![\"honey-ryder\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/honey-ryder.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1\")
<\/h3>\nHoney Ryder is a London-based British music trio, consisting of Lindsay O’Mahony on vocals, Matt Bishop on rhythm guitar and Jason Huxley on lead guitar. The band’s style of music varies from rock to folk and indie. Zoe had the opportunity to speak with them back in April. First published on her Best British Country Music blog<\/a>, we reproduce it here. Enjoy!<\/strong><\/h4>\nZH: So firstly tell me a bit about Honey Ryder as a group and what stage you\u2019re at?<\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: Well we\u2019re on our third album now, the first album had more of a rockier edge to it I guess and we\u2019ve been to Nashville twice now in the last few years and our roots are cemented in Country, we still have influences from folk and rock but we wrote with Nashville writers and recorded there so we were inspired by that scene. I guess ‘Born in a Bottle’ and ‘Marley’s Chains’ are country\/pop albums. We\u2019ve been together now for quite a few years so we\u2019ve hopefully made our mark on the scene now, we keep plugging away, we\u2019re just enjoying the ride.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: What would you say the bands main influences are?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nJason: Everything really, I suppose Blues, Pop, Country, I grew up listening to a lot of Folk and Rock like Simon and Garfunkel and Dire Straights, at the time I didn\u2019t realise how Country the Dire Straights were but looking back they did have some country influences in there. Certainly since the Dire Straights finished Knopfler has gone down that country route.<\/span><\/p>\nMatt: We like singer-songwriter type music, James Taylor, artists like that. I\u2019m very into funk music as well that influences a few tracks and Rock of course.<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: Mum and Dad played every genre apart from Heavy Metal to me growing up but they liked Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton when I was really young and they made a big impact on me. Ode to Billie Joe, they played it over and over again when I was young and I was mesmerised by it, I couldn\u2019t believe the lyrics. So country was always a big influence on me but I do like singer-songwriter stuff as well.<\/span><\/p>\nJason: Glen Campbell as well my dad used to listen to that.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: How did you come up with the name Honey Ryder?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: It was with John our manager who loves Bond and we were talking about the films and Honey Ryder is a character in the Dr No. film she walks out the sea singing about coconuts or something and he said how about Honey Ryder and we just liked it. We have to be careful though as its also a porn site or something a bit dodgy so you\u2019ve got to be careful.<\/span><\/p>\nJason: There\u2019s also a south east Asian dance troop with the same name only they have an i in their name not a y.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: Can you describe your songwriting process and where you draw inspiration from lyrically?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: Lyrically it comes from every day life, ‘Marley\u2019s Chains’ lyrics came to me in the middle of the night, I was jet lagged in Nashville and I had the idea originally because its a phrase from the book Christmas Carol, so I had this idea about the cloak of regret. We think of things on the street and type them into our phones and things. <\/span><\/p>\nZH: Where did you get the idea for ‘Born in a Bottle’?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nJason: It was a combination of things that I pieced together, I got this idea, have you heard the story of Robert Johnson who supposedly sold his soul at the crossroads for fame and glory? He ended up being killed at a young age. So this song is about a young girl who\u2019s family\u2019s a bit rundown, her mum\u2019s a junkie and she sells her soul to the devil to get a better life and ultimately she ends up in prison and robs a bank with the guy she meets, its kind of a Bonny and Clyde story. But it just came into my head.<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: Often the boys come to me with a riff, especially when we\u2019ve been in Nashville, they\u2019ll record lots of little riffs and ideas and I\u2019ll come up with concepts. Sometimes you have the melody and then the lyric or the other way round, it can be either way.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: Are all three of you involved in the writing process then?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: Yeah unfortunately we\u2019re not able to write as much as we\u2019d like, we\u2019ve had quite a few children between us in recent years so we\u2019ve been trying to create music and do that at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\nJason: Not with each other, just to clear that up haha!<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: No haha! But now we\u2019re trying to focus on this fourth album and really go for it and keep the momentum up from this album. If ‘Born in a Bottle’ does well we don\u2019t want to have too much pressure and think oh we best do a fourth one quick. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!<\/span><\/p>\nZH: Whats the strangest thing you\u2019ve ever written about?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: Well I reckon writing about a woman who sells her soul to the devil is fairly strange. I tell you what\u2019s a bizarre one, not the song but the situation. We wrote a song called ‘Beautiful Horizons’ on ‘Marley\u2019s Chains’, and we wrote that opposite a sewage dump, and it was called Beautiful Horizon so that was at odds with what we was trying to write about so that was strange to be inspired by a sewage dump.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: Tell me about your trips to Nashville as a band?