Honey Ryder
Honey Ryder are set to return with a new single Marley's Chains and a new album to follow later this year.
The band have taken two and a half years to write and record this album and have worked with some of the best writers in that time.
I caught up with Lindsay to discuss the new single and album, working in Nashville and what lies ahead this year.
- You are about to release your new single Marley's Chains so what can we expect from the track?
I went to Nashville and wrote with some fantastic writers and I wrote the track with a guy called Emmerson Hart. So for Marley’s Chains the vibe was kind of being on a ranch in Nashville and it was very chilled.
We got the hook for the song straight away and then, bizarrely, we had writer’s block and we stopped writing and I went away. And I had jet lag and in the middle of the night I came up with the idea for the rest of the song, lyrically and melodically, and then went back and met Emmerson again before the end of the trip and we finished the song.
It’s got a got a country twist to it so it is a pop song with a country influence and is hopefully fairly uplifting. I was reading a book and there was a reference to Jacob Marley and about the heaviness of Jacob Marley weighting on someone’s shoulders - I wasn’t sure what it meant so when I looked it up I discovered that Jacob Marley is the character in Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol.
I was watching a film and it had a character in it who had incredible remorse, he was an alcoholic and had almost run over his child whist drunk and his wife and son had left him and he hadn’t seen them since.
So it was how he was learning to accept what he had done and move on with his life, so he had major regret but it was learning coping mechanisms of living with regret.
Melodically the song is quite uplifting we wanted it to have a feel good vibe. It’s accepting that humans are not perfect and we commit wrongdoings and it’s learning to live with ourselves after that.
- There is a real pop feel to the track but also with a bit of folk and country so how would you describe the sound of the track and the rest of the album?
When we went to Thailand to start recording the album we wrote a song called You Can’t Say That and that was the bench mark for the rest of the album.
It’s a mixture of all out influences, but I would say that Fleetwood Mac is a strong influence for us and I was listening to a lot of singer songwriters as I was growing up from James Taylor to Carole King, so You Can’t Say was the benchmark.
We went to Nashville after that and we knew the sound that we wanted for the album, we wanted to have a pop album but with lots of cross-over and lots of different influences. Marley’s Chains is the most country that we go on the album, that really is the Nashville sound, the rest of the album is not quite the same as that but it has folk and country influences without a doubt.
- You have mentioned Emerson Hart already so how did that collaboration come about?
When we had written You Can’t Say That we got the email of Paul Worley, the producer of Lady Antebellum, as we thought that he would like our sound.
He loved it and he flew us out to Nashville because he thought we should be writing with the people there and also writing tracks for Lady Antebellum. So he just fell in love with the track and was like ‘you guys just have to come out here’ and that is how it all come about.
- So did Emmerson help pen any other tracks on the album and how was the whole experience of writing with him?
We wrote with ten or twelve different writers but I wrote just the one song with Emmerson, I had just one day booked in with him but because of the writer’s block on that first day… we knew that we had something good and we knew that I had to write with Emmerson again because we knew that we had something good.
So right at the end of the trip I went loaded with ideas for the rest of the track and we finished it in a morning.
It was amazing writing with different people in Nashville and we learnt a lot, they are almost like wordsmiths they are very into the story and the lyric side of the song.
So working with some of those high calibre writers, a lot of them had written number ones, and we were kind of in awe of the way that they worked as they are very fast and very inventive lyrically.
- The album is out later this summer so how does the new single introduce us to the rest of the record?
Well it’s a good representation as Marley’s Chains is uplifting track and I think that the album is uplifting melodically but I would say that each track is very thoughtful lyrically.
We have taken two and a half year to write this album so we have really thought about it and it has been a labour of love, every single note and every single word has been thought about and I hope that people can hear that when they listen to the record and we hope they enjoy it.
I think Marley’s Chains is a good benchmark because while it is the most country that we go on the album it’s definitely has an uplifting vibe to it and that introduces the album pretty well.
It is also something that sticks in people’s minds Marley’s Chains as it is quite catchy and lyrically it is a line that you remember when you have heard it.
- You released your debut album back in 2009 so how have you developed as a singer, writer and as a band in that time?
We have been writing with lots of different people and I think that that is the best way to be inspired. We have gone to different places; we have written in Thailand, Britain and Nashville and I think that you can draw on different inspirations when you visit different places.
Two or three of the tracks have been written with a Canadian guy sitting in a studio in London overlooking sewage works on a rainy gloomy day - there is a song on the album called Beautiful Horizon and that was about dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and stuff.
Every different scenario makes you think of a different thing and inspires you in a different way. I feel very happy with the album because we have taken our time and we have drawn on all out life experiences and all the people that we have met along the way.
- You have mentioned that you recorded some of the album in Thailand so how was that experience?
That was amazing. We were lucky because we knew someone who needed guinea pigs for his studio, it’s called Karma Sound, and so for mate’s rates we were able to go out there.
So we spent a month out there writing and honing all the songs until we were happy with them. It was like being in a Big Brother house as we stayed for several weeks on this complex and lived and breathed the music, got up in the morning and worked in the studio all day.
Sometimes we would finish early and sometimes we would work in 2am, we just worked until we were happy with what we had achieved on that particular day. It was incredible.
- The album is produced by Jon O'Mahony so how did you find working with him and what does his experience bring to the record?
Jon is my husband; we met when I was fifteen when we were in a band together. We didn’t get together until later on in life but I have had a friendship since I was fifteen. We wrote the first album and he produced that and he has been managing us since.
We get on brilliantly and when I write a song Jon always have the right vision for it and he always takes it in the direction I want it to - sometimes I can’t explain it in words but when he starts producing he always takes it in the direction we all want to go. He is very inspiring.
- Well how do you find working with him - does your professional relationship sometimes put a strain on your personal relationship?
Very very occasionally, but in general we do get on very well. Music is our passion, all our lives we have really been into music and sport; music being the top think but we also love outdoor activities.
I think if we’d have started and realised years ago that it wasn’t going to work then we would have stopped quite quickly but it’s because it works well between us that we keep going.
We are quite harmonious in the studio because we seem to have the same idea of what we want from a track and the music that we like is pretty similar. So far we get on fantastically and if we were in a position of making a third album then I would want Jon to produce it without a doubt.
- What made you want to pursue a music career and how did you get into the business?
I studied languages at university and I knew that I wanted, when I had finished, that I wanted to be a performer. But I knew that I had to make money, every time you rehearse in a rehearsal room you have to pay for it, so I lived in Sheppard’s Bush and I worked at MTV.
I worked there for quite a few years and that was how I was able to do music. I have done my apprenticeship in that I have been in bands since I was fifteen; I have been in cover bands and wedding bands, all the time I was writing my own songs so when I hooked up with the guys in Honey Ryder I already had a lot of songs that I had written.
So I was doing things like wedding bands to make the money basically and I worked at MTV during the day.
- So how did the band come together?
The first album I wrote with a guy called Martyn Shone, I met him at MTV and we were in a band together. Then we started touring and Jason began sessioning for us as he played guitar as well.
It turns out that Jason and I are Honey Ryder as Martyn had to leave for personal reasons and Matt Bishop has joined us.
- Finally what's coming up for you in the rest of 2012?
Hopefully we will be really busy if the single does really well. But we are going to be on BBC Breakfast and This Morning on ITV and then we will be doing a live event for Smooth Radio.
So hopefully there will be lots of playing live and we hope to get spot listed on Radio 2, we had a spin on Wogan’s show. I hope that 2012 is going to be a successful year for us - keep your fingers crossed.
Honey Ryder’s new single Marley’s Chains is released 30th April
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw