Autumn isn’t exactly a particularly sunny season, but psychedelic croon pop band Honey Moon have the perfect antidote to your winter blues. Made up of 4 boys from London, Honey Moon, who’s name is a description of their sound in itself (honey = sweet and sugary, moon = psychedelia) is a lazy-day, indie rock dream. Their writing process is similar to that of a Pokemon evolution (more on that below), and results in falsetto overlays, sighing vocals, slow-paced and punctuated percussion and expansive guitar riffs.
Their newest release “Best In Town / Summer Days” marks Honey Moon as one of the most chilled bands on the British indie scene. The honest, innocent lyrics of “Best In Town” are layered over an undercurrent of calypso beats, a shuffling rhythm section and jammy guitars, while “Summer Days” is a 6-minute long extravaganza of doo-wop choruses moving into deeper, darker sections. With the release soon to be out on a 7″ by Flying Vinyl, Honey Moon are set for indie greatness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxVoSCd887c
Sum up your sound in five words?
Love songs all the way
How did you all meet and when did you start the band?
We all met through various house parties at university. Me and Zach starting playing together pretty early on and then ‘Honey Moon’ came to properly ‘be’ in January last year.
Where did the name Honey Moon come from?
We were trying to decide on a name for ages and this one just summed up the music and the feel of stuff pretty well. The idea, at least in my head, was that the Honey bit represented sweet/sugary pop melodies and the Moon took care of the more psychedelic side of things. Plus it’s homonymic which is a nice touch.
Was your sound a natural occurrence or did you work hard to create something so sunny psychedelic?
It came pretty naturally, I guess. When we first started getting complete tunes together it all sort of veered that way so we went with it!
Tell us about your newest release – “Best In Town / Summer Days.” What’s it all about?
Best In Town’s a pining love song about not really getting what you want out of someone in a relationship and Summer Days is an old one we’ve always wanted to record properly.
Who did you work with to create “Best In Town” and how have they inspired you?
We recorded it in February with our pal Scott in West London. Then we took it back to our bedrooms, added some extras and mixed it there. Scott’s facial hair alone is pretty inspiring – that kind of beard really brings out the best in you, musically.
What’s your writing process like? Do you all get together and jam spontaneously or do you have set writing times?
No, I can’t imagine set writing times! Imagine that. ‘Right, now, everybody focus ‘cause we’re gonna write a song for the next half an hour and it’s gotta be good’. It usually stems from an idea of mine or Zach’s, which evolves into a rough demo and then black and white turns to colour when we all get involved as a four. It’s kinda like Pokemon evolving. If you imagine Squirtle as the idea, Wartotle as the demo and then Blastoise is like the finished thing. It’s a chain.
Do you find you have a different dynamic playing live than you do in the studio?
Yeah, we’re louder and tend to stress a lot less.
What do you want to make people feel with your sound? Is there any emotion or feeling you aim to get across?
I’d like to think people could read whatever they like into the songs and feel how they want; it’s not really our place to say. I’d just hope that they would actually feel, and hopefully more positively than negatively. They’re love songs after all.
Do you have any dream collaborations?
Grateful Dead, The Meters, Buddy Holly, Santo & Johnny, Beach Boys, Beatles… I think there are a lot of people we’d love to make music with if we had the chance.
What’s next for you guys?
We’re heading off on tour around the UK at the end of next month with Laurel so that’s gonna be pretty fun. Then we’re just gonna be putting in the hours to really nail that Christmas number one spot, y’know?