. The new music we’re making almost has a Magical Mystery Tour feel, or Ziggy Stardust vibes, how it all links together.”
As for the band’s evolving sound, they hope the next chapter of Fire In Her Eyes will accumulate long-standing fans while drafting new converts. “We’ve developed into something slightly heavier, more like progressive-folk, with organ and flute and bigger drums. Our new song, Never, started with an altered-tuning guitar riff and was inspired by a moment in the story about the concept that if you do something bad, you’ll get found out. But it’s saying, too, that if you lose sight of who you are, you can always come back to yourself. We also have a Christmas/winter single, The Snowman, which is more like acoustic folk with flute and guitar. Then we’ve got love songs, songs about betrayal, songs about how we should appreciate the small things in life…”
Alongside a blossoming live schedule for 2023, the duo’s unstoppable momentum is set to lead them to a session at Crescent Records Studio, where the sisters will catch the sparks from their myriad creative endeavours on the classic debut album they were denied first time around. “Part of our next recordings will be a concept record written during my time in hospital and the lockdown,” says Topaz. “Musically, we’ve definitely found our way, but we’re still discovering ourselves. We want to tour around Europe, even the world. Play loads of festivals. Spread the message. And the message is always positive. It’s saying how in the darkest times, you should always take hold of the light.”