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLindsay: We\u2019ve been twice, the second time was particularly good because we played the Bluebird Cafe. We played an open mic night there and at the end of it we got to play again because they knew we were from the UK and they said come and do another song. And then we were in the studio recording with these legendary musicians who play all the time with James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young, Lady Antebellum, all these guys we got to record with. Nashville\u2019s just a playground for musicians and people who love music so we\u2019re just walking through the streets, going in bars and watching these amazing musicians. So we want to go again, hopefully this year. We sent our track to Paul Worley who\u2019s produced the dixie Chicks and Lady A and he heard it and liked it so he set us up with all the songwriters, the A-listers over there. Mirage we wrote with Tom Douglas who wrote Lady Antebellum\u2019s ‘I Run to You’ and Paul has been kind of executive producer so hopefully we can go out and see him again and he can do some producing with us. So that’s the Nashville story.<\/span><\/p>\nZH: What are your mid-gig thoughts?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nJason: Depending on the gig really, if its a good gig I\u2019m very into it and listening to whats going on, if its a bad gig I\u2019m thinking \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get home and have some weetabix.\u201d But yeah, your mind can drift sometimes!<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: I\u2019m usually looking at the crowd and if I see someone talking it spurs me on and I think, \u201cI\u2019m going to make you stop talking\u201d so I get more into it. Sometimes I get flashes of mum thoughts because I have a three and a one year old and I suddenly think \u201cDid I tell mum where the spare dummies are?\u201d haha so I have stupid thoughts go through my head. But we\u2019re generally quite focussed particularly with the new album because until you\u2019ve gigged it and gigged it you can\u2019t think about anything else until you\u2019re confident with it on stage.<\/span><\/p>\nMatt: If I concentrate too much on the fretboard though I mess up so I have to let my mind wander a bit and then what happens with my hands just comes out naturally because we\u2019ve rehearsed it so much. I do a bit of people watching, pick out people and wonder what they think of us.<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: If you see someone you know does it not put you off a bit, it doesn\u2019t for me now but it used to, I used to avoid looking at them.<\/span><\/p>\nMatt: Yeah I avoided looking at my mum and dad yesterday for some reason but I usually think of home life and what I\u2019ve got to do in the coming week, I have a lot of animals so I think about them, my Alpacas.<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: You should do a blog, “Alpaca dilemmas: Everyday problems!”<\/span><\/p>\nMatt: Their toe nails do need clipping, I was thinking about that in yesterdays gig a bit.<\/span><\/p>\nLindsay: That must be the most original answer you\u2019ve ever had.<\/span><\/p>\nMatt: I have to clip their toe nails about once every two months. I love doing it, I can\u2019t wait to do it!<\/span><\/p>\nZH: Do you enjoy doing that as much as performing?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nMatt: I probably shouldn\u2019t say yes, but I will anyway!<\/span><\/p>\nFind Honey Ryder on their website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Youtube<\/a>\u00a0and Twitter<\/a>. Find Honey Ryder’s music on iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> and via their official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n![\"Born](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/KK4wj2tolOA\/maxresdefault.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
Lindsay: Well we\u2019re on our third album now, the first album had more of a rockier edge to it I guess and we\u2019ve been to Nashville twice now in the last few years and our roots are cemented in Country, we still have influences from folk and rock but we wrote with Nashville writers and recorded there so we were inspired by that scene. I guess ‘Born in a Bottle’ and ‘Marley’s Chains’ are country\/pop albums. We\u2019ve been together now for quite a few years so we\u2019ve hopefully made our mark on the scene now, we keep plugging away, we\u2019re just enjoying the ride.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: What would you say the bands main influences are?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Jason: Everything really, I suppose Blues, Pop, Country, I grew up listening to a lot of Folk and Rock like Simon and Garfunkel and Dire Straights, at the time I didn\u2019t realise how Country the Dire Straights were but looking back they did have some country influences in there. Certainly since the Dire Straights finished Knopfler has gone down that country route.<\/span><\/p>\n Matt: We like singer-songwriter type music, James Taylor, artists like that. I\u2019m very into funk music as well that influences a few tracks and Rock of course.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: Mum and Dad played every genre apart from Heavy Metal to me growing up but they liked Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton when I was really young and they made a big impact on me. Ode to Billie Joe, they played it over and over again when I was young and I was mesmerised by it, I couldn\u2019t believe the lyrics. So country was always a big influence on me but I do like singer-songwriter stuff as well.<\/span><\/p>\n Jason: Glen Campbell as well my dad used to listen to that.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: How did you come up with the name Honey Ryder?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay: It was with John our manager who loves Bond and we were talking about the films and Honey Ryder is a character in the Dr No. film she walks out the sea singing about coconuts or something and he said how about Honey Ryder and we just liked it. We have to be careful though as its also a porn site or something a bit dodgy so you\u2019ve got to be careful.<\/span><\/p>\n Jason: There\u2019s also a south east Asian dance troop with the same name only they have an i in their name not a y.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Can you describe your songwriting process and where you draw inspiration from lyrically?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay: Lyrically it comes from every day life, ‘Marley\u2019s Chains’ lyrics came to me in the middle of the night, I was jet lagged in Nashville and I had the idea originally because its a phrase from the book Christmas Carol, so I had this idea about the cloak of regret. We think of things on the street and type them into our phones and things. <\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Where did you get the idea for ‘Born in a Bottle’?