@alpaca.presents
by Brandon van der Berg @vdb.brandon
If you’re buzzing to find out what ‘Hunny Buzz’ are like off stage, here’s a good way to find out without ever leaving the confines of your depression den.
It was fantastic to be able to sit down with them and talk about everything they’ve done as a band, which is a lot. Really funny bunch.
For Fans of Her’s and Lunar Vacation.
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Having your first play on BBC Radio 1 in January is a huge deal for any growing band, you obviously know how to navigate the industry, what do you think stops most bands from getting to this point?
(Ewan) Commitment.
(Rowan) Right, definitely commitment for sure. Like not turning up to practices or thinking ‘Ah’ it’ll be fine I’ll turn up to the next one.
(Ewan) Or even just turning up an hour late thinking ‘Oh we’ve got three hours of practice’, but no you really do need those.
(Rowan) And communicating if somebody is feeling a bit :/ and is like “Awh, not this week” you gotta *claps* ya know, we’re not here to work at restaurants. You gotta keep grinding it.
You’ve played 7 Festivals so far, which is the favourite of the band?
(Ewan and Bill) Is it?!
(Bill) 2000 Trees was fun.
(Lydia) We went camping in a tent. We were in a 2 man tent, all of us.
(Bill) And we were on a hill at the end, so we all just fell to the bottom.
(Ewan) And the bands, you know most of the ones we’ve played were like fairly small and quite charitable.
(Rowan) Yeah, this one was like you walk backstage and there’s a member of the Slaves, oh that’s IDLES over there.
With this being your first Headline show in over a year, have you done anything to make this one special?
(Bill) Practised? haha.
(Ewan) We’ve definitely promoted it a lot more than our other gigs. We had posters made and put them all up by where we live.
(Rowan) Last year was literally dedicated to gaining a fan base, like an actual major fan base for the headliners to do well. Like, nothing was wrong with the last one we just knew we needed to develop a fan base and get tighter as musicians.
(Ewan) I suppose that also answers that one like ‘What are bands kind of doing wrong’ as well, a lot are rushing into things when they really shouldn’t be, they should be building a fan base and THEN having a headline gig, rather than jumping on the first headline gig that you get, just because it’s a gig.
As you grow as a band, do you feel more or less vulnerable about the music you release? How does the size of your audience affect you?
(Lydia) Well, the lyrical content is quite personal to me, so I do feel a little bit weird that other people can hear it. As the audience is getting bigger it feels a bit-
(Ewan) More intense.
(Lydia) Yeah, it does feel more intense, I feel more vulnerable with my lyrics.
Do you feel like you take on a lot of the social pressure, being the frontwomen of the band?
(Lydia) Yeah, especially with “Girlfriend in the Band”, everyone’s like ‘Ooo what’s this about, what’s this about”.
(Ewan) I think the production of it, I feel a bit of pressure from that as well. When you’re releasing a track and you already have some out, you feel the innate need to top it. Even though you should make them sound similar, you always want to make it much better than the last one because you want people to enjoy it more.
(Bill) Also if it's suddenly way better, it makes the others sound crap so you suddenly want to re-record all of those.
You guys were originally called ‘Eurphoric’ and played “Short Black Skirt” as a song in that act before releasing it under “Hunny Buzz”, now that song is about to hit 10,000 streams, is there anything you wish you did differently when you were starting out?
(Lydia) The production was rushed and we all rushed with it.
(Rowan) And it’s surprising that it’s got 10,000 streams, it really is, but how we feel about the track and the production- We still love the track-
(Ewan) We’re gonna re-record it.
(Rowan) Yeah, come September it should be out.
(Bill) Should be interesting to see how well it does, because we’ve recorded it so slowly and it's like 5 minutes long, it’s like ‘Okay… it’s still going’.
So, you’ve got three singles out and you’re going to re-release the first one?
(Rowan) It’s literally just the production value. It’s a demo, it’s a demo that’s out there and for 10,000 streams-
(Lydia) We’ve also developed it as well.
(Bill) Yeah, structural changes and stuff.
(Lydia) Dynamic changes, lots of different changes.
On the 23rd and 30th of March, you were featured on the Gloucestershire Cricket Teams clothing launches. If you could choose to compete in any kind of underground sport or competition, what would it be and why?
(Rowan) NASCAR!
(Bill) Yeah!..
Waterpolo.
(Ewan) Croquette. You’d just sit around all day drinking wine.
(Bill) Elephant polo.
(Ewan) Elephant lacrosse.
(Lydia) Tennis!
(Ewan) I don’t know if Tennis is underground though.
(Bill) No, it’s usually outside…. HAHA-
You guys played Dot to Dot Festival 2021-
(Me) -That was my birthday by the way
(Collectively) Nice! Happy birthday 😊
I'm including this because of how darn cute it was they all wished me a happy birthday. Not at the festival, but it’s never too late.
-on National one hit wonder day, what are some of your favourite One-Hit Wonders?
(Ewan) SOMEBODY THAT YOU USED TO KNOWWWW
(Rowan) Sex and Candy, by Marcy Playground I believe.
Billy, in 2021 you dressed up as Garth from the movie Wayne’s World for Halloween, what’s your favourite scene from the series?
(Rowan) When did Nardwuar come in? haha
(Bill) You know when Benjamin’s ordering food and the guys like, this guy's good. He’s really good.
Or when they’re singing Bohemian Rapsody and they’re like ‘Garth! Pullover!’ and just ‘Aw, man. He does this every Friday!’. ‘It will be mine, oh yeah. It will be mine’.
OR when they see Cassandra for the first time and he’s like ‘Dude! This chick wails!’.
(Me) SCHWIINNNGG
(Bill) Shaaawinnggg.
In March you filmed something inside a restaurant, could you explain what that was?
(Lydia) That’s coming out soon, that’s the music video for Deli Man.
(Rowan) That’s part of the EP, we used to play it live but now we don’t because it’s gonna be part of the EP and only be released when the EP is out.
How do you find acting in your own music videos?
*Collective Intrigue*
(Lydia) I really enjoy acting
(Bill) I didn’t mind the Deli man one, I don’t like being in front of the camera. I just feel awkward. But I used to do drama? And I love it? I did drama but then I saw a camera and I was like ‘No no, no no’
Grey Muzzle Promotions put Lydia as one of their favourite women in the scene, what is your favourite woman in music right now and why do you like what they’re doing?
(Lydia) I didn’t know about that!
Taylor Swift, she’s been my number one girl for ages and it will always be Tay. One day I hope to form with Tay. It’s just the song writing and stuff, I grew up listening to all of her relatable love stories.
(Rowan) Once you're hooked you're hooked.
(Bill) It’s the same with Harry Styles.
Do you have anything you would like to promote?
(Bill) Yeah, I sell real fake doors. Real fake doors.
(Ewan) EP, single release coming out on the 23rd of June?
(Rowan) ‘Now I can get over you’
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