Its foundations laid in emotional introspection, post-tour hangovers, and the harsh realities of surviving in the real world as musicians, HONEYGLAZE find grace in falling through the cracks in their new album 'Real Deal'.

Words: Rebecca Kestevan.
Photos: Kalpesh Lathigra.

"It's funny, that feeling of excitement - everything happens over such a long period of time you lose a bit of it, then it randomly comes back," ponders Anouska Sokolow, singer of London-based trio Honeyglaze. Along with bass player Tim Curtis and drummer Yuri Shibuichi, the band are just a couple of weeks away from the release of their sophomore album 'Real Deal' - and are taking a moment to reflect on it all.

As its cover art might suggest, 'Real Deal' feels like one big confrontation. It's gritty, unapologetic, yet also nestled within it are moments of real tenderness. There's an urgent sense of push and pull, of a fight between inner turbulence and calm exteriors - the calm versus the storm.

Honeyglaze describe the album as reactionary, in some ways, to their 2022 self-titled debut. "There were very specific rules and limitations," Sokolow explains about the record, produced by Speedy Wunderground's Dan Carey. "We wanted to have a bit more creative freedom. We had a lot more time to pick and choose and be a lot more creatively fussy."

From abstract musical references, dynamics, structures, and Shibuichi's ever-changing drumming styles, the band had a real opportunity to explore their sound and what they wanted to create with 'Real Deal'. "We're all quite driven by novelty, and I think that's important," says Curtis. "We'd all have these epiphanies and be like, 'Oh shit, maybe I didn't need to be doing all that!" he laughs.

Driven by this novelty of trying different things and taking different musical routes, what Honeyglaze have created is an album rife with sonic diversity, niche and subtle musical references, crazy middle sections, and instrumental layers, and it's the band's proudest work to date.

"We actually had a very clear idea of how it was going to sound," explains Curtis. "It was a bit of a Michelangelo process; like carving a statue, the statue's already in the stone. We already knew what we wanted, so it was a matter of shaping it. It was a lot easier than if we'd gone into the studio and then tried to come up with how it was all gonna sound. Because we had so much time, we could shape it."

Some songs, however, took longer than others to polish off. "'Don't' had a really long process," Curtis admits. "We weren't sure we were gonna release it. It just didn't seem like a full song. It was cool, but it was very different - it was just verses, and then we were like, 'Now what? We've got to make a big vibe shift and make it really moody or experimental', and just none of them worked."