The Honeybadger lads are coming through light, all hazy and bright. Hear them out. Watch them rise. They are not here to play it safe. A high-ranking person in the army once told me something about young soldiers. It stuck with me. Youth, they believe they are invincible. It is their biggest strength and at the same time their biggest weakness.
Does that apply to Honeybadger? Maybe that is exactly their secret power – the wild confidence of your early twenties, when nothing feels out of reach and everything is urgent. What I can tell you for certain is that Honeybadger are unpretentious, raucous and raw to its core. A full fucking force to be reckoned with.
Brighton’s own return with new single, Too Slow, a blast of scuzzy, high-voltage and restless energy. It hits close to home for anyone who has ever felt crushed under the weight of the World’s pace, at least how we know it in this corner of the World. Channelling the frustration of procrastination, pressure, and the need to escape and survive – if only for a few precious moments.
I caught up with the band to talk about the story behind Too Slow and how they captured that clarity of chaos in the studio.
Too Slow touches on escapism through music and small joys. How did that theme come about? Was there a particular moment or just a good old landslide of experiences that inspired it?
“Definitely a good landslide of experiences we’ve had as a band,” Honeybadger said. “Music has always been a place to escape to, whether that be locking yourself in a basement to practice, going to see live music or coming home and putting a record on. We’ve tried to encapsulate that feeling of escape with this single.”
With the evolution of the writing process, Honeybadger says that music always comes first. “We always start the process by jamming a riff, and the lyrics are written around the feelings that playing the tune gives us.
“For Too Slow, we spent two days straight in the studio writing and recording. This was a new process for us, as we usually bring fully written material to the studio. The time pressure, along with surrounding yourself with good mates, helped create that tune. It’s that feeling of wasted time, but at the same time, making small wins with your mates and making sure you celebrate these moments too.”
There is a sense of urgency and chaos in the theme of Too Slow. “The urgency and chaos mostly come from that pressure of time and almost a feeling of procrastination,” Honeybadger said. “However, this has always been a theme in our music. We believe music should create some kind of energy.
“We think that urgency and chaos are very much appropriate.”
The band say they are inspired by QOTSA, Demob Happy, The White Stripes and Ty Segall. With music that blends massive raw energy with a sharp edge, how do they strike that balance in their songwriting and performances?
“We believe raw energy and sharp edges go hand in hand,” they say. “Funnily enough, the balance comes from starting with an idea worked out on an acoustic guitar, where it’s then brought to the other lads and converted into a full-force song with the raw energy of three people just making noise in a room.”
Honeybadger will release another EP later in the year with some more singles leading up to it. They are also going on tour around the UK in June and early July with some more live dates lined up for later in the year.
The noise that will make sense of everything is already on its way. It is waiting in places you have yet to go. When it arrives, you will understand. The light will shift just enough for you to see. Therefore, look under the Brighton sun, where the gang called Honeybadger roam.
Dear Liam. You and I are not going to live forever. The power of youth stays, however. And it soaks you to the bone.
Find out more about Honeybadger via linktr.ee/Honeybadgerjr.
