HONNE: LOVE ME/LOVE ME NOT
HONNE’s sophomore album ‘Love Me / Love Me Not’ is an exploration of the duality of love. Drawing on the lines ‘she loves me, she loves me not,’ HONNE has moulded the contrasting elements of love as the core of their album. Bolstering the theme of the duality concept is the accompaniment of their newer hip-hop and RnB direction that infuses each track.
Check out the chat with HONNE below!
‘Love Me/Love Me Not’ takes a stark transition from HONNE’s last album sonically, with a more hip-hop sound and a big emphasis on drums, as well as conceptually taking a fresh turn.
LB: How was the process of finding new influences and stepping away from the ‘Warm on a Cold Night’ mentality; was it challenging to change path or natural because individually you are always developing and evolving?
HONNE: It felt very natural. Even before ‘Warm On A Cold Night’ was released our taste and production style was developing and we had a strong idea of where we wanted to go with the next album. I think that will always be the case. You finish a project and then start thinking about the next one.
Was there a concrete plan in how you wanted to pave out the way to approach the new album or did you try to be as dynamic as possible and not limit your direction?
We knew we wanted it to be more beat-led, and bigger and brighter in sound than the first record. And spend a lot of time on production, trying to make sounds that people wouldn’t necessarily immediately know what instrument was being used. We love all that. But you’re right, we wanted to remain open minded, experiment and see where the journey took us.
What was the journey like in finding the balance between changing and developing but also staying true to the identity of HONNE?
There was a lot of push and pull. One day we’d go really far in one direction, and the other day we’d go completely the opposite direction. But ultimately we’ve come to realise that ‘HONNE’ doesn’t have to be limited to a collection of sounds or production style. Andy’s voice will always be a consistent part of our music. But it’s largely about how our songs make people feel. I think HONNE, overall, is about warmth.
The experimentation also extended beyond the musical aspect and also in terms of release. What prompted you to release 2 songs at a time? How do you think it helped enrich the experience for fans now that the whole album is out?
As we were writing, this theme of duality gradually became apparent. It wasn’t until we wrote ‘Forget Me Not’ and the line ‘She loves me, she loves me not’ that we realised how we could explain it fully. We wanted to release 2 songs to show both sides each month. And we wanted everything, from YouTube lyric videos to the album track listing, to bring people into our world, and to experience these two sides.
We also saw a change in this album with the number of people you worked with being significantly larger. What instigated this? Why did you feel that these songs deserved, or would be enhanced with another perspective and voice?
Yes, that has been quite a big difference for us! We’ve met so many artists and instrumentalists over the last couple of years, and we love people who can bring a unique sound or voice to our music, so we wanted to make the most of that. Anna Of The North is a great example of that, she has such a distinctive voice, and having an extra voice provides a great opportunity to show two sides of a story.
There was a diversity in who you worked with in terms of their genres and backgrounds. How do you think this helped the album?
I think it helped make every song have its own place on the album. If you keep similar sounds and similar features on an album, over the course of an hour they can start to merge into one. We always want every song to stand out and work on its own, whilst working as a whole in the context of an album.
How important was it for you guys to look at the several layers of love, and memories you have experienced, rather than just scratch the surface and look at simple concepts like good and bad?
It’s always important. When we’re recording and when we’re on stage, it’s important that what we’re singing about things that are true to us. So, it needs to do more than just scratch the surface. You sort of store up everything that’s happened to you and those around you over the last couple of years, and then let it all out in the form of an album.
Can you also talk about the ◑ and ◐ symbols? They represent the two sections of the album, but what is the actual meaning of the symbol?
Its technical name is a ‘Unicode’. They are one of the first forms of emoji. I think the modern day equivalent is the half-moon emoji. But for us they represent the two sides of the album, ‘Love Me’ & ‘Love Me Not’.
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The thing I admire most about the album is the elements of excitement and intensity even on the second section of the album that deals with the more dejecting elements of love.
What is it about a sadder song that people can dance to and embrace that helps people find comfort?
It’s tricky. You never quite know when you write a song whether it will be relatable to other people and in the nicest possible way; we don’t set out to write a song that’s instantly relatable. We are just writing songs for ourselves and if people latch onto them and feel something about it then that’s a huge bonus.
Do you think that there’s a growing future for a quirky and upbeat emotional song? What makes it so attractive?
I hope so, ‘because we’ve probably got a few more in us. The attractive thing for us is it allows us to express our characters and have a bit of fun, whilst still being able to express something more deep and personal.
I also want to bring up the two music videos for both ‘Me & You’ and ‘I Got You’ and how they are so dichotomous from each other.
Did you expect to have such different videos even for the same section of the album? How was it to tap into the two sides, one being a more vibrant and energetic video to the other being a more heartfelt and emotive concept?
It’s been great exploring different ideas for this album including the music videos. ‘I Got You’ is probably more in line with our other videos however we took a bit of a risk with the ‘Me & You’ video. We blindly reached out to a dance studio in South Korea after they posted a little snippet on Instagram and we are so happy with how it turned out. They absolutely smashed it.
Lastly, can you talk about the touring experience for this album thus far? What is something that inspires you at a show that you hope to emulate?
I absolutely love it when you get into the groove of touring and we are well in that right now. It’s great to be playing a whole load of new songs and people are reacting to it better than we could have ever expected. Moving around the world is very inspiring and I’m sure it all seeps into our music one way or another.
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