We sat down to chat with pop-rock duoĀ Honey Revenge for our second volume of Warped Mag. Keep reading for their origin story, insight on bringing their debut album āRetrovisionā to life, and how theyāve grown from a DIY band to a touring one over the years!Ā
Whatās your favorite Warped memory or experience? If you havenāt been to Warped, what are you looking forward to for your first one?
Devin: In my senior year of high school, I got to follow all of the California and Pacific Northwest dates as my graduation present. At one point I used my friend as a human surfboard and crowd surfed standing on her back ā that was really chaotic and fun. Donny, do you have something youāre excited for?Ā
Donny: Iām excited to play with a whole bunch of bands. I like festivals, Iām excited to play outside!Ā
Youāre playing all 3 stops of the Vans Warped Tour this yearāhow are yāall feeling? Is there a particular city youāre excited to play in?
Devin: Yeah! Weāre excited to do all three. I feel like weāre gonna see all of our friends, which is something Iām really excited for. We have tons of bands weāve toured with and are homies with that are gonna be on the tour! Long Beach is gonna be cool because itāll be like a homecoming from tour.Ā
Devin, whatās your favorite lyric that youāve written and why?
Devin: I change my answer to this depending on how I feel, but recently I've been focusing on our new song āRiskā because I feel like it's a really good representation of where I think this band is headed. Thereās a lyric in āRiskā that I really like: āSeems like the glass ceiling is gonna shatter right through me, undo me.āĀ
It's saying weāre limitless now, weāre gonna trust our gut and not let ourselves get put in a box and just be who weāre gonna be. Which I think is cool and something everyone should open up to and accept.Ā
Donny, whatās your favorite guitar solo to play?
Donny: Shoooot. On this tour, Iād have to say āAirhead.ā Which I feel is a cop out of an answer, but I do all of the solos a little bit differently live and I think that one scratches my brain the best. Itās melodic, but itās also shreddy and hard so if someone tries to learn it, itāll take āem awhile.
Who are your musical inspirations?Ā
Devin: Mine change depending on how Iām feeling or what Iām feeling most inspired by in the moment, but for the last couple of years itās been PVRIS. I grew up on them, theyāre one of those bands that made me want to be in a band, they consistently change up the game, and keep their music fresh. Itās always inspired me ācause I feel like I identify with every era of them as a band.Ā
I revisited this recently when I saw them play, but Halsey is a really big lyrical inspiration for me. I think she's one of the most brilliant lyricists and I think she is such a creative mastermind. And Iām gonna shout out The Band CAMINO because I feel like they changed the trajectory of my life with how I appreciated pop music and combining pop and rock elements.Ā
Donny: If weāre talking songwriting, Iād say Zedd is a big one. The way Zedd writes songs is so nice for my brain, I love that shit. Also Michael Jackson, because that was my first musical love. I was like, āWoah! I can listen to āInvincibleā over and over and over!ā Iād never heard anyone talk about that album EVER, but I had it on my CD player in elementary school and it literally changed my life. I went from that to āThriller,ā back to āBad,ā then I found āOff the Wallā and it was fucking OVER.Ā
For instrumentalist stuff, probably Nile Rodgers, and Paul Jackson Jr. who played on a bunch of Michaelās stuff. Iām really into Silk Sonicā¦I think that kinda wraps it up with a bow- Oh! And LMFAO!
What was the creative process like while making your debut album, Retrovision?
Devin: It definitely had an array of creative processes. When we started the band, we didnāt have the same resources we did at the end of the albumās conception. So when we started off I would write an entire song, lyrics, and melody, and send it to Donny. I donāt play any instruments, so they would build the entire instrumentation around my melodies, which was a really cool way to do it.Ā
As we grew and were given more opportunities, we started working with a lot of our friends who are very well experienced and knowledgeable. Specifically our friends KJ Strock, Zach Jones, and Kanner. They were the main crew for the album. We would sit in a room and I would come up with a conceptāfor example, āMurpheyās Lawā or āHabitualāāI had the words in my phone and was like, āOh those would be really cool overall themes for a song.āĀ
Nowadays, we go to a studio and we cook from scratch, but back then there were a lot of building blocks. There were songs we started years and years prior to the album that we got to bring back. The album was supposed to be an EP when we started it, so it grew as time progressed and we realized we had a lot more songs.
