Ahead of their show in Camden (check out our review of the night here), we sat down with the ever so lovely guys and girls of Honeymoon Disease for a chat about music, the new album and dream shows. See what happened below!
You’re currently on tour with Avatarium and The Vintage Caravan. How’s it all going so far?
Nick (bass): Perfect! It’s been really nice – everyone’s great and they’re all so easy to get along with – no problems whatsoever.
Jenna (vocals/guitar): Yeah, they’re super nice!
Jimi (drums): After we met them, it only took about fifteen minutes after we met them before we were best friends!
Anna (guitar): It was all just so smooth. We really didn’t know what to expect and when we got picked up in Gothenburg, Avatarium was just sat in the back having some crackers and cheese, and some wine, and they were just like “oh, hello Honeymoon Disease! Would you like to join us?” and from that moment on, it was just super smooth and it was the same with The Vintage Caravan – super humble guys.
Jimi: And the shows have been amazing.
So what can fans expect from one of your shows?
Jenna: Rock’n’roll shock, basically.
Anna: Yeah, if you’re into action-filled speedy rock, with high energy, you should definitely come to one of our shows and you’ll have a blast.
Which one has been the best?
Jimi: Speedfest was pretty amazing.
Jenna: Yeah, and Essen.
Nick: My favourite so far has been Essen. It was so packed with people.
Anna: We got such a great response.
Jenna: The venue was sold out too.
Jimi: It was the release date of our album as well.
Jenna: It was quite a party! (laughs)
I can only imagine! What’s the reception been like for it so far?
Jimi: Really good. The reviews have all been good and we’ve had a really good response.
Jenna: When we were in Essen, we were at a local tobacco shop or something, and we were looking through some magazines, at the charts in Metal Hammer and RockHard, and saw that The Transcendence was quite high on the charts! We didn’t know that, so apparently it’s going quite well!
Can you describe the writing and recording process for it?
Jenna: Often me and Anna will come with a riff to the rehearsal room, then we’ll put the songs together with everyone so that everybody is a part of the songwriting process.
Anna: Basically, if there’s been a situation if you have an emotion that you can’t really describe, but you do it within the riffs, we put it all together as a band and then either Jenna or myself write the lyrics, or we do it together. Everyone has an input, so that’s how we go about it.
Jimi: Yeah, one of the girls will usually come with a really cool riff…like the first basis for a song.
Anna: Sometimes it’s even just a title that captures the emotion.
Jimi: As for the recording…it was a pretty stressful time but I think we did a great job in a very short time.
Jenna: We got help from our producers Ola Ersfjord and Nicke Andersson a lot and they really helped us out in a great way.
Jimi: Because we’re such a new band, we wanted to play live as much as possible too, so we played live a lot whilst in the studio during pre-production.
Anna: Then we just hit the studio – we recorded at the legendary Music A Matic studio in Gothenburg – and it was really intense! It was a great experience, and super emotional. I didn’t expect it to be like that but it was! We had a blast.
Were there any songs that were more of a challenge to perfect?
Jenna: It all went pretty smooth, I think. We were all really prepared because we did a pre-recording in our rehearsal room so it all went to plan, but before that it was a lot of hard work with us putting everything together and we work with layers in the studio so even though we have a live sound, we only partially played it live. I think we all did a great job in the studio, especially Jimi.
As you were playing live whilst working in the studio, did any of the songs take on a new form or change after playing them a few times?
Jenna: I think some of them got a little more depth.
Nick: That was, for me, a bit of a stressful period because we changed and rearranged the songs, and talked with the producers, so when it came to the next show, I was kinda like “what on earth should I play?” but after we’d got into a routine it felt really good.
If you could choose an animal to represent the band, what would it be?
Nick: A velociraptor.
(everyone laughs)
Jimi: That’s quite a hard question.
Jenna: I really don’t know…it needs to be something fast with a lot of energy. Maybe a pitbull or something?
Well velocirators are fast with a lot of energy…!
Anna: Yeah! That’s quite a good one actually. We are a high energy band and we have so much to say live and on record, so it would definitely be something like that. A little bit dangerous, but still fun.
If you could play anywhere in the world, on any lineup, what would it be?
Anna: I think playing on the moon would be pretty fun!
Jenna: That would be kinda cool!
Anna: What do you say, guys? Or how about Wembley? Maybe with Thin Lizzy from ’82, if we could go back in time.
Jimi: Sounds like a great night to me!
If Honeymoon Disease could release a product, what would it be and why?
Jenna: Well I guess it should be something related to disease, huh?
Nick: Condoms!
Jenna: But we want to spread the disease, we don’t want to stop it!
Nick: A condom with holes in it? I don’t think people would be stupid enough to buy them though.
Jimi: And they should be yellow and blue.
And finally – what’s in store for you in 2016?
Jimi: I suppose first of all, we want to go out and play this record live as much as possible.
Jenna: Touring, and some more recording. We’ve actually been working on some material now, but we have so much to do and so little time to do it, so straight after this tour we’ll start writing more, do some more shows, and then start the process of recording again!
Jimi: With a lot of bands, when they have a good album they play it as much as possible and they forget to work on new material, so I think it’s really important to have the balance right.
Jenna: And our record company, Napalm Records, is great and have been really supportive, so we have a great opportunity to keep working on our music! We have all the chances in the world of hitting it, so we’re going to work hard and keep on at it.
