Sydney group Wild Honey haven't followed the usual path most bands take.
Starting out as a summer project with a friend in 2015, Thom Moore was just recording in his bedroom when he had enough songs for an EP.
He never dreamt it'd get traction on triple j, much less send him on tour with a band. “When we went on tour, we only put band together not long before that. Sam, the bass player, joined two weeks before we went out on the first tour.”
Thom admits there are definitely perks to essentially creating and developing a band while on tour. “It started as something that was entirely my creation and then once you start playing with people they give a certain body and uniqueness to it.
“I write a lot of songs. We go through a lot of songs to get to the ones we decide to stick with. For example, there's 12 songs on the [new] record but we've played through at least 30 to get to that; and we've played them live.
“That's a luxury we've had because there hasn't been a heap of attention on what we're doing. We've been able to naturally grow and work out which songs audiences respond to.
“We have some interesting changes as well. Like our drummer; he actually used to be our keyboard player. When we first met him he was a drummer, but we needed a keyboard player and he was keen to play so he joined and after awhile he moved to drums.”
Since that first tour, Wild Honey have played 60+ live shows and supported bands such as The Belligerents and The Delta Riggs. Earlier this year, they were handpicked by Jet to open for them at their sold-out show at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.
“We played a lot of shows and some were real fun ones, heaps of people and [it] feels like the real success to what you've done. Then there are other times when you're playing to 30 people and they're like: 'Ah, King Gizzard are playing down the road.' And you're like: 'Ah fuck!'”
At the start of the band, Thom says they played it smart when it came to tour money. “None of us made a single cent from our band. “When we went into touring mode at the start of 2016, we all made a pact to put everything we earn from show fees, gigs, everything we did went back into the band.
"So pretty soon we were able to buy a van, which is what we tour in now. We've also been able to fund our own video clips and stuff, all because of that.”
Wild Honey have a new album in the works, which they produced with Jack Moffitt (The Preatures), but no release date. Thom says there will be a single released first, in the next few months, and that it will take a different approach to their EP.
For now, they are excited about playing at Narara Music Festival, which is a newly resurrected festival from the '80s located on the Central Coast, NSW. The original festival line-up featured icons such as INXS, Cold Chisel and The Church playing. Every band playing in 2017 has been asked by the event organisers to learn a cover from the original line-up and include it in their set.
“It's a great concept. It's a lot of bands that have been playing 'round a lot and have pretty solid fan bases, but aren't necessarily big bands that are getting smashed on triple j. We are looking forward to it.”
