Ready For The Magic: Honeyblood Interviewed

Stina Tweeddale on creative anxiety, touring, and their triumphant second album...

There have been many changes in Honeyblood since the release of their eponymous debut album two years ago.

Not least the departure of drummer Shona McVicar shortly after the release of the album. Founding member, singer and guitarist Stina Tweeddale quickly, almost seamlessly, recruited drummer Cat Myers. Stina tells Clash: “Yeah I hope (it was seamless). I think Cat had a big part to play in that. I feel exceptionally lucky that it worked out that way. I think it probably worked out for the best that way.”

The change certainly does seem to have reaped benefits with second album ‘Babes Never Die’ sounding louder, bolder and more confident than Honeyblood have ever sounded before. “Once you finish recording, it’s done then. You know if people like it that’s amazing, if they prefer the first album that’s fine as well,” Tweeddale laughs.

She continues: “The albums are different, they’re very different. The band changed. It’s been two years since he first one came out and four years since I started writing it. People change as well. I definitely think that my song writing has developed over time and hopefully got better since the first album.”

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The new look Honeyblood took their time touring extensively before starting work on their anticipated second album after returning from touring the USA this April.

The pair decamped to an old mill in the wilds of Scotland to get away from it all and concentrate on writing. “We wrote a few songs in this old mill that we found. We set up a studio in the basement and recorded maybe three or four songs over a couple of days,” says Stina. It was then time to head for London to record the album.

The writing and recording was far from plain-sailing with regular freakouts from Stina about whether the songs were good enough. “There were loads of times we were struggling. Also I’m my biggest critic so I’d write something and think it was terrible and bin it before I even sent it to anyone. They I’d send it and they would say it was alright. Some just made it on the album by the skin of their teeth but when you look back they were always supposed to be there. You can be your worst critic and that can stifle your creativity.”

“You can think ‘oh god nothing is good enough…’ so there was a bit of this happening.”

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You can be your worst critic and that can stifle your creativity.

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The first single from the album ‘Ready For The Magic’ was released way back in July accompanied by an eerie video in which both band members get burned at the stake. It is then perhaps appropriate that Honeybood weren’t quite ready for the album to be released in the summer as originally expected but instead released it in time for Hallowe’en in the USA and Guy Fawkes night in the UK. “We were planning to release the album earlier but we weren’t ready for it so when we discovered we were getting a Hallowe’en release I think it was very fitting. It’s not much of a sunshine album.”

‘Babes Never Die’ is a message of female empowerment and defiance as much as anything else with the most obvious influence being Riot Grrrl, a genre that both Stina and Cat have loved since taking their first tentative steps into music. Stina says “Me and Cat speak about this quite a lot. The things you listen to when you are young kind of like really sticks with you the rest of your life. I think we both feel that as a band.”

“That (Riot Grrrl) is what maybe opened my eyes to music so it’s something I always go back to. I feel that it influences every aspect of the music. It’s something that will go through the whole of my career.”

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It’s kind of like my own mantra that I created…

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The title track was the first song written for the album and is a statement of intent. “I have the words tattooed on me and before the tattoo I used to say this when I had had a bit to drink or whatever, just shout it out. It’s kind of like my own mantra that I created,” Stina reveals. “I think it sums up the whole kind of ethos of the album.”

It seems fitting that as Clash speaks to Stina the band are whizzing down the highways and byways of the USA to Seattle, the home of grunge, where their sound of distorted guitars and loud drums will be expected to go down well.

The band are enjoying their American touring experience, too, especially now that the album has been released and the audience know the songs. Equally, though, they’re excited to get closer to home and start the UK leg of the tour. ”We’re excited for the UK. We’re playing some really big shows when we get back,” Stina explains. “St. Lukes will be good fun. It’s a new venue and I really like it there. It’s got a good atmosphere.”

In the two years since ‘Honeyblood’ was released there may have been some fundamental, often unexpected, changes but ‘Babes Never Die’ proves that Honeyblood have come back better stronger, and louder, than ever before. The trick it seems is to go with whatever happens. This could well prove their breakout moment.

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Words: Ealasaid MacAlister

'Babes Never Die' is out now. Catch Honeyblood at the following shows:

November
16 Newcastle Cluny
17 Leeds Wardrobe
18 Liverpool Academy 2
19 Birmingham Rainbow
21 Stoke Sugarmill
22 Nottingham Bodega
23 Bristol Fleece
25 Southampton Joiners
26 Oxford Bullingdon
28 Cambridge Junction 2
29 Norwich Arts Centre

December
1 London Scala
2 Manchester Deaf Institute
8 Glasgow St Lukes

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