Bounce Magazine September 2018

SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 2018 | ISSUE 2018 #71 | ISSUE | BLACK #71 HONEY
R: Amazing, well what a start! Who were
your musical influences growing up?
Well, I don’t actually have any memory of
there being records played in our house.
My dad used to play the jazz trumpet and
also played the piano. I remember watching
him over his shoulder once and watched it
long enough that I kind of learnt it. Which is
amazing, as now I can’t learn anything, it takes
me hours to even learn my own songs!
R: When did your music career actually
begin?
I would say officially, when we launched Black
Honey and we started touring. I had been
writing songs for ages and I was in many
bands, but I just used to play on the local
Brighton scene. We never really did anything,
and then when we formed Black Honey
people were like, “hey do you want to come
to Holland and be on the radio”? And we were
like “whoa this had suddenly become a thing,
this is very real”.
were listening to a lot of grunge and 70’s
rock anyway so it was quite natural for us to
develop that into what is now Black Honey.
R: How did you find your gang of
collaborators? Could you tell me about how
the four of you met and came to create Black
Honey?
So I met Chris in college, and we started
playing guitar together. Then we met Tommy
because he was living with Chris at the
time and he was a drummer whilst we went
through a string of bass players, and then we
couldn’t find a bass player so we made Tommy
play bass and roped Tom in to play drums - it
was only meant to be a short term thing, but
he is still here to this day and now he’s like
everyone’s favourite member.
R: Where did the band name come from?
It’s like bitter sweet, light and dark, you know,
contrast. Everything contrasts and it’s a
beautiful thing.
R: Did you have a vision in mind when you
were first starting the band?
R: They always say there is no light without
the dark.
Yeah! It was really strange, I remember telling
the guys I wanted to make this retro, almost
rival idea, and everyone was just like “what
the f*ck is she talking about, she sounds
completely mental”? So I was like “just hear
me out”. I then I made a college out with Liz
Savage and I started looking at guitar tones
that to me spoke 60’s cinema, and then it was
the time when Lana Del Rae started coming
through.
Then everyone kind of had a point of reference
and seemed to understand that vintage kind
of idea. So I said imagine if we did a retro
rock and roll band and then from there we
went into a complete rabbit hole. Before we
Yeah exactly!
R: How do you approach writing?
I like to use different technique;, I think of
writing as an evolving process, so I like to
write lyrics in a journal. I write a lot of poems,
at the moment I am more poem based than
chords, I’m sort of board of the guitar at the
moment. Sometimes I will just take the poems
into the boys and be like “hey, what’s up I’ve
got this poem lets make something out of
this”, and other times I will write an entire
song on an acoustic guitar and will go in and
be like “yo! this whole songs done” and we will
just go for it.
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