The Honeyfire’s Highlights of 2014

Wow, is it really 2015 already? What can we say? We’ve seriously had an amazing year and it couldn’t have happened without everyone that was there to support us along the way. One of the most momentous things to happen was our transformation from Wolfhound into The Honeyfire.

It sure has been a big year for us, and here are the highlights of our 2014.

We entered the year with a lovely gig at The Louisiana supporting I Am Horse on the 3^rd of January. This was the day we realised we wanted The Louisiana to be the venue where we would perform our upcoming album launch. The atmosphere and sound were exactly what we were looking for, and it was a great gig to kick-start our excitement for the upcoming year.

We released our first single in 2014. ‘Starlight’ was a song we wrote about the winter and the first song we recorded in a studio (Factory Studios). Along with Scott Quinn and our manager Craig Joiner we filmed the music video and released the song on the 8^th January. Judging by how different we look, it seems like more than one year ago!

We then locked ourselves away for a couple of months to prepare for the recording of our album! Before we knew it April was upon us and those two weeks in the recording studio still stand as one of the best experiences we’ve had.

The album was recorded at J&J Studios with Jim Barr, and Nathan Long as Jim’s assistant. Recording with Jim was a fantastic experience and we are so thankful for his time and effort spent on our album.

And so, through coffee fuelled laughing fits, delicious food, too many silly photos and of course a lot of hard work, we came out with the recording of our first album.

We were soon brought to our first festival of the year, The Acoustic Festival of Britain. This one gets a special mention because it was so different to any other one we played. Mostly this was because of the fact we stayed for the whole weekend, and those freezing nights on the hard ground won’t be easily forgotten! On a more positive note – what a wonderful vibe this festival had! We all had a fantastic time looking at all the various stalls, experimenting with new looks and enjoying the beautiful and brilliant music there was to offer. A truly great start to