Following the release of their brilliant second album ‘Real Deal’, we had a chat with Honeyglaze about pre-show rituals and taking control of what selves their music exposes.

There was already a queue forming outside the venue when we arrived at Village Underground to meet London trio Honeyglaze before their highly anticipated headline show. Following the success of their cult favourite debut album in 2022, the group – comprised of guitarist/vocalist Anouska Sokolow, bassist Tim Curtis and drummer Yuri Shibuici – took some time to regroup and experiment before pushing their sound into bold new territory with their recently released sophomore.

‘Real Deal’ is a powerful statement of intent from a band unapologetically rejecting creative stagnation. To celebrate its release, we caught up with Honeyglaze to discuss their time recording in the countryside, their approach to live performances, and the pre-gig ritual that left their crew a little freaked out.

Your new album, ‘Real Deal’, has been out for a couple of months now. How are you finding the reaction so far?

Tim: Really good, really unexpected. I mean, we thought it would be better than the first album – we’re more proud of it, but we didn’t expect it to be as good as it has been.

Yuri: I think the live shows are when we can feel the reaction the most as well. On tour the past week, we’ve been able to feel just how good the reception has been which is great.

For the production of the album, you decided to step away from London and record it in the countryside. How did this shift in setting impact your creative process?

Anouska: I think we all just wanted to be in the same place for the duration of the recording, really. Obviously, we have jobs and we don’t live together, so instead of commuting to studios and stuff we just wanted to be in the same place so that we could really lock in to the creative process.

Yuri: I think the isolation that came from that is what really benefited the album. A lot of the songs required us to really zone into different moods, and I feel like that would’ve been quite a struggle if we were in a bustling city.

Lyrically, a lot of the new album is really personal. Was it difficult sharing so much of yourselves in these songs?

Anouska: I think it came naturally, to be honest. The whole album was written with the purpose of being heard, so I was always aware of how it might be interpreted. It felt actually quite empowering because I had control over what I was putting out there, whilst with our first album, most of the songs were written before the band even formed, so I didn’t initially write them with an audience in mind. This time, the process was much more intentional and curated.

‘Real Deal’ feels much more mature, both sonically and lyrically, compared to your debut. How important was it for you to push your sound in a new direction?

Yuri: I don’t know if it was important, but I think we did intend to be a lot more ambitious with certain sounds and ideas. We had two weeks to work on this album, whilst for our first one we only had like five days, so we didn’t really have any experimentation time. I think for this album, we really sort of honed into the moods of the songs and expressed them as much as we could.

The album cover is, of course, boxing inspired. If you were to have to step into the ring and you needed a walkout song, what would you choose?

Tim: ‘Help!’ by The Beatles. Maybe ‘Living on a Prayer’ as well.

Yuri: Ha! I think I’d have ‘Falling’ by Alicia Keys. Not very positive.

2024 was a great year for alternative artists like yourself, what albums have you been enjoying recently?

Yuri: The Smile’s new record was great. ‘Three’ by Four Tet was pretty awesome as well.

Tim: I liked Beth Gibbons’ new album.

Anouska: I thought Famous’ ‘Party Album’ was great. It’s crazy.

You’re about to perform here at the Village Underground before touring Europe, have you got any pre-show rituals?

Anouska: Oooh! What’s our new one? Badada?!

Yuri: We’ve been, well it’s not really a ritual we’ve done it like twice, but we’ve been blasting this song called ‘Baddadan’ by Chase and Status really loud, getting us hyped up.

Tim: We used to do Gregorian chants together, too. I think the main thing is just feeling like we’re all on the same page and in the same zone, so just trying to fuse our voices together and feel nice.

Anouska: It’s hard to do them when we don’t have a green room though, it freaks people out. People have walked in on us doing the chants and were like, what the fuck?

What’s your favourite thing about playing live?

Yuri: Cathartism, is that a word?

Anouska: Catharsis.

Yuri: Catharsis – that’s my favourite thing.

Tim: I think it feels nice as well just being able to get away with being a bit weird. When we’re not playing live it feels like we can’t go so crazy or be as expressive – we couldn’t start screaming or headbanging in the middle of the street but we get to do it onstage and that’s great.

If you want to see that headbanging and screaming in full force, Honeyglaze are about to bring their energy to stages across the UK on tour in February.

Honeyglaze Upcoming Dates

19^th Feb, Kasbah Social Club, Limerick

20^th Feb, Ulster Club, Belfast

25^th Feb, Portland Arms, Cambridge

26^th Feb, Yellow Arch Studios, Sheffield

27^th Feb, District, Liverpool

1^st Mar, Central Library, Coventry

2^nd Mar, Cluny, Newcastle

8^th Apr, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

9^th Apr, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham

10^th Apr, Bear Cave, Bournemouth

12^th Apr, Cavern Club, Exeter

14^th Apr, Jericho Tavern, Oxford

15^th Apr, Joiners, Southampton

22^nd May, EartH, London