Honeyglaze – in session for John Kennedy – Radio X – April, rebroadcast July 2, 2022 – Radio X, London –
Honeyglaze in session for John Kennedy’s Radio X Program, originally broadcast in April this year as part of promoting their self-titled debut album which came out on April 29th, but making an encore appearance this last weekend, July 2nd.
Honeyglaze are part of that what’s coming to be known as “lockdown bands”, bands that came together as a result of being on lockdown during the COVID mask/social distance period where the world wasn’t going anywhere and people had lots of time either to do nothing or to get busy. In Honeyglaze’s case, they got busy.
The result is refreshing, upbeat and engaging.
Allmusic’s Marcy Donelson offers a well-researched and highly informative bio on the band – here’s a sample:
Vocalist and songwriter Anouska Sokolow founded the indie trio Honeyglaze after she was booked at famed Brixton venue The Windmill and didn’t want to play the shows alone. In fact, she met bassist Tim Curtis and drummer Yuri Shibuichi at rehearsal just three days before their first performance. They soon signed with Speedy Wunderground, whose 7″-release roster already included Squid, Black Midi, and Black Country, New Road, just some of the members of a fire-hot South London indie scene that also involved Dry Cleaning. While much of the scene was rooted in post-punk revivalism — each band with their own, divergent spin — Honeyglaze cites jazz, classic soul, and ’90s dream pop as primary influences. What they have in common with many of these contemporaries, however, is an arty, off-balance approach and literate bearing, with lyrics mostly spoke-sung in detached fashion by Sokolow. The eponymous debut was produced by Speedy Wunderground co-founder Dan Carey and recorded in just three days. They ease in listeners in cinematic fashion with a slowly coalescing quasi-instrumental, “Start,” which adds spectral vocals and various sound effects and noise to core guitar, bass, and drums.
Although each of Honeyglaze’s songs seems to have its own personality, the band’s tightknit combo feel and the singer’s distinctly performative style give the album a rich through line that’s made only more beguiling by sometimes self-loathing, relatable sentiments like “I know that I look 17/I know that I’m no beauty queen/It might come as a surprise/That I don’t like being patronized” (“Young Looking”). Taken together, it’s a debut that feels like a late-career exploration.
Okay – now have a listen and go to their site and do some exploring (and pick up a copy of their album while you’re at it).
