FEATURE: Spotlight: Honeyglaze — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Honeyglaze

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ONE band who are going to be…

making big splashes this year are Honeyglaze. The London trio are a hugely original group that I have been following for a bit. Whilst a lot of sites are tipping solo artists when it comes to the sound of 2022, I do think there are quite a few bands that deserve mention and support. Honeyglaze should definitely be on everyone’s radar. Red Light Management wrote this about the trio last September:

“Born out of lead songwriter Anouska’s un-desire to be a solo-act, Honeyglaze met officially at their first ever rehearsal, just three days ahead of what was to become a near-residency at their favoured ‘The Windmill’, Brixton.

Forming a mere eighteen-months ahead of a subsequent eighteen-months of mandatory solitude, Honeyglaze have since been making up for lost time, recently performing to a rammed crowd at Green Man festival, and at the iconic 100 Club for Fred Perry’s ‘All Our Tomorrow’s Festival’, with a busy schedule ahead inc. Live at Leeds, and SWN Festival.

Beckoning, becoming and utterly bewitching, their debut single ‘Burglar’ is the coming-of-age lovechild of Whitney’s ‘Forever Turned Around’, and the stylistically-subdued existentialism of Julia Jacklin, or Oregon’s Haley Heynderickx.

In their own words, they describe Honeyglaze as “the ungodly fusion of 3 humans into a clamouring superorganism. It eats only fish, and demands undistracted and constant worship. FFO Power Rangers, Salvador Dalí”.

Speedy Wunderground’s Pierre Hall says of the signing, “We’re so excited to announce Honeyglaze as our next proper signing to the label. We were blown away as soon as we heard their music, and then furthermore when we met them in person. It’s felt like such a natural partnership and they’ve created something really special. We can’t wait for the world to hear. Be prepared to fall in love”.

Recently, Honeyglaze released their new single, Shadows. They also announced their self-titled album will arrive in April. NME reported the news. I think that the Honeyglaze album is going to be one of the most exciting and well-reviewed of this year. There is a lot of excitement around this young band:

“Honeyglaze have announced their self-titled debut album and shared a video for their new single, ‘Shadows’ – scroll down the page to watch it now.

The London band are signed to Speedy Wunderground, the label co-run by respected producer Dan Carey.

‘Shadows’ is accompanied by visuals that follow the band as they create shadows against a collapsible reflector, using hats, head coverings with bunny ears and more. “Mornings always feel like paradise,” Anouska Sokolow sings on the jangly indie song. “Cos shadows always haunt me late at night.”

The video for the track was directed by Sorry’s Asha Lorenz. In a press release, the band said: “For the ‘Shadows’ video, we wanted to be a bit more playful and match the jauntiness of the song. We got together with directors Asha Lorenz and Flo Webb and a load of random props, and improvised shadow play scenes together. We just wanted to go out and have fun. We had no idea it would end in death. It was never our intention to kill Yuri. It just all happened so fast.”

Singer and guitarist Anouska Sokolow added of the track itself: “‘Shadows’ was written during a time when I had just moved house. I had no curtains in my bedroom and the streetlights would cast shadows into my room. I began to associate shadows with the inability to sleep and the feeling of waiting for the relief that the morning brings.”

The band’s self-titled debut album will be released on April 29 and can be pre-ordered here. The tracklist for ‘Honeyglaze’ is as follows:

‘Start’

‘Shadows’

‘Creative Jealousy’

‘I Am Not Your Cushion’

‘Female Lead’

‘Burglar’

‘Half Past’

‘Deep Murky Water’

‘Young Looking’

‘Souvenir’

‘Childish Things’

Honeyglaze are also set to head out on tour later this month, with support dates for Katy J Pearson and The Lounge Society. A headline tour will follow in May”.

