The Honeysticks: A Band for Nostalgia, Friendship and Maybe a Cup of Tea — Or Two?
★ interview by Gavin Valladares, introduced by Kyla Rain ★
Let’s set the scene, shall we? Chances are, if you were to look up “wholesome” in the dictionary, Los Angeles band The Honeysticks would pop up right next to the Miriam Webster definition (maybe with a puppy photo or two). These boys have been on our radar for a while now, ever since playing in a Luna Collective show back in June of 2019. With songs like Out Like A Light, I Don’t Love You Anymore, and Get to You, members Ricky Montgomery, Ben Russin and Ryan Fyffe have been supplying us with the perfect soundtrack for nostalgia, friendship, and maybe a cup of tea — or two?
What is the backstory between the name of your band? When I think of a “honeystick,” all I can think of is the small plastic cylinder of honey that some use for tea. Maybe I’m on the right track? Enlighten me.
That's correct! That is what it is. Honestly, the name's meaning has changed over the years. It used to be a relatively convoluted dig at influencer culture, but now it's just what we call ourselves. I (Ricky) do have an anecdote I like to tell about it, though. As a kid, my sister and I would eat honeysticks every Saturday morning as we watched cartoons. Not the healthiest breakfast, but we did it. Our parents divorced when we were toddlers and we moved around a lot from house to house at first, and then eventually between different parts of the country when my mom moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles. There weren't many constants in our lives until we were out of high school. I look back on those mornings as one of the few anchor points in my childhood; a sort of totem of youthfulness and a reminder that I have a lot to be thankful for. I want the people who listen to The Honeysticks to be able to have a similar relationship with our music that I have with those memories.
After listening to your music and doing some research on how your fans interact with it, I found that most people find the music you create to be very relaxing and chill. Is that how you would describe it or is there a different way you would put it?
I would say so. We do tend to have lyrics that are pretty emotionally or even politically charged, but the music is written to be enjoyed separately from that. The songs are written to serve more than one purpose and provide more than one experience. But I think the "chillness" is a natural byproduct of what we've all grown up listening to in our own lives.
This one is a bit funky, but I figured we have to throw some weird questions in to spice this interview up! If all of you had to switch instruments and play a show the next day, what would this new line up look like?
Easy — Ben sings and plays guitar, Ricky plays drums, Ryan is on bass. Why? Because Ryan hates singing, Ben already plays guitar, and Ricky wants to learn more than just the two drum beats he knows. We talked about this literally last night.
Who are the bands that you guys draw upon most heavily for inspiration in your music?
This is different for each of us, but right now I would say ... Radiohead, The Beatles, Madlib, The Beach Boys, Kendrick Lamar, Kevin Parker, Nirvana, Frank Ocean, Vampire Weekend, Sufjan Stevens, Mac DeMarco, and Tyler, The Creator. This will change every day but these artists are pretty consistently on that list.
“I look back on those mornings as one of the few anchor points in my childhood; a sort of totem of youthfulness and a reminder that I have a lot to be thankful for.”
When creating lyrical content, what are some perpetuated themes you find in your music? Do you think back to childhood memories or relate to later adolescence? Is it something completely different for each song?
Lyrics are probably the part of the process I'm most attached to. I used to want to be an author as a kid, and even got a poem published as a teen. My favorite lyricists growing up were Randy Newman, John Lennon, and Kurt Cobain. So you'll find lots of those same experiments going on. Working out childhood trauma through music and disguising it as a pop song, doing a writing exercise about a particular topic I find interesting and churning a song out of it, and occasionally reflecting on my political beliefs (my dad was from the UK and so I grew up feeling pretty pro-socialism which has suddenly become more relevant — shoutout to Bernie). It changes every song, and I expect to always want to tread new territory with each release.
From your Instagram stories, I can see that you have an EP on the way! Anything you would like to say on that and can you indulge us with a date that it will drop?
Yes we do! Singles should start coming out over the summer. No dates yet that I feel comfortable announcing, though. We had wanted them to come out earlier, but we didn't want to rush our new material after fans have already waited so patiently for it.
This may seem a bit of a strange question, but as you guys are The Honeysticks, do you ever play Ricky’s past original songs at shows, or strictly The Honeysticks’ material?
As a rule, we play minimum two Ricky Montgomery songs per show. Usually more. We expect this to continue for as long as we don't have our own full LP out. We know and appreciate how long fans have waited for Ricky to tour Montgomery Ricky, and so we want to deliver on those desires for the people who have supported us (by supporting him) for so many years.
“[Our] songs are written to serve more than one purpose and provide more than one experience.”
Are there any special, weird, or funny moments that stick out to you in particular from past experiences as a band at shows?
We will absolutely never top our show at The Tribal Cafe in Los Angeles. It was the first all ages show we ever played, and the first show where people sang along to our songs. It was such a little space and our fans all crammed into this tiny room to come and support us. Didn't even have Ryan in the band at the point. This must have been in 2016? People from that show are still coming to our sets regularly. It was when we realized that we have the best fans in the world. Which isn't a joke! Shoutout to The Swarm.
Similar to the last question: Are there any similar moments that you remember from just hanging out together, outside of the sphere of music?
The “Out Like a Light 2” music video shoot was the first time the original band lineup all came together to do something band-related in a long time. I don't think we had even all four been in the same room for 5 or 6 months. We met up with Nikoli at Ricky and Ben's apartment and shot the stuff with Ryan, Ricky and Caleb. Ben was at work and couldn't make it in time for the shoot, which we were rushing at the time because it was supposed to come out way earlier (the actual reason why he's not in certain parts of the video). Eventually, Ben came over and we shot the rest. It was a really special and fun day, and the last day we felt like the original Honeysticks. I'm glad we got that on camera, and I hope that reads to the audience as they watch the video. The tenderness was real.
What is something you want to say to the fans that read this interview?
Any fan who cares enough about us to read our interviews, watch our videos, talk to us on our socials, or donate to our Patreon literally keeps this project alive. Thank you all so much, and I hope you like the next few releases we're making for you. If you live in one of the cities on our [postponed] tour with Greer, please come see us. We'd love to meet you!