Warped: Donny, what was it like when youād receive melodies and lyrics from Devin? Any insight on the instrumentation side?
Donny: She would send me these voice memos where sheās smacking her fuckinā leg and singing stuff on top of it, right? Iād play it on a loop, pick up a guitar, and play stuff underneath it. Iād try to find the key first, expand and explore it there, and then find a foundation to build upon.
Once I have a rough draft Iāll send it to Dev like, āYo, what do you think about this?ā and sheāll either be like, āThis is sick as fuck,ā or sheās like āHonestly, I hate it.ā *Laughs.* Then Iāll take what I started and keep adding to it after I get the OK that itās cool. Like okay, I can play now. The beginning was a lot of sending stuff back and forth like that.
When we got into the studio with Zach, KJ, and Kanner, weād write stuff together at the same time. Kanner and Dev would focus on lyrics and vocals in one room and then Zach, KJ, and I would build out the instrumentals.Ā
It was hard, it made me grow a lot as a musician, and Iām grateful.Ā
TikTok's become a massive launchpad for artistsāhow has it played a role in your journey? Was there a moment you realized, āWhoa, this app just changed everythingā?
Devin: Yeah! Itās been really wild. I feel like the algorithm is definitely different than what it was last time we were releasing music. Itās changed from us finding new fans to me finding new bands and thatās what kept it fresh for me. Even though itās not as much of a tool for people discovering us, itās really really cool to discover and make new friends to play with.
Iām not as locked into it as I once was, but those were the days when we werenāt touring. That was the only way for people to find us, but now weāre so very fortunate to get to play festivals and tour full time. So it's not as necessary in the aspect of being introduced to new people. I think it's a really great platform for releasing music and for artists that may not necessarily be on the road yet. For us, itās great because itās a way for us to show our live footage. Itās changed so much for us.Ā
Whatās a fun fact about your band that someone wouldnāt be able to guess?
Devin: Maybe that this band started with Donny DMing me on Instagram?
Warped: Do yāall know what that first DM was?
Donny: I remember I was living in Georgia, I just graduated high school, and itās the middle of the pandemic. Iām incredibly socially anxious; I donāt talk to anybody now, I ESPECIALLY didnāt talk to anybody before. I was scrolling through Instagram, and I knew I was moving to California with my mom, so I was looking up āLA band,ā āLA guitar,ā and trying to find musicians out here.
Iām scrolling and I come across this video of a band playing in a skate shop. The singer does this fuckinā frontflip while sheās singing and she donāt drop the mic or nothinā! Iām like āYOO thatās pretty cool!ā Somehow, some way ā I donāt know what possessed me to. I messaged the band account.Ā
I auditioned for Devās old band, this easycore pop punk thing. I get in the band, I move to California, and that band breaks upā¦Dev and I are like āSHIT!ā and kept writing songs together. That band was already gonna rebrand and it just so happened to be a duo by the time it became public.Ā
Itās shit like that that makes me believe in the universe. Because I would never in my life message someone cold turkey like that, but for some reason I was compelled to and it changed my life.
Which bands are you excited to see at Vans Warped Tour this year?
Devin: Iām excited to see Beauty School Dropout because Iāve missed them a bunch. Iām excited to see letlive. because theyāre the best band of all time. I always like watching Boys Like Girls. Honestly, Asking Alexandria is always a fun one for me.
Donny: Streetlight Manifestoās gonna be sick. I havenāt seen Sophie Powers yet. Lowkey, Black Veil Brides. They have some of the best guitar tones Iāve ever heard in my life. I saw them on the Trinity of Terror tour and they sounded SO GOOD.
Do you have anything in store for fans to keep a lookout for?Ā
Devin: Aside from Warped, Iād say come see us on our headlining tour! This might be your last chance to see us in some of these smaller, intimate, rooms, ācause we have a crazy tour booked for this Fall and after that the goal is to keep moving up! So, thereās no guarantee that this will be the last time, but I have a gut feeling that this might be the last time weāre headlining in some of these tinier rooms. So, come see us! Itās the last time weāre gonna be playing a lot of these songs I think. Weāre also playing a lot of new music, and I canāt necessarily promise that it will be out soon, but thatās the goal! Weāre gonna be working on a new album for the rest of the year.Ā
Make sure to check out Honey Revengeās debut album āRetrovisionā before catching their set at Warped Orlando!Ā
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