“I thought by the time I got to album four I would know what the fuck I was doing.” We’re three weeks out from the release of Black Honey’s fourth album, ‘Soak’, and it’s all starting to get a bit real for vocalist/guitarist Izzy Phillips.

"I have a really overwhelming sense of anticipation. I can’t stop thinking about the songs we haven’t put out yet, and hoping that people like them. I always end up submitting the album, then having about two weeks where I think we’ve picked the wrong songs and wasted everyone’s time and money. But now I love it again, and I’m really proud of it."

You’re unlikely to find a songwriter quite as in touch with the present as Izzy, with every tiny detail on the album being a true reflection of where she is at that exact moment, on that exact day, in that exact studio. That explains why, on some days, she has a crisis of confidence – but it also shows her ability to take the world’s pulse, melt it down to its most basic trials and tribulations, and revivify it into a wonky, apocalyptic collection of tracks that ultimately became ‘Soak’.

The latest edition of the Black Honey film series, the record is a twelve-song foray into trauma, emotional torment, and global disconnect – all viewed through an Orwellian lens of state control and Big Tech domination. Whether it’s Izzy’s haunting layered vocal in ‘Insulin’, the dissonant harmonics on ‘Shallow’, or the slinky, syncopated spiral of ‘Carroll Avenue’, the band pushed every idea to its furthest ebb and, with it, forced themselves into territory they’d yet to explore.

"I never try to keep things in balance. I wanted everything to sound a bit woozy and a bit drunk, so we pushed everything to its full extremes," Izzy explains. "One of the criticisms I get about my songwriting a lot is that I’m very extreme – we’ll put a disco song next to a massive rock song, but I’m not going to change that."

"We reject the idea that you have to present yourself as just one thing. I’m a woman, I contain multitudes. I’m not going to change just to make myself palatable to a consumer audience. So, with this one, we said, 'What’s the weirdest thing Black Honey could do?'"

Out of that came ‘Vampire in the Kitchen’, a track that combines an ominous, stripped-back start with a sudden rush of blood to the head – glam-rock guitar lines and crashing drums punching you square in the teeth.

"We recorded it in a kitchen in Ibiza," Izzy recalls, "so it’s got that really messy vocal that we tuned up here and there. We basically took it that Black Honey can be an intimate whisper into a crusty mic, but we’re also a fanfare and a huge 80s shred – we can do whatever we want."

That’s a mantra Izzy has taken into every aspect of her life, with Black Honey just one of her many creative outlets. She’s not only the frontwoman of a band beloved by punk icon Iggy Pop – she’s also a songwriter for other popstars like herself, and a fully qualified tattoo artist. All of this comes together in the wider ‘Soak’ universe, making this record less a standalone album and more a soundtrack to Black Honey’s latest chapter.

For Izzy, the cinematic side of Black Honey is just as important as the sonic direction. Music videos inspired by Kubrickian neo-futurist dystopia (‘Psycho’) and a 60s-style variety performance (‘Shallow’) help to tie together a swirling sense of doom with enough whimsy and contrast to keep the whole ‘Soak’ project from twirling out of control. She’s creating a universe – every aspect needs to be right, or the life cycle can’t fully function.

"I feel really liberated knowing that the visual aspects really matter to the wider project. It’s all part of the language you develop and communicating that with the people who you’re making it for. I’m a world-builder, I’m a multi-disciplinary artist, so it’s important to be totally immersed in the universe you create. It’s not for everyone, but it isn’t meant to be."

Alongside these videos lies album artwork that reinforces the underlying themes of ‘Soak’: being subjected to the torture of modern life, whether you asked for it or not. Featuring Izzy’s eye forced open by medical equipment, it’s a reflection of the information age – a non-stop bombardment of data flooding your senses.

"It’s definitely inspired by a sense of voyeurism – that we can’t look away, but we also don’t want to. There’s this obsessive lens that we have on each other through social media and AI that basically trains and rewards us for interacting with it. I have such parasocial relationships with people on social media that I think I know better than I do because I follow them on Instagram or whatever."

