The Honeyrunners want you to scream real loud for their new single and video Ghosts — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
A mashup of New Orleans second line and pop, Ghosts is rooted in a bouncy rhythm and stitched together by slide guitar, stride piano and horn blasts — a crazy quilt of production that only grows more chaotic as the track rolls on. It is an apt representation of their roller-coaster debut Everything Is On Fire.
“We gathered friends from some of the hardest-hit industries of the pandemic — nurses, musicians, small business owners, filmmakers — and asked them to scream point-blank into a camera,” the band explain. “It was the perfect allegory for Ghosts. It was a catharsis for them, and I hope it will be for the viewer as well. Ghosts is a song born out of stay-at-home anxiety, calling out the whispers in our head that keep us up at night. This album evolved from a self-conscious look at our own fears and challenges, to an encompassing question of ʻWhat really matters in our lives right now?ʼ Our hope is that this record will help people recover from this challenging moment in time, accepting the heartache and growth that has washed over us all collectively in the last two years.”
After a year and a half of challenges in a broken music industry, the musicians are well-acquainted with these feelings (as are most artists), yet they are also acquainted with self-reinvention (ditto). The process was cathartic — writing and recording songs for people who need to feel they are not alone in this heaviness, surrounded by a world full of apathy.
“We write songs for the times we need them,” Dan Dwoskin notes when asked about the insomnia-fueled lyrics of the album. For him, “this record was born of the love, fear, and insecurity of being a new father. The music on Everything Is On Fire was years in the making, honed during a gap between the original Honeyrunners roster and a new lineup of musicians joining the band between 2018 and 2020. We started with 25 songs and trimmed it down to nine, crafting a front-to-back listen with a potent story.”
Recording at bassist Guillermo Subauste’s Pacha Sound (Toronto) was a blessing for the band, alowing theim to take the time to hone the mix the way they wanted it. Self-produced by Subauste and Dwoskin, the band enlisted a slew of local Toronto talent for the album; Carleigh Aikins (Bahamas), Haig Beylerian, Marcus Bucci, Meg Contini (Dwayne Gretzky), Tom Ionescu (Jane’s Party, Whitney Rose), Bruce Mackinnon, Samantha Martin, Tom Moffett (Arkells, Bedouin Soundclash), Andrew Moljgun, Champagne James (Lindi Ortega, Lydia Persaud) and Micah Sky.
The Honeyrunners are a Northern take on Southern Americana — hot-blooded and rife with the poetry of heartache. Their music suits fans of bands like The Lumineers, Bahamas, Alabama Shakes, Brandi Carlile, Nathaniel Rateliff and Leon Bridges, to name a few influences.
Watch Ghosts above, listen to Everything Is On Fire below, and catch up with The Honeyrunners at their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
