Three Was Never a Crowd – In Conversation with Honeyglaze

The glitz and glamour of the touring artist nowadays seems to consist of multiple jobs, last minute trains, and Travelodge’s that come with a vague, lingering smell of bananas. At least, that’s how it’s been for
Honeyglaze, who spoke to Charlotte Trenbath about their last 24 hours in Leeds with real humour and light-heartedness. Made up of vocalist & guitarist Anouska Sokolow, bassist Tim Curtis and drummer Yuri Shibuichi, Honeyglaze made a fleeting appearance in Leeds to perform in the Dark Arts all- dayer at Belgrave.

You’ve just played a gig in Leeds, how did you find that?
Y – It was lively, yeah, there was a bunch of people. Every time we come to Leeds it’s quite vibrant.
T – People here seem to already be a friend, which is nice. Even if they’re quiet, they’re just chilling with you. We just came here on the train. Sometimes you just get given a tour, today I woke up and saw ‘Leeds Dark Arts’ on my calendar and then suddenly I’m on the train. It’s quite nice, in a way, but also a bit
dissociative.
A – We’ve been staying in a Travelodge and the room smells like bananas, for some reason.
Y – When we’re travelling, which is most of the time, things don’t make as much sense. But when we do come to play the show, we remember why we’re doing it, and it makes sense. And we’re just really good
friends, and we love each other.

How did you all meet?
A – I knew Tim and Yuri separately through different musical escapades and friends and then was asked to play a show solo. I asked them to join me, we played one show, and it was good, and it never ended.
T – It did end, we started before lockdown. So, it started and then it ended. And then it started again, but for real that time.

So, you’ve just released a new album, Real Deal, and from what I’ve seen the reception has been good. Are you happy with how it’s been received?

A – I feel like it’s hard to tell because it’s all online at the minute. I think when we go on this headline tour, we’ll be able to feel the vibe and the excitement a little bit more.
T – But also, even if you start responding to the messages you don’t have the number of messages written out. And it’s difficult to tell how much of it is positive. But there have been a couple of things that I didn’t expect, like sellouts and the Joe Jonas thing.

The Joe Jonas thing?
A – Yeah, so, he DM’ed us and I was on my phone at the time and saw the message come through saying ‘Joe Jonas messaged you’ and I thought it was a spam account, but it was real. He said he loved the new
record and that Ghost was his ‘jam’.
T – I didn’t find out for a couple of days. I went to meet some friends, and they were like, ‘So, that Joe Jonas thing’. And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’
A – I literally had a period in my life where no one would ask me how I was, people would only ask about Joe Jonas. They’d say, ‘Oh my God, how’s Joe Jonas?’ and I’d be like, ‘I’m fine, thank you for asking, and Joe is also fine.’

How did you want your new album to be different or progress from your first release?
A – We wanted to go bigger. As much as we love the first one, we’re quite ambitious and we wanted to push ourselves and see how much we could do.
Y – I think a lot of the second album is influenced from the experience we had touring the first album. There’s a certain level of aggression, or loudness, or presence that you can have on stage. I think we understood what was possible. The first album’s songs were on the mellower side compared to these songs, so I think in terms of the arrangements we were going for a more dynamic and larger range. So that when we go hard its mega hard and when we go soft its way softer than in the first record.
T – Yeah. A dynamic range is something that you get on a stage so much more. When we were preparing for our first album there was a period where we didn’t have a practice space, so we were in Nous’s house, and it was cool because it just an acoustic kind of thing. But it also meant that everyone had to be as quiet as possible. So that was nice, because we got to explore that range, and then you get on stage and you wonder, ‘Is this boring, is this too quiet?’ And then you can explore the other end. I think a lot of it is just realising your freedom. You can be as quiet or loud as possible, you can be as aggressive or gentle and people don’t think that’s weird.

There’s quite a big math rock influence in the album, are you all fans of the genre?
T – Yeah, we are. We like Tortoise and American Football and Pinback. It’s just so enjoyable to play and to fit in between each other. I think if you have more than three people it become harder to find the spaces,
and it’s really nice to find that space.
A – I think writing the first album was more singer-songwriter, acoustic, strumming vibes. But then as soon as we started writing for the second one, we realised we can do other stuff. And I was writing more for the band, to experiment and see what we can do together.

What are you all listening to right now?
Y – The Smile’s new record is a big one for me, and the red Tortoise record, Standards, I was listening to that on our way to Amsterdam last week.
A – I’ve come back round to SASAMI, I saw her the other day and her first album was such a huge inspiration when I started writing. I like her new album too, she’s going pop-world, which is interesting to hear a very indie singer-songwriter do pop.

What about you, Tim, are you looking at your Spotify?
T – Yeah, I haven’t listened to too much new music recently but a few days ago someone told me about Magdalena Bay. Their music is so catchy, it’s been in my head all the time. Also, a lot of David Bowie has
been in my head. When I wake up in the morning, and there’s a song in my head, I put it in this playlist, and the same with my girlfriend. We collect them. And it’s just mad differences sometimes. I’ll wake up and there’s a hard techno song in my head and she’ll say, ‘I thought of Adrienne Lenker today’.

Are you all playlist people, do you make a lot of playlists?
A – I think I’m a playlist person and then I add like 2 songs. I have millions of playlists that only have one or two songs.
Y – Yeah, I think I prefer albums. But I discovered how you can use the ‘like’ function on Spotify about half a year ago and I love just hitting shuffle on liked songs and listening to that. That’s my one playlist.
T – I think I have, like, 200 playlists. So yeah, I’m a playlist person.
A – Actually I listen to your [Tim’s] playlists quite a lot. You’re quite good at making playlists.
T – Yeah, I didn’t even realise I had followers on Spotify.
A – And they’re very niche. You have a really good ‘sleep’ one that I listen to. And there’s one called ‘bleep bloop’ which is electronic stuff.

Listening to the trio converse was much like listening to their music – individual sections, interesting and engaging in their own way, that fit together perfectly. There was nothing forced about them; it was clear
that their music, and their friendship, came from the heart. Honeyglaze, it was a pleasure chatting with you. If you’re reading this, please send me Tim’s Spotify. I need a ‘bleep bloop’ playlist ASAP.