Features Honeyblood: ‘It Means Nothing Unless You Connect’

The best thing about making friends with other musicians, Stina Tweeddale claims, is that there’s always a familiar face in a scary new city previously unencountered. It’s also an excuse to talk to someone other than bandmate Shona McVicar. “Sometimes we get sick of each other,” Shona admits, adding a “no offence to Shona” for good measure. “A fresh face can help” in the slog of touring, she says, stifling a laugh.

Honeyblood couldn’t be blamed for having the occasional ominous hour of silence or shortly-lived scrap. They’ve been writing and playing together for two years, right up until the point today where they’ve just finished off a debut album on FatCat Records. “We always had a good groove, which really makes a difference,” says Stina, speaking from Glasgow immediately after the band return from studio time in Connecticut. “I’ve played in bands before and I just feel like no matter how good a musician is, it means nothing unless you connect with the people you’re playing with.” She claims her collaboration with Shona was “instant”, bar a tragic “first half hour” of practice.

Entering into their third year as a band, today the pair stand stronger than ever, fresh-faced from sessions with Peter Katis, a producer who’s had a helping hand in The National’s ‘Boxer’ and Interpol’s ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’, for starters. “Peter was a really good choice for us,” Stina beams. “We lived in the house with his family - you’re with them all the time… He enjoys company and he loves working with people. We got to the studio and people were just hanging about.”

Exposed to the relaxed atmosphere of Peter’s house-turned-studio, they ditched the “clinical studio” environment and exposed themselves to a further-reaching sound. It goes the extra mile from an initial brute force of shouty punk they emerged sporting. “[Peter’s] idea was ‘How do we make two people sound really full?’,” says Stina. “That was the main thing for us. It’s still two people but it’s still a really full sound. He was up for the challenge of doing that. It’s something we accomplished.”

Stina also cites a “piano ballad” that might or might not end up on the record. It’s “half a song” in her books; a spontaneous recording she put together in Connecticut after being egged on by Erin Sanderson from Augustines, of all people, who happened to be stirring about in Peter’s studio at the time. “We’ll see if that song makes it to the album. It was about trying new things, and those things working out.”

Piano numbers weren’t in the peripheral back when Honeyblood started out. Initially it was a case of Stina penning a few songs - recent single ‘Bud’ included - and asking Shona to add her own take on the drums. Today they’re more of a collective being. “Because we’re used to how each other works and because we’re more confident, we do a lot of jamming along,” says Stina. “The way that we write songs now has changed dramatically. And now there’s a certain instinct, definitely.” Sometimes that instinct manifests itself into the two wanting to avoid the sight of each other, but for the most part Honeyblood are a united force to be reckoned with.