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Jason: It was a combination of things that I pieced together, I got this idea, have you heard the story of Robert Johnson who supposedly sold his soul at the crossroads for fame and glory? He ended up being killed at a young age. So this song is about a young girl who\u2019s family\u2019s a bit rundown, her mum\u2019s a junkie and she sells her soul to the devil to get a better life and ultimately she ends up in prison and robs a bank with the guy she meets, its kind of a Bonny and Clyde story. But it just came into my head.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: Often the boys come to me with a riff, especially when we\u2019ve been in Nashville, they\u2019ll record lots of little riffs and ideas and I\u2019ll come up with concepts. Sometimes you have the melody and then the lyric or the other way round, it can be either way.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Are all three of you involved in the writing process then?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay: Yeah unfortunately we\u2019re not able to write as much as we\u2019d like, we\u2019ve had quite a few children between us in recent years so we\u2019ve been trying to create music and do that at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n Jason: Not with each other, just to clear that up haha!<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: No haha! But now we\u2019re trying to focus on this fourth album and really go for it and keep the momentum up from this album. If ‘Born in a Bottle’ does well we don\u2019t want to have too much pressure and think oh we best do a fourth one quick. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Whats the strangest thing you\u2019ve ever written about?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay: Well I reckon writing about a woman who sells her soul to the devil is fairly strange. I tell you what\u2019s a bizarre one, not the song but the situation. We wrote a song called ‘Beautiful Horizons’ on ‘Marley\u2019s Chains’, and we wrote that opposite a sewage dump, and it was called Beautiful Horizon so that was at odds with what we was trying to write about so that was strange to be inspired by a sewage dump.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Tell me about your trips to Nashville as a band?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lindsay: We\u2019ve been twice, the second time was particularly good because we played the Bluebird Cafe. We played an open mic night there and at the end of it we got to play again because they knew we were from the UK and they said come and do another song. And then we were in the studio recording with these legendary musicians who play all the time with James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young, Lady Antebellum, all these guys we got to record with. Nashville\u2019s just a playground for musicians and people who love music so we\u2019re just walking through the streets, going in bars and watching these amazing musicians. So we want to go again, hopefully this year. We sent our track to Paul Worley who\u2019s produced the dixie Chicks and Lady A and he heard it and liked it so he set us up with all the songwriters, the A-listers over there. Mirage we wrote with Tom Douglas who wrote Lady Antebellum\u2019s ‘I Run to You’ and Paul has been kind of executive producer so hopefully we can go out and see him again and he can do some producing with us. So that’s the Nashville story.<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: What are your mid-gig thoughts?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Jason: Depending on the gig really, if its a good gig I\u2019m very into it and listening to whats going on, if its a bad gig I\u2019m thinking \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get home and have some weetabix.\u201d But yeah, your mind can drift sometimes!<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: I\u2019m usually looking at the crowd and if I see someone talking it spurs me on and I think, \u201cI\u2019m going to make you stop talking\u201d so I get more into it. Sometimes I get flashes of mum thoughts because I have a three and a one year old and I suddenly think \u201cDid I tell mum where the spare dummies are?\u201d haha so I have stupid thoughts go through my head. But we\u2019re generally quite focussed particularly with the new album because until you\u2019ve gigged it and gigged it you can\u2019t think about anything else until you\u2019re confident with it on stage.<\/span><\/p>\n Matt: If I concentrate too much on the fretboard though I mess up so I have to let my mind wander a bit and then what happens with my hands just comes out naturally because we\u2019ve rehearsed it so much. I do a bit of people watching, pick out people and wonder what they think of us.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: If you see someone you know does it not put you off a bit, it doesn\u2019t for me now but it used to, I used to avoid looking at them.<\/span><\/p>\n Matt: Yeah I avoided looking at my mum and dad yesterday for some reason but I usually think of home life and what I\u2019ve got to do in the coming week, I have a lot of animals so I think about them, my Alpacas.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: You should do a blog, “Alpaca dilemmas: Everyday problems!”<\/span><\/p>\n Matt: Their toe nails do need clipping, I was thinking about that in yesterdays gig a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindsay: That must be the most original answer you\u2019ve ever had.<\/span><\/p>\n Matt: I have to clip their toe nails about once every two months. I love doing it, I can\u2019t wait to do it!<\/span><\/p>\n ZH: Do you enjoy doing that as much as performing?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Matt: I probably shouldn\u2019t say yes, but I will anyway!<\/span><\/p>\n Find Honey Ryder on their website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Youtube<\/a>\u00a0and Twitter<\/a>. Find Honey Ryder’s music on iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> and via their official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n