Meet Honeyspider. The Lancashire-based quartet are preparing to release their debut EP, ‘In A Haze’, next week. Over the course of its four songs, they create a hybrid of modern emo/grunge (Basement, Title Fight and Citizen) with classic 90s shoegaze (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive). The end result is an impressive short set of songs that weave on underpinned melodies and reverb-laden guitars.
Ahead of its release next Tuesday (September 12th), Already Heard is premiering the EP in full.
We also spoke to vocalist/guitarist Matt Heap, who also produced and mixed ‘In A Haze’, about how he brought the band together and why Honeyspider is not just a solo project for him.
AH: For starters, what’s the story behind Honeyspider coming together?
Matt: I’d just left my old band and I wanted to just jam some rock music out in a practice room at least, just for the fun of it. My mate Jonny [Dickin] was a sick drummer and he’d mentioned before that he wanted to jam with me, so we did that for a few weeks before deciding we wanted to make more out of it. Jonny borrowed Andy [Hodkinson – guitar] from his other band Stilts (RIP), and me and Dave [Kostilek – bass] had been teasing each other with playing in a band together for years so I got him on board. We seemed to all get into it pretty quickly and decided to take it further than the practice room.
AH: On the paper, the band’s influences is a melting pop of modern emo/grunge and 90s shoegaze. How would you sum up the tone of ‘In A Haze’?
Matt: Moody, floaty (that’s a word), heavy but poppy.
AH: Your first single, ‘Safe Haven’, was released just over a year ago. How do you think the band’s sound has grown on this EP?
Matt: We did ‘Safe Haven’ as a single just to get our name out and get some gigs but we actually wrote the songs on the ‘In A Haze’ EP fairly close to that, so there’s not much of a shift in musical style really. We did spend longer crafting the production of the EP, while refining the sounds we had flirted with on ‘Safe Haven’ to make it a little more expansive.
AH: With you also producing and mixing the EP, would you consider Honeyspider a “passion project”?
Matt: Originally it was just a bit of fun to hang out with friends and exchange musical ideas but it’s definately a passion project now. It’s a bit of a guinea pig for me in terms of production and a good representation of the sort of music I’m pushing to produce more of (come at me shoegaze bands, Suff Studio!) The rest of the guys made this EP what it is though, it’s not just the “Matt Heap Project”.
AH: Beyond the EP, what are the short and long term plans for Honeyspider?
Matt: We’re on a short hiatus till the end of the year. Our drummer moved to Japan so we’re auditioning new ones, and Dave is having his first child. We have enough songs ready for another EP and me and Andy are doing a lot of writing, so come new year we’ll be starting a new record and pushing for the gigs again. Long term, depends on what Simon Cowell says…
‘In A Haze’ EP by Honeyspider is released on 12th September.
Honeyspider links: Facebook|Bandcamp|Soundcloud
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