We at the Tidal Wave of Indifference try not to think of ourselves as shallow, lazy people, but ultimately we are. And that can be a problem if you’re a band trying to get our attention.
Effort-free emails and cliché-ridden press releases often find us reaching for the delete button, even before we get to your list of influences, as there really are only a certain number of hours in the day to listen to music or blogs we can write, so quick judgements often need to be taken.
And we’re afraid that the name of the band is also taken into account. If it’s boring, generic or sometimes just fucking stupid, that can be a factor in how quickly we get to a band’s tunes.
Honey were one act falling into the ‘unremarkable’ category. It didn’t scream “LISTEN!!!!” at us, and we’re no great fans of the bee-produced condiment either. The band explain below why they’ve named themselves so, but mercifully it was a nice email that dropped and one that made all the right noises musically. Let’s face it, even a hint of the word ‘shoegaze’ gets us frothing.
We’ll certainly accept shoegaze as an influence on Honey’s debut EP Taste It And See. We’ll also give you the Verve’s shamanic groove and the woozy psychedelic pop of the recent Horrors album.
Counting Seasons and the anthemic Tang stand out from the EP, and new single Nowhere Floating is just as good and available to download for free from Honey’s Bandcamp page.
There’s music to listen to at the end of this post, but for now, here’s a word with frontman Nick Donnelly…
So who the hell are you?
We are a Scottish four piece called Honey. Which is three parts Glasgow, one part Linlithgow. I’m Nick and I do vocals and rhythm guitar. On bass we’ve got David Sloey, on lead guitar and melodica Gary Waugh and on drums Alan Duncan. We’ve been floating around Glasgow for the last year or so, playing our own blend of psychedelic/shoegaze nonsense.
Describe your sound in 10 words or less?
Ethereal and whistle-able psychedelia.
How did you guys come together as a band?
We’ve all known each other for years, Dave and Alan were in a band together and Gary and I were also in a band. Those bands ended and we formed Honey. It’s a pretty generic tale. We do wish we had a more interesting story to tell because we get asked this question a lot, but I am happy that it doesn’t include the words, ‘destiny’ or ‘meant to be’. As a general rule, bands who use these terms tend to be shite.
Are there are key influences on your sound we should know about?
Well I suppose the obvious ones would be bands like the Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine. Going a little more obscure I’d say CAN and Neu! have had a big impact on the way we make music. Broadcast has been a major influence since we first heard them a few years ago. I’d never heard anything quite like it before. I could go on but I’d be here all night so I’ll leave it at that.
What do you hope to do with Honey – any key aspirations?
We would like to be able to create music for the rest of our lives outwith the boundaries of time, money and reality.
What’s with the name – sounds very ambiguous!
Ambiguity was the reason we decided on Honey; I suppose you could even consider it androgynous too. We didn’t want a name with any particular tag or meaning. It is after all just a name, the music is what’s really important.
And is the name of EP also honey-related?
‘Taste It And See’ was a bit more thought out. It’s not related to the name Honey but it too was also intended to be ambiguous. It’s about trying and experimenting: drugs, art, literature, whatever takes your fancy. In this case, our EP.
What can we expect to see next?
For the rest of this year we will be gigging around Glasgow, we’ll also be back in for another recording. Early next year we will be looking to start touring around and seeing where it takes us. Musically we’re trying to push ourselves further in terms of different instrumentation new sounds. We don’t really know what to expect or how that will turn out but that’s the fun of being in a band.
