CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 176: HONNE ON LATEST ALBUM, ENTERING NEW STAGES OF LIFE AND TOURING AUSTRALIA

Interview by Adeline Chai.

We had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Andy and James from HONNE about their latest album, OUCH, entering new stages of life, and their upcoming Australian tour! 

Futuremag Music (FMM): Thank you so much for speaking to us! I’m so excited for this chat. Congratulations on your album, OUCH, which I absolutely adore. It’s your first record released under your own label, Smile More Recordings. How does this album reflect HONNE and your roots?

Andy: I think wherever possible, with every album that we release, we just try and put as much of our personality and love into it as possible. I think particularly with, OUCH, this album, we did it all ourselves. We love working with other people and we love the collaborations that we've done in the past, but this one was all us.

The lyrics were all us, every instrument that we played, everything about it, even [down] to the mixing, we did everything ourselves, so I think this is about as much of HONNE you can get. It’s all in there from the both of us. From a lyrical point of view as well, we always write about the last period of time when we haven't released any music, where we tell the listener what we've been up to in our lives over the last couple of years.  

FMM: Something I absolutely adore about HONNE is how you guys have always operated on the basis of being friends first before collaborators, so I wanted to ask you individually – in the past few years, what have you been the most proud of each other for? 

Andy: Oh, that’s an interesting question! (both laugh).

James: I’m proud of what a good father Andy is. I think it's nice when you see a friend have a kid and then know that child's going to end up being super happy because of what my friend and his partner are like. So, I'm very proud of that and I'm proud of his children. I love them so much.

FMM: That's so sweet!

Andy: Yeah, they're so cute. I'm proud and in awe of James for just always being upbeat and positive, and keeping everything going. In all honesty, I think if it was just me, I don't think HONNE would have come this far. I think we make a really good team together and I think we both have strengths, and I think mainly James has most of the strengths and I've got a couple. (All laugh).

James: That's definitely not true! *laughs* Andy, I think we've joined the therapist call, not the promo call.

Andy: Oh yeah. Sorry! *laughs*

James: We're on the wrong Zoom call!

FMM: *laughs* I love how reflective you are of the last few years you had on the record, with songs like Fishyyy and Backseat Driver, my favourites from the album. Andy, I know that you jot down ideas in your notes app before you guys make an album. For OUCH, was there a specific thought or line that stood out to you before you guys went into the studio?  

Andy: I think it's interesting because there are always times when I'm writing stuff down on my phone or whatever, just little lines, but to be honest, I work as I go along and I'm trying to change this (both laugh). I’m trying to write more lyrics ahead of time rather than on the fly. But I suppose when you write them on the fly, you may get a more honest interpretation because you're not thinking about it too much or filtering stuff. 

James: I remember — with Fishyyy — you coming into the studio and being like, “I want to write a song about sitting by a stream and you see a little fish.” You compared it to your own feelings. I was like, “Cool, let's give it a go. Love that. Sounds great.” I think Andy wrote those lyrics very quickly.

Andy: I find that if I have a theme or something in mind, then it always seems to come quite quickly. Fishyyy was very quick. I like that song too. You’re right, it’s very reflective, and I think because OUCH is generally about the last couple of years, I’ve become a father in those two years, so there were some great times, but also, you know, it's quite tough at times as well. So Fishyyy is about losing your way a little bit, like you're a fish and you're swimming against the stream, against the current of the water.

FMM: That’s beautiful, who came up with the album name, OUCH?

Andy: I think James, actually! *both laugh*

James: We both did. Because the last album was named LET’S JUST SAY THE WORLD ENDED A WEEK FROM NOW, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?, we really wanted to do the opposite of that in terms of having the album name be a short one. A lot of the album is about growing into adulthood in a way, also parenthood, responsibility, and other stuff. So we thought a kind of cute way of saying that is ‘Ouch’! Yeah, growing up hurts a little bit. As soon as we said it, we were like, we can make plasters for merch to say ‘Ouch’ on it. This is perfect! There's so much fun stuff we can do. Visually, we quite like when it's just one simple word that I think people all across the world can understand and relate to.  

FMM: I love that concept and the plasters are so smart! How are you guys feeling about going on tour soon and returning to Australia? Do you have a favourite memory from touring?

Andy: Super, super excited to come back to Australia. I've been telling everyone I can about this *laughs*.

James: Yeah, I knew this was going to come up!

Andy: So basically, my mum was born in Australia and I recently applied for an Australian citizenship by descent, and I've been granted.

FMM: Oh my God! Congratulations!

Andy: Thanks! So I am now officially Australian. *giggles*

FMM: Are you going to add a dash to your nationality in your bio now? 

Andy: Maybe I should! So I'm looking forward to coming back to my home country. *laughs*

James: *laughs*

FMM: It's your homecoming tour. You can start saying that now. 

James: Oh my God, you're definitely going to say this on stage every night.

Andy: Every night, every chance I get, after every song.

James: Yeah, ‘By the way, guys’.

Andy: With the most special memory of going on tour, I think it's all so memorable. There’s always something that stands out and we really should just write all this stuff down because there are so many things that need to be remembered, or, when you play so many shows you have to think of a little thing that will jog your memory and then suddenly it all comes like rushing back.

But if we're linking it to Australia, some of the first shows that we played in Australia were just amazing. It would have been such a long time since HONNE had started before we made it to Australia, and there was a big period of time with lots of music. It just felt like everyone was very excited for us to be there and we were also very excited for us to be there. I think my parents were there and yeah, it was all just very, very fun. 

