BAND INTERVIEW: "Honey Revenge"

Interviewed / Written by Jesse Smith

In the heart of Los Angeles is a band that is pushing the limits of pop music and what it can still be. Honey Revenge is a pop band with distortion and grit while still having the melodic pop quality. The musical version of when opposites attract, Honey Revenge have been making waves in and around LA and getting the attention of Thriller Records. With only a handful of songs out, you still can clearly see what lies in store for the band. We were honored enough to have a little chat with them! 

Hey guys! Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for us! First off, you’re a fairly new band, how did honey revenge form?

Thanks for having us! Honey Revenge formed in the fall of 2020! Donovan was about to move to LA from Georgia and had seen a video of my old band playing a show. They reached out to us on instagram asking if we knew any bands looking for a guitarist and coincidentally we were. They auditioned for that band and when that project ended we continued on with this band. It was kind of a weird situation of fate I think. Meant to BEE (;

I think Honey Revenge is such a good name, how did you come up with it? 

Thank you! For us, Honey represents the poppier, sweeter, and more vulnerable sides of our music while Revenge is the more rock side where we implement a bit of angst reminiscent of the music we grew up on.

You just started working with the Thriller Records family with the release of your new single “Ride”. How has it been working with them and how has the response been to the new single? 

We love Thriller!!! We got so lucky to find a team of people that are heavily involved and care about the development and future of our band. It doesn’t hurt that so many people at the label are also musicians. They get us and believe in us. We are very grateful.

Your songs are so well written and fun! What does the writing process look like for you guys? 

That is so nice wow. Most of the time we start writing with lyrics and melody. It’s very important to us that our songs get stuck in the heads of our listeners and stay with them. We also have our good friend KJ Strock, who is heavily involved in the writing process. He gets our vision and takes our ideas to the next level.

Your new song “Ride” is such a bop. What is the backstory for that song? What is it about? 

That song is a funny story. I wrote it with the idea in mind that one day we’ll be a big enough band that I’ll be able to ride a boogie board on top of the crowd. It also served as motivation for myself at a time when the future of the music industry was very uncertain. Since then, I’ve had some really dark periods where I’ve questioned pursuing music in general and when I reflect, I realize it really was all part of the ride!

Now for some fun questions! Where is your favorite place to shop for new clothes? 

We do a lot of thrifting! There’s a great Buffalo Exchange on Ventura Blvd in North Hollywood that we consistently shop at! It has a rocking selection and we get a majority of our stage and music video outfits there.

If you had to move from LA, where would you move too?

Donovan says London! I’m such a city girl and I’ve always been told I give major New York vibes, whatever that means. 

Do you have any pre-show rituals? 

Nothing too set in stone yet. We have a secret handshake we came up with for the ‘Ride’ that we try to do before our set.

Thank you guys so much for your time! Is there anything you’d like to plug? 

This was awesome thank YOU!!! Definitely check out our newest single ‘Rerun’ and keep your eyes peeled for lots of new music in the coming months. We also have a band Discord and we’re very active on our socials so make sure to follow us on all of those!

With the latest single “Rerun” the band really displayed a deep understanding of who they are. The song is loud, grungy, fun and most of all catchy. This along with other singles like ‘Distracted’ and ‘Ride’ make them an easy 10/10 act and one of the hottest underground pop bands going into 2023. They remind me heavily of P!nk especially in the newest single and I have been waiting for someone to come and take the place of the “pop with an edge” in today's music. Honey Revenge is going to be the band that you blink and all of a sudden they are everywhere.