HONNE
HONNE are a British alt-pop duo whose global fanbase delights in their ability to skilfully weave elements of R&B, soul, funk and more into their signature, slick electro sound. In the near-decade since the release of the Warm on a Cold Night EP (2015), Andy Clutterbuck and James Hatcher have amassed hundreds of millions of streams, and can boast of devoted listeners from all corners of the world. To say that HONNE are popular in South-East Asia, in particular, would grossly underestimate the sort of fanatical support they enjoy in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, where thousands routinely turn up to every headline tour they play in those countries. By contrast, HONNE enjoy a relatively low profile back in the UK – something that suits them perfectly as they continue to sell out home gigs to a significant section of dedicated followers.
We caught up with Andy after the recent release of the latest HONNE album, Ouch (6th September ’24) to discuss the band’s approach to songwriting, collaborations (Khalid, Griff, Niki, and Pink Sweats all feature on 2021’s LET’S JUST SAY THE WORLD ENDED A WEEK FROM NOW, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?) and plans for their upcoming world tour…
FAULT: You’re both UK-based when you’re not on tour but your fanbase is remarkably international, with a substantial proportion based in East Asia. Was that something that you ever expected or planned for?
HONNE [Andy]: No, it wasn’t planned at all. Honestly as two young English boys starting out in a band, the only place we could imagine having a fan base was the UK because it was all we knew. But it was almost instantaneous that we started seeing our music spreading all over the world. We feel incredibly lucky that we get to travel to so many great countries to perform our music – it’s a huge perk of the job and it fulfils the part of us that was always hungry to travel.
Given that sort of global appeal, do you ever feel underrated or underappreciated back in the UK?
No, I don’t think so really. I think it’s important for us to keep things in perspective, and if you’d told 14 year old James and Andy that one day they’d play Brixton Academy, they’d be pretty stoked! And in a way it’s nice that in our home town we mostly go under the radar and can live a happy quiet family life.
You’ve spoken in the past about how or why your music might be more accessible to fans, e.g: deliberately going for more of a pop sound on LET’S JUST SAY THE WORLD ENDED… I’m curious as to how much thought goes into ensuring a record resonates culturally with particular audiences. Is that part of your decision-making process in terms of, say, originating or developing song ideas, designing artwork, or choosing collaborators?
Our thought process is always to make something that resonates with us and just hope and trust that if we achieve that, then the music and visuals will resonate with other people too. We do make deliberate decisions to produce different albums in particular ways, though. On Ouch we decided to include lots of school orchestra style instrumentation. Not for any reason other than we thought it could sound unique and fun.
Speaking of collaborators, who would be your dream creative to partner up with and why?
You know what, I think we’ve found our dream collaborator already – he’s called Reuben James. He’s an incredible artist in his own right and one of the best Jazz pianists in the UK. Every time we work together something great comes of it. And we’ve got plans to do more together soon.
How much of Ouch is autobiographical?
All of it! ‘Imaginary’ tells the story of meeting my wife on the first day at college. ’Songs In My Head’ is a song I wrote half asleep in bed – and it’s a song about writing songs in your sleep. ‘Dents In The Sofa’ is about some really scary complications we had during the birth of our first child (luckily everything was OK in the end). ‘Backseat Driver’ is about coming to terms with being an introvert. There are stories like this behind every song on the album.
Which do you prefer: writing songs or performing them?
Haha this is a really tough one! When you write a song and you absolutely love it, there’s no better feeling than that. But the process is slow and it’s hard to know when something is truly finished. Performing is one of the only times as an artist where you get immediate feedback. You can see the smiles on peoples’ faces, feel the atmosphere in the room and actually complete a task that has a definite finish line. So my answer would be – I love both and think they bring balance to our lives as artists.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I think I’d have to say performing our headline show at Araneta Coliseum in Manila to 8-10 thousand people. Audiences in the Philippines can SING, so it was like having our own enormous choir performing with us. It was a moment that we’ll both remember forever.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
I’d probably be a carpenter or an architect or something like that. Something detail orientated and hands on. James would probably be a professional yoyo-er or something (haha)…
The Ouch tour starts in November. Anything or any place you’re particularly looking forward to?
It does! You know what, we’ve gone all in on the live visuals for the Ouch tour, so I’m genuinely so excited to share what we’ve created with everyone. We’re also bringing brass/woodwind players along with us so it sounds bigger and better than ever. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
What is your FAULT?
It’s our fault that we have to tour the world with a 4m tall inflatable character for the next year!