FMM: James, do you have a special memory to add?  

James: I think the last time we came, we played Enmore Theatre in Sydney, and also one of my best friends who I got into music with at school moved to Australia with his Australian wife, so we got to hang out with him all day. The theatre just sounds so good, because it's all carpeted, which is quite rare for a theatre.

FMM: It's my favourite venue!

James: Yeah, you can't really get a venue that size that sounds that tight. So I loved it, and it was 3,000 people, which I think is almost the ideal number of people for the gig to feel intimate-ish still, but also big enough that it feels super exhilarating. It was great. Very special. 

FMM: Speaking of tours and very big crowds, you guys have soundtracked the lives of so many people with your music. no song without you is my favourite album, just putting it out there. 

James: *laughs* It’s one of mine as well, of ours!

FMM: I wanted to know, how do you navigate being vulnerable in your creative process while knowing the magnitude of influence that HONNE has? 

Andy: Since we were friends before being in a band together, that helps massively with just being able to say whatever in the music, whether it’s a really personal thing or not. James knows everything about me and I know lots of things about James. *all laugh* More than I cared to know. *laughs* So yeah, it’s not a problem opening up in the studio and I think that's what some of the best music is, people being the most vulnerable.

Our main focus has always been to make sure that it's true, but also relatable. I like it when music is personal, but also people can put themselves in the shoes of the music. If there are too many personal details in there, then it gets tricky, I think, for the listener. I think it's got to be personal, but also relatable. I think that's where we do a fairly good job. Hopefully.  

FMM: You absolutely do. Do you have a song that you're most proud of on the album?  

James: I think Songs In My Head for me.

Andy: Yeah, it's a good one.

James: I like how it's quite like an all-time classic. It’s a traditional songwriting song in the way that the chords go, and the melody moves and how it tells a gentle meandering story throughout. 

Andy: Yeah, I like it. I think that's a good answer. *both laugh*

FMM: Do you have a different answer, Andy? 

Andy: Um, what would I say? I need to just refresh my memory of the actual film. It has been ages. *laughs*

Let me see. I think, yeah, I do like Songs in My Head. I think that is a really good one. It all comes and goes in waves. I think Dents in The Sofa is a bit of a heavy one, but I like it. Fishyyy also, I really do like Fishyyy. I think that's a really nice song with plenty of meaning and I feel like it's one you could just put on loop and get lost in that world for a little bit.

James: That’s the one I'm most proud of our production on. I think it's really unique and unusual but quite pleasant to listen to. 

FMM: I like how there are two ys in the song title as well. It’s the details!

Andy: Yeah! That’s just us being quirky. *both laugh*

FMM: On the record as well, you’ve also reflected a lot on the simple joys of life through songs like Backseat Driver. Since you’ve been in the industry for a while now, do you think you have a different approach to success and creativity now compared to when you first started? 

Andy: Good question. I think it's hard not to think about this. I think when you first start out, you're not thinking about any of that stuff. You're just like writing music and hoping for the best. Whereas now there are all sorts of thoughts that creep into your head. Like, “Is this good enough?”, “Will our fans like it?”, “Will new people like it?”

James: Yeah. “Has this been typically done before?”

Andy: “Will this be good live?” There are so many things that you think about now that you didn't have to think about at the very beginning, which is good, but also quite annoying.

James: It’s not very helpful. We’re also just busier now. In the first couple of years after signing a deal, we were just writing music. Whereas now we're really running a business alongside it. We are planning tours and going on tours, then figuring out all that kind of stuff on the side whilst also getting to the studio, so there's a bit more noise around writing music.

Andy's right. You do think, because now we are playing bigger shows, we want the music to feel really good when we play it. So there's definitely that in our minds, for example, “How will this ultimately translate to when we’re on stage?” But it’s not really worth thinking about because a song that people love, no song without you, that's a really gentle song that we'd have thought would not be good live since it’s too soft, but people love it, so it's a tricky one.  

FMM: I was going to say, I feel like sometimes artists get surprised by their fans when they sing a less mainstream song and people sing every word back to them. 

Andy: That's a really nice feeling. It’s interesting because artists tend to – well, I guess, every artist is different, but we tend to play the songs that we feel have streamed well and that will please most people, but there are probably lots of our smaller songs that a lot of our fans would absolutely love to hear.

James: Yeah, we just try and please the largest number of people every night!

FMM: There’s always that one person who tweets at you being like, “Please play this one really specific song on this day, at this venue.”

All: *laughs*

FMM: To wrap it all up, you guys have had incredible collaborations with some amazing musicians in the past – Griff, Khalid, NIKI, just to name a few. Are there any up and coming artists that you’re most excited about?

James: There's one obvious one, a really good one we can say, but we probably shouldn't. *giggles*

Andy: We've been busy boys! We’ve been in the studio with a few people and oh my gosh, we’ve written a song with an artist who is Australian.

James: But we shouldn't say more than that because we don't know!

Andy: No, we shouldn't say more than that. So yeah, because I'm Australian now, we only work with Australian people. *laughs*

FMM: That’s the bar!

James: But yeah, we've written a song that we're really in love with, so hopefully it will see the light of day at some point later in the year, but we'll see. 

FMM: I’m so keen for this! Thank you guys so much for the chat, I can’t wait to attend your upcoming tour!