Heavily inspired by ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the shared language between the album cover, the video for ‘Psycho’, and the swirling, off-kilter soundscape all draws ‘Soak’ back to the same central idea. Basically, the world’s fucked, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

"On my deathbed, my biggest regret will be that I spent too much time on my phone. I’m watching families getting murdered and bombed to bits, but I’m also paralysed to do anything about it. I care about the environment, but I’m a hypocrite because I have to engage in activity that makes it worse – in fact, the bank I use is probably helping to fund climate change and warfare. Maybe it’s a good thing if the planet burns down and kills us all."

That’s not to say that ‘Soak’ is a dirge – a pessimistic collection that doesn’t find humour in hypocrisy or the wry smile in the inconsistencies of the global script:

"I find comfort in knowing that we’re a small part of a gigantic puzzle, and it’s good that art is reflecting that everything is just a lot right now. And like, I love a Lime bike; I love being able to connect with like-minded people all over the world and make tattoos for people and write songs with popstars. We can enjoy these advancements, but we have to keep talking about all the shit that’s so wrong. What a time to be alive, eh?!"

As much as the digital realm inspired much of the album’s content, it was Izzy’s human connections that really formed the foundations of this fourth record. Taking time off to decompress and process all the years of graft and grinding that have got her this far gave her the space to breathe life into this new creation.

"I went travelling to Austria and Colombia, but honestly, that didn’t influence my songwriting at all," she says. "I’m not the kind of person to look at a sunset and be so inspired that I have to make a song about it. It was the first time I haven't worked three jobs just to survive, so it definitely gave me the time to journal, to hone my craft, and exercise those muscles."

"But most of the big stuff happened in Los Angeles – I attribute most of the work to that time. I was meeting up with mates, making tattoos, just cycling around Downtown, and subsequently building the songs that would end up on the album. I feel really viscerally connected to the art I was making and the music I was listening to – especially Fontaines D.C., Mitski... I went through a massive Randy Newman phase, so that really unlocked the rest of the project."

Collaboration – both within the band and from outside voices – has always been central to what Black Honey do. Unashamed about connecting with other songwriters at writing camps and in the studio, it gave Izzy a reinvigorated passion and some much-needed affirmation.

"There’s a mythology that the best rock bands don’t co-write, but that’s not true. There’s no shame in admitting that you’re working that muscle – it’s a craft, you have to hone it. I feel really privileged to have had some mentorship, especially from female songwriters like Cathy Dennis, who is just the most amazing songwriter I’ve ever met. My self-worth is so low that sometimes it’s good to work with other people so they can show you your light."

And let’s not forget – for a band to reach album four, you must be doing something right, both personally and creatively. Izzy once said being in a band was the hardest thing she’s ever done – but nothing good ever came from taking the easy route, did it?

"If anything, it just gets harder every year," she laughs. "The courage and tenacity to stick at it takes up most of the brainpower, to be honest. I’m really proud of the 20-year-old who gave it some welly, because now I feel the most supported I’ve ever been. Black Honey is a four-way marriage where we grow together and keep evolving. We must be doing something right if we all still want to be doing this – so that’s a nice vote of confidence."

Izzy has never made any bones about the fact that being an artist is, frankly, rough going. That said, she’s never been one to quit. She was built to withstand harder trials than this – and ‘Soak’ is proof that turning up the heat only makes Black Honey burn more brightly. As she puts it: "I just refuse to die."

"If I boil it down to the basics, I love this enough to keep going no matter what. I’m still the teenager with a delusional dream and a pint of Stella in my hand. But now, if people quit music, I get it. It’s great that artists are acknowledging the shit parts of being in the industry – they’re acknowledging the ten-year journey, and we’re all being more honest."

It’s a journey that isn’t slowing down any time soon. Izzy is as determined as ever to fulfil her ambitions – and you'd be daft to bet against her now.

"I feel really inspired right now. I feel really supported, and like everything we want to do is possible. I’m really excited to play festivals next year, and I’d love to go on Later... with Jools Holland too. There’s always something good that comes with every new album. You can’t predict what it’s going to be – but there’s going to be something that blows me away, so I’m looking forward to this next bit."