Review: Honeybadger “Wakka”
Honeybadger is raged with chaos magic. The disobedient, gutter psychedelia Brighton band is as gritty as Nirvana and as hard-hitting as the Sex Pistols. With slasher riffs and snappy solos, “Wakka,” their 2023 closing single, concludes the year with a smashing bang.
Punk is best served with an attitude. In this case, Honeybadger has something to get off of their chest. Having grown tired of speeches with a tongue in cheek, they now demand action. Words don’t count. Changes are made through action. In “Wakka,” they call out hypocrisy.
Laced with Thom Yorke-style falsetto and Cobain-inspired spiky Sprechstimme, frontman Eddy’s vocal is easily the center of this piece, but “Wakka” wouldn't be half impactful without the punching drums, shaking the grounds with their commotion-starting hard punk rhythms.
Honeybadger proves that punk rock is not dead, but rage and attitude in their case have evolved with an expansive sonic palette. At the forefront, their performance rips a black hole on stage with the kind of hysteria and giving-it-out attitude that reminds you of grunge in the ‘90s, but musically, they are ahead of the time, riding the waves, splashing intensive psychedelic trance with a bold swing. Massive and unapologetic.
Formed in 2014 by brothers Joe and Eddy and friend Luca, the three-man punk band makes their instruments ring louder than a full band. They are regular noise makers around Brighton, but the world is a stage for these guys. They have played all around the U.K. and were featured on BBC Introducing and Wyatt Wendel’s The New Rock Show on Planet Rock. Their last single, “Cold Wind” also appeared on BBC Radio One. Inspired by Drenge, Them Crooked Vultures, Pretty Vicious, The White Stripes, and the like, Honeybadger is a pretty heavy band vibrating between hard punk and grunge.
Guardrail On the Making Of ‘Content’
How does 'Content' reflect your musical journey and growth as a band?
‘Content’ is our first full-length album and our first release with all 5 of our current members contributing to the songwriting process. It has a little of everyone’s taste and influences, and if you know us individually well enough, you might be able to pick out which songs started from which member. We are becoming more mature as songwriters and also know how to take one’s initial song idea and mold it into a proper ‘diet punk’ song. We love the new songs and believe ‘Content’ is our best work yet.
What is your personal favorite song from 'Content' and why?
My personal favorite on the album changes day-to-day but the one I tend to pick the majority of the time is ‘Joke’s on Me’. It’s a slightly different vibe from our fast skate-punk mantra, and it features Alyssa on lead vocals and the trumpet, which makes for a pretty unique pop-punk song. (This is Ken, the guitarist, btw)
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for 'Content?'
We had a very lengthy writing, recording, and mixing process that we wish was a bit more condensed overall but our pre-production trip to work with Nick Diener (of the Swellers and Oneder Pedals) was one of our favorite times as a group. We were tweaking all of our demos with Nick each day, and then also having a blast hanging out at night sitting around a bonfire while having fun, deep conversations about life. I think those moments seeped into the final product of ‘Content’, especially the lyrics.
How did your band members initially come together?
Kevin and I met back in 5th grade when our love for Weird Al and SpongeBob brought us together. After playing together in a handful of bands, Kevin finally came up with the idea to start a punk band. We’ve always loved listening to punk and pop punk and it only made sense that we play it. Might’ve taken a handful of years to realize this but glad we did it. Then over the first few years of a rotating lineup, will eventually find Alyssa, Doug, and Xack through friends and our mutual love for punk music.
How do you balance the artistic aspects of your music with the business side of the industry?
This is a constant battle for us, especially in the modern age of TikTok. We are in our 30s and try our best to post as much as we can, but dang it’s time-consuming and soul-sucking. We’ve always been about quality over quantity but what do you know, that’s the opposite strategy when posting on social media to gain more views, followers, etc. Besides that, merch seems to be the only reliable source of income these days, but it’s also tougher to get people to come out to shows in the past few years. Not sure if COVID had anything to do with it, or if consumers’ attention spans are shrinking due to how pop music’s top songs rotate every week and are forgotten about. The struggle is real for up-and-coming bands but we have to try our best to keep up!
A.W.M. On the Making Of ‘Paper Thin Authority’
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of 'Paper Thin Authority?'
'Paper Thin Authority' is taken from our track 'System of Oppression', which kind of summarises our philosophies about questioning authority, and abuses of perceived power and privilege. We have songs about people being awful on the internet, including the far-reaching influence of right-wing conspiracy theories, indoctrination through an archaic education system, and hypocrisy in the punk scene.
Were there any challenges or breakthrough moments during the songwriting process for 'Paper Thin Authority?'
The biggest challenges for El P and Big Earn were doing their GCSEs (the UK equivalent of a High School Diploma) right in the middle of recording the album. Frustrations with this are pretty clear in our cover of the classic Pete Seeger song ‘What did you learn in school today?’.
What has been one of your most favorite memories along the path to making 'Paper Thin Authority?'
It was kinda hard to get gigs when two members of the band were not old enough to get into venues. The first and only gig to date was an all ages sell out (it could also be said that this description kind of reflects the band). It was an absolute blinder and we sold all our merch, too.
How did your band members initially come together?
At fifteen years old, El P and Big Earn met and decided to form a punk band. Realising they needed a bassist, they called on Earn's dad, Gob, to fill in until they found one. After being in a number of bands, including Four Letter Word, Gob enjoyed it so much he just won't leave the band.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
A love of the music, a desire to support a pretty lackadaisical punk scene in our hometown (Cardiff, UK), and a need to vent.
The Sons of James On the Making of “All They Told You”
What was the creative process like for this particular "All They Told You?"
During the lockdowns in 2020, there was a lot of time for writing and reflection and we took advantage of that. Steve and Sean lived close to each other at the time and would meet up several times a week and work out ideas and record demos at Steve's house. “All They Told You” is one that was written back then and stuck around in our minds as one that we always wanted to record.
Could you discuss the lyrical themes or messages conveyed in "All They Told You?"
The lyrics kinda call out the social norms that society is taught to live for the most part. There is this bar for what a successful life is supposed to look like and for some people, it is what they want and that's okay but there are a lot of people in the world who don't want the same. They're built differently.
And a lot of the time you wake up after a certain age and you call bullshit on what you've been told your whole life and decide to make a different life- one where you decide what a successful life is for you.
Can you talk about the recording and production process for "All They Told You?"
We recorded “All They Told You” at Candor Recording in Tampa Florida with Ryan Boesch engineering and co-producing it. We absolutely love that guy. We recorded 2 songs with him for the split 7-inch "TSOJ/SMHS" back in 2022. It was the first time that we met him and right away we knew we wanted to work with him more so when it came time to hit the studio again, we already knew which one and who we were going to. The process was pretty straightforward, the song had already been around and while so we knew how we wanted it. The exciting part of recording that song was when we heard our new vocalist Matt Shelly sing it for the first time. We had given him the song not too far before he came in and recorded the vocals so none of us had heard him sing it until he hit the vocal booth. We had a go pro sitting on a shelf in the control and it's still funny to go back and watch the video of our reaction when we heard him sing for the first time. He had put his twist on it and I don't think any of us were expecting it. Pretty sure everyone blurted out 'Fuck Yeah!' all at once. He gave the song more life and brought it up a notch.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they impacted your own sound?
We all listen to all sorts of styles of music and it's pretty reasonable to think that something from all of it influences. With us writing music usually happens whenever the idea pops up. Anyone of us could be driving down the road and out of nowhere something just hit and then you got to pull over and write it down and the first chance there is to go work it out you take it. For the most part though we all like energetic and fun music. If there is any one style that kinda underlays everything, it's probably pop punk. We grew up in the late 80s and 90s and became adults in the early 2000s, there were and are a lot of bands from those years we were listening to and still do so to single out a single or even a few bands that are inspiration would be hard.
What are your future goals or aspirations as a band?
That's pretty simple. To write music that we want to hear and play, music that does something for us. Then share that music with as many people as possible and create a bond with those who enjoy it. That's always the goal. We also love playing in new places and meeting new people and doing things that we normally wouldn't do in our everyday lives outside of being in a band so in a band we aspire to keep doing new things and having new experiences and taking new opportunities .....
Bjørn BARock On the Making Of “Stell mir keine Fragen”
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of "Stell mir keine Fragen?"
I played around with a synthesizer and came up with the theme at the beginning ... and then i came up with the story.
The story didn't happen in real life - at least not for me
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for "Stell mir keine Fragen?"
This track was one of the first where i did everything on my own until the mixing and i tried different things with instruments and learned a lot more about pre-production.
What impact do you hope "Stell mir keine Fragen" will have on your audience?
Most of us woke up hangover once and this track is a friendly reminder what happens when it's too much.
It's just a fun song in the end. Like "Das Bier in Mir" from my first album.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in music?
I started to play drums when i was a kid and when i became 13, i started to play guitar and wrote my first song.
After that, i played in a band and wrote more songs but we stopped our band project and i moved to Switzerland and started to work.
Now, 18 years later i have a family and today i have the possibility to create music from home. I love what i am doing and my daughter was the reason for me to get my songs on Spotify back in 2020/2021. Then, more people started to like it and i released my first album 2021. Now 2 years later, the journey continues and this track is the second of my new album "Sturm aufs Paradies" - so more songs will follow soon.
I write my songs on my own, play guitar, drums, bass, keyboard and so on. I record everything at home and send it then to the producer from Powerplay Studios. They do the mixing ;-) I am always open to try new things and did already for this album.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they impacted your own sound?
German punk rock bands, every sound i heard when i played Tony Hawks Pro Skater on my Playstation when i was a kid ... I am a 90's kid so Metal, Rock and Punk: always welcome :-)
My biggest influences as a musician came from Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Freddy Mercury, Meat Loaf and Jack Black. I also had a lot of friends who only listened to Hip-Hop and i also began to join them. Music has no limit. That's my opinion.
I was inspired all my life by several artists. And i will continue exploring and mixing genres.