Diandra Interviews Bad Honey: Music To Stay Awake
Lydia Clowes and Teresa Origone, a.k.a Bad Honey, are incredibly thoughtful song-writers fusing important, social justice issues, like Climate Change, into lyrics and sounds that feel ready-made for radio. Honestly, I can’t recall the last track I head on Pop Radio that spoke up and spoke out against humanity self-destructiveness. For Bad Honey, sweetness versus darkness is common theme in their new PHENOMENAL EP, Awake Tonight, which make you feel like you are bounce house of rhythms being encouraged by two voices calling you to stand. In our interview, we discuss what it means for humanity and their duo to stand up and have it’s own back.
Diandra: How do you feel Blissfully Unaware is poignant to these current times?
Bad Honey: Although we wrote this song last summer, whilst thinking about the planet’s issues surrounding climate change, it feels very valid in the times we are currently in too. Taking a walk everyday, the lyrics of Blissfully Unaware seem quite appropriate, especially in the animals you see happily (maybe even more happily without so much human impact at the moment!) living their lives the same way, unaware of everything that is going on. In fact it seems that nature is thriving around the world, with events such as dolphins in the canals in Venice. It then comes back to our point about climate change too in that respect.
Diandra: In honor of Circles, what are the ways you feel and see you have each other’s back?
Bad Honey: Music is a form of communication, and therefore you bond through doing it. Creating songs definitely does that because you end up opening up about things that you maybe haven’t talked about with many other people. Through writing and performing, we have got to know each other pretty well. Also working and managing a band is quite a task, in itself, and we have created a good balance between us; we seem to just know when and when not to take charge on things.
Diandra: What are the strengths you see in each other?
Lydia: Aside from being a synth and keyboard master, Teresa has a really unique mind in the way she sees things, which I feel really helps when creating music, and also when approaching anything that comes alongside it. Being a musician these days requires so many other skills such as branding yourself, creating social media content, music videos, doing admin, and it can be really refreshing to work on these things with Teresa as she has a fun and interesting way of approaching them.
Teresa: Lydia has the greatest and nicest voice you will ever hear and that’s a very strong point. Also, I think we work pretty well as a duo as we can bring different things to the table. I tend to sometimes overcomplicate and overthink things a bit when we write, but Lydia can bring everything down to the simplicity and clarity that we need. Also, when taking admin or planning decisions she is often the ‘voice of reason’ while I can be too impulsive (especially with budget and spending decisions!).
Diandra: What was the inspiration behind your name Bad Honey?
Bad Honey: This is the most difficult task to do! We spent ages going through hundreds of different options; none of which felt 100% right and also had already been taken. We liked the idea of honey – partly because our music is often sweet and pure, but also because Lydia loves bees, but we didn’t want the name to sound too twee, and wanted something to reflect the unique, other worldly places that our music sometimes goes to. So going through many options to fit with “Honey” we landed on “Bad”, which just felt right.
Diandra: What are the things, currently, that help you feel still in these times?
Lydia: It’s a really weird time for everyone, at the moment, but being self employed, it feels important to build a bit of a routine to feel good. I have been doing the P.E with Joe Wicks every morning (which is really fun and actually pretty hard!), followed by yoga and then I practice piano, singing and bass guitar, sometimes venturing off into writing a song or learning a new cover, and then I walk my dog for a break in the middle. Being outside is something that’s always made me feel peaceful so I’m trying to continue doing this as much as possible.
Diandra: What is your favorite memory of staying awake for a night?
Teresa: Staying awake happens pretty often to me because I feel like my brain only really wakes up in the afternoon so I am a nocturnal person. I had a lot of fun nights especially in the summer with friends, and a lot of quiet ones when I just watched films or tried to make some music and feel really ‘focused’. The title of our EP is more a way of describing a rare moment of clarity and quietness, loneliness and simplicity.
Diandra: Awake Tonight seemingly embodies what it is to feel alive. How do you feel music has been a life-line for you or even a teacher on how to live?
Lydia: I definitely listen to music all the time and it just helps me experience beauty, feel all the feelings and process things, and that’s why I love it and I just want to make more of it.
Diandra: In honor of Easily, describe your first crush, and what makes you fall for someone?
Teresa: I’m not a very balanced person in the sense that either I don’t like people at all or I become a bit obsessed, so I guess that’s a good way of describing all my crushes. Easily is about the feeling of spontaneity and effortlessness you can experience with someone at the beginning of a relationship.
Diandra: Describe the first moment you both knew you were supposed to make music together.
Bad Honey: A pretty great moment was when we went to a recording studio on a Norwegian island, three years ago, and listened back to what we made one evening. We were only there for four days, but it felt like a way longer time. We also went back there just last month to record some new music; it’s a magical place.
Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory with music?
Teresa: Screaming opera music in the house when I was 6 years old.
For More Information On Bad Honey And Their New EP Awake Tonight Click Here.
