KEY POINTS:
Rennie Sparks from the Handsome Family is painting a picture of a rabbit who's dressed up as a 19th century surgeon in the act of cutting a woman's leg off.
"He's wearing a nice lace collar, and he's got a wig on and he's got a nice saw in his paw," she giggles.
Painting these pet portraits is the lyricist and bass player's other passion alongside music. "I'm for any kind of art that has animals wearing spectacles or clothing and stuff like that," she says dryly.
When she's finished the painting you can see it at handsomefamily.com.
It's all very strange and intriguing, just like the Albuquerque band's music - a mix of country, bluegrass and murder ballads.
The Handsome Family, who play two nights at the Dog's Bollix in Auckland next Thursday and Friday, is made up of Rennie and her husband Brett who writes the music, plays guitar and sings.
On first impressions the world of the Handsome Family is weird and wonderful. Plus, their seven albums - the first of which, Odessa, was released in 1995 and contained the song Arlene about a woman being bludgeoned to death - mix the dark and grisly with wry and funny twists.
But their latest album, Last Days Of Wonder, with images like "dancing crooked circles across the golf -course green" and spray-painting tree trunks with your favourite rock bands, is less macabre than previous ones.
"They all feel different to me but [on Last Days of Wonder] I was trying to write songs that would maybe make people happy in these crazy times that we're living in. So I think I wanted to write about what it's like to be alive now and try to find something mysterious and wonderful about it.
"For me, when I'm trying to write about something beautiful or happy, the only way I can paint that kind of picture is to talk about something dark too because you can't really see light without some darkness around. You need some shadows to see the sunshine and I think some people think our songs are really dark but that's not the purpose of the song. You have to look through the darkness and see something else."
Like after the grizzly bear has been shot? "Everybody laughs at that song," she giggles, "and I think it's hilarious but it's also quite creepy and unsettling and things should have more than one emotion because nothing in life ever really has just one emotion. It should make you giggle and make you feel uncomfortable at the same time which is a good feeling."
Their songs are packed with mundane experiences like waiting at airports and hanging out at the bowling alley bar, but often tracks like After We Shot the Grizzly and Flapping Your Broken Wings take you away to a seemingly fantastical world that Rennie insists is real.
"The way I try to explain it to people is when you wake up you haven't always lived the things that have happened in your dreams but you understand them even though it may take place somewhere you've never been and with people you don't know. But the language of dreams is kind of like the language of songs; it's just a language of symbols. Some things in everyday life can be very upsetting, but in a dream world it's not because it's really just a symbol for a feeling."
Saw player David Coulter, who's played with Tom Waits, the Pogues, and industrial act Test Dept, features on These Golden Jewels, and for Rennie that instrument "is a perfect example of the wonders of the world".
"It's a really mundane object that can be made to sing like a ghost. It has this magic to it," she says.
They have their own roles in the band ("He [Brett] doesn't know where any of the money is, that's for sure. When I die he's going to be homeless," jokes Rennie). They both come up with their own parts - with Brett doing the music and Rennie writing the lyrics - and come together to "argue it out" about what the final product is.
Musically, Brett "tinkers" a lot, according to Rennie.
"He buys guitars and takes them all apart and tries to make one super guitar out of three guitars and it usually doesn't end well and he destroys all three of them so he can't take them back and get his money back. When he finally builds that super guitar there will be no stopping him.
"And it's amazing what you can do with [computers] these days. You can find so many old sounds that it's like if you went to a million old record stores and junk stores and looked for instruments for 20 years, you couldn't find all these great sounds that you can find on your computer now."
She comes up with her best lyrical ideas when she's out shopping, going for a walk or in the couple's back yard making something.
"It's good for me when I'm trying to write to keep myself busy. I think you have to distract the conscious part of your brain so the subconscious parts, which are a lot smarter, can do their work with out being fettered by the conscious saying, 'That's stupid, don't do that, that doesn't make any sense'."
The pair met at college and have been married for 18 years.
"He had a really nice haircut when I met him and I was probably really drunk at the time and he laughed at my jokes and a lot of people were frightened of me back then but he always thought I was funny," she says sweetly.
Take a listen to the Handsome Family's music and you'll be able to tell they're the perfect match.
PERFORMANCE
Who: The Handsome Family
What: Husband and wife duo, Brett and Rennie Sparks, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, playing a mix of country, folk, bluegrass and murder ballads.
Where & when: Dog's Bollix, Newton, Feb 8 and 9; and Wharepuke, Kerikeri, Feb 10.
Key albums: Odessa (1995); Through the Trees (1998); Singing Bones (2003); Last Days of Wonder (2006).
