Sydney five-piece Wild Honey are about to embark on a six-date east-coast tour in support of their newly released album, In Your Head, and The Music is proud as punch to be premiering the killer new 12-track work today.
The eclectic collection of tunes encapsulates the unpredictable and colourful adventure that is growing up as a young adult, drawing on personal relationships, uni experiences and more to paint a polished portrait of the peaks and troughs of everyday existence, with some killer riffs and undeniable beats driving the journey.
The band cite influences from Crowded House and The Go-Betweens to The Cars on this record, all of which rear their head in various ways through Wild Honey's distinct filter to ride high on jangly guitars, layered harmonies and infectious melodies to burrow their way into your brain long after the record's over.
In Your Head, produced by Jack Moffitt (The Preatures, Mosquito Coast) and mixed by Doug Boehm (Girls, Dune Rats) is out now through Spillway Records. Check out a track-by-track of the album from the band, below, while you listen through.
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The band will kick off their album tour at home, at the Lansdowne Hotel, on Friday 17 November, before tearing it up through Melbourne, Brisbane, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and Manly. Tickets are available now.
See theGuide for more information.
Wild Honey — In Your Head track by track
Break Away
The album's statement of intent. It’s a noisy song with a real stride to it, all about bailing on the conventional path, setting yourself free and going for it, whatever ‘it’ may be. Buck up! This one might get you into trouble.
Messed Up
It’s a song but it’s more like a letter of absence. Although it’s a pretty sunny sound, the lyrics let on that the sunlight is pounding your head. A cry for sympathy from the depths of a woozy hangover. It’s always had a bit of the Go-Betweens 16 Lovers Lane-era vibe for me.
Can’t Hold Back
As many D-G-A songs do, this one went through a few outfits before it went out, eventually with a late-'80s Americana-meets-shoegaze vibe. Fruity. Our producer, Jack Moffitt, helped us find a unique space for this song to sit. Originally I wrote it about this beautiful girl on North Bondi Rocks who succeeded in distracting the entire band from the photo shoot we were meant to be doing.
Guardian
A bit of a tearjerker, some days. I wrote it for my grandmother who passed away as we were going into recording the album. The song is carried by a positive sentiment, though, that people we love are always with us, keeping watch over us in one way or another. I get a Crowded House vibe from this one live.
Pull It Together
Sometimes you’ve just got to stop feeling sorry for yourself and find a synthesiser! Some people might recognise this one as we put out a single version last year. It’s metamorphosed since and taken a much more sonic journey. This song embodies what the Wild Honey experience has been the past two years, a kind of Peter Pan/Lost Boys meets The Endless Summer. You’ve got a friend in this song.
Gone For Good
This song is sort of like a pisstake on the Corona ‘from where you’d rather be’ notion of Surfers Paradise. It’s just kinda whack, all that reclaimed land, sketchy nightlife, and skyscraper apartment city. We’ve always enjoyed playing there but I’m amazed each time we get out unscathed. Bit of a Joni Mitchell — Big Yellow Taxi vibe.
Good Times
This might surprise some people who haven’t seen this side of Wild Honey before. I had the chord progression sitting around for years, and then one day I just sung the words like I’d known them all along. It’s about that phase just before you move out of home, when you’re on the cusp of growing up, but still can’t stand the sound of your parents fighting.
In Your Head
This little track has a very White Album feel to it. I wrote it in bed one day as my girlfriend was sleeping; she was clearly dreaming and I started daydreaming about what she was dreaming about. I wanted the harmonies to have that mind-expanding feel, almost like brass parts. Plenty of reverb and a really cool drum pattern.
Take My Word
This is a ‘learnt the hard way’ song. We all make mistakes, sure, but what about those ones you see coming, slowly, but can’t get outta the way of? It’s like embarrassing yourself to yourself. For a subdued song, there’s quite a bit of groove. The verses are a well-trodden chord progression, but the turnaround is a charmer.
Renee
Wingwoman homage to our drummer’s girlfriend, Renee. It’s a shuffle feel with a lyric about the first Wild Honey tour, the first night out on that tour, and Adam making friends… Every record needs a cheeky song, right?
What You Get
This has always been a chameleon song. It has moments where it feels like Springsteen, and others where it sounds like The Cars. It became the song on the record that we wanted to finally get a hold on and put down. What you get is a bizarre song preaching the value of good karma, as what you give is what you get.
Supermarket
One day, we’ll leave our menial day jobs and this will be the song we all look back on. Hmm. It’s about that feeling of realising you’re probably not going to make it for the first time. When all the sacrifices you’re making get you feeling a little hopeless, and success in any form has never looked so far off. Yes, I was working in the supermarket when I wrote it and, no, I haven’t given up just yet.
