Today, Brooklyn trio Honey—comprised of Cory Feierman, William Schmiechen, and Dan Wise—are announcing their debut LP, Love Is Hard, out May 6 on Wharf Cat Records. Schmiechen used to play with Amen Dunes, and Wise with Psychic Ills, and the band itself is deeply rooted in the New York rock scene. The album is heavy as hell, filled with dark, swirling riffs that threaten to suck you in like psychedelic quicksand.
In honor of the record announce, Honey produced a music video for the album's opening track, "Monk." The video, directed by Frank Haines, features a real rowdy, smoky party where Honey are playing for a crowd of dope-smoking weirdos. Everything I do/ I do it for you, they chant, as some occult business goes on. "Our dear friends Frank Haines and Joe DeNardo, artists/psychedelic warriors, had a vision for our song 'Monk'—a day in the life of 80-year-old chanteur Chris Kachulis," Honey told The FADER. "The video was a collaborative effort, shot over the course of a long, messed up day at our deep haunt Wild Kingdom."
Below, the dudes of Honey told us why they rock so hard.
How did you guys meet and why did you start making music together?
CORY FEIERMAN: Dan and I met back in 2010 or 2011. He was a regular at the record store I had been working in for years. He asked for the Gun Club's Death Party EP and it happened to be the next record in the stack I was pricing. Kind of a magical coincidence when you work around records for a while. We had talked about playing music off and on for a bit, but nothing came of it. I then moved into an apartment by a bar that Dan was working at. We connected more over a shared love of the Stooges, Spacemen 3, and the Swell Maps.
DAN WISE: One day I walked into the record store after not seeing Cory for a bit and he just asked me if I needed a bass player. I had just recently got a practice space to work out a couple songs I had, so I said YES. "Monk" was actually the first song.
WILL SCHMIECHEN: I met Dan while I was playing in Amen Dunes and he was playing in Psychic Ills. Few months later I ran into him again and he said his band Honey needed a drummer. So, we jammed and that's where I met Cory. Yep, that's about right.
What inspired “Monk” the song? Who is the monk here, and to whom has this monk devoted himself?
WISE: I wrote the song thinking that a person could become a monk if they devoted themselves to any one thing. The devotion is the whole idea. A person can become a monk to anything, as long as they are completely, maybe even helplessly, devoted.
Is that crazy looking pipe in the “Monk” video functional?
FEIERMAN: Yeah.
SCHMIECHEN: Oh Yeah.
WISE: YES. Our friend Jackie Klempay made it for us. She is a wonderful artist.
Can you explain who Chris Kachulis is and why you chose him as the subject for this video? Also, what is with that braided wig?
SCHMIECHEN: Chris is 80 years young, born and raised in N.Y.C. He performed with and sang on Bruce Haack's records back in the '70s and actually only started performing again fairly recently. Chris performs with the director of "Monk," Frank Haines, in their group Blanko & Noiry, So it was very natural that Frank asked him to be the focus of the video. Nobody knows what's up with that wig.
What have you been doing with yourselves post-finishing the record? What do you have in store?
SCHMIECHEN: We've been writing & playing a lot of shows. We're gonna tour a lot this summer and fall in support of the record, which comes out in early May. Wanna try to record another record this summer.
Your record is called Love Is Hard, can you please explain why love is so hard? (Asking for a friend.)
WISE: Can anyone explain why love is hard? If anybody really knew the answer to that... Love is hard to find, hard to get, hard to keep, it's just hard.
What inspires you to rock so heavily?
SCHMIECHEN: Have you been outside? It's a fucking nightmare!