There are a couple of other interviews that I want to bring in before closing off. I would urge people to check out Honeyglaze’s music. They are so different to other bands out there. Once you hear their music, it will definitely not leave your head! I was interested knowing what sounds and artists have inspired Honeyglaze. In an interview with Fred Perry, we learn a bit more about their sonic influences:

“Name, where are you from?

Anouska, Yuri and Tim. We're from London.

Describe your style in three words?

Tall, dark and handsome.

Which Subcultures have influenced you?

We've grown up in the South London rock scene, and all the acts share this paradox of irreverence and darkness that we love. All the jazz jams around London in the past 5 years have also been so inspiring because they prove a supportive community can exist in a big city like this. Our own sound is more inspired by a deep love of 60s soul and 90s dream pop, but it's harder to pick specific subcultures out of that.

A song you wished you had written?

'This Must Be The Place' by Talking Heads. It's just a perfect song in every way. There are emotions in there I've never heard in another song.

Any new bands you are into at the moment?

The Cactus Channel, Drug Store Romeos, Opus Kink, The Soundcarriers, Saul, Katy J Pearson, Ego Ella May, DOG. So many good sounds, so close to home”.

The Line of Best Fit profiled the band late last year. A rising group who are turning heads, I am looking forward to what they deliver on their debut album. If you are looking for a new band who are going to go the distance and are worth sticking with, then I would point you the way of Honeyglaze. The group have a fascinating dynamic and relationship:

“Themselves, three cooly relaxed pieces making up a trifecta built out of vocalist and guitarist Anouska ‘Noush’ Sokolow’s wanting to “avoid the singer/songwriter kind of route.” Starting up the initial solo project under the same moniker - Honeyglaze - “Then I was asked to play a show. And I was like, I want to play with the band,” she laughs.

“I tried playing with a band because I only played like one show, as Honeyglaze anyway. And then I brought Tim and Yuri together in a beautiful fusion one week before our first gig. We had two practices. And then yeah, we just kept playing!”

The other two pieces of this trifecta, drummer Yuri Shibuichi and bassist Tim Curtis are equally representative of Honeyglaze’s smooth surface dichotomy. Shibuichi is the most forthcoming, while Curtis focuses, plotting his conversation. Sokolow retains a similar delicate pointedness.

Coming together for that first show as Honeyglaze - after seeing each other around in other bands - the mutual respect helped them go from assembled pieces to signing to London’s taste-making label Speedy Wunderground, ready for their debut self-titled debut album. “I see us as just progressing towards a slightly more ambitious attitude,” Curtis says. “But not in terms of like, success, but just in terms of expression; just in terms of trying to make music that we really think is good rather than going strictly with the flow. Just really wanting to have a really good live performance basically.”

Honeyglaze are the kind of band that doesn’t pay any mind to following the hype train that’s started up; ignoring any personal push and pull of either being true to themselves or being cliches. “Honestly we come up quite straight edges sometimes. In the venue, just not drinking, sort of being really quiet,” Curtis chuckles.

The natural forces opposing those benchmarks also takes the form of shock value. Shibuichi explains “Personally, I feel like there isn't specifically an inspiration or an influence on how far [we go]. I feel like one thing's for sure for me, [and] it’s that I want people who see us to sort of maybe slightly be a bit surprised or shocked sometimes, or to go away from the show and feel a bit like, ‘wow, like that was a bit as amazing’. Like that was a bit surprising, I guess. Just it's really intense both ways, like just really loud and in your face, or being really, really intimate and pulling it in that direction. I think it's just the play of pulling all those together.”

“I think yeah, playing with the audience's emotions as much as with our own emotions because the more we put in like, the more the audience gets out of it as well. So it's interesting when we have a really intense show people come up to you afterwards. They're like, Oh my god, that was like, really sad...are you okay?” Sokolow laughs”.

A terrific group with a very long future ahead, go and follow them on social media and check out their music. Whilst solo artists emerging are great and warrant focus, there are bands like Honeyglaze that are really strong and are bound for festivals around the country. It may be early days for Honeyglze, but all signs suggest that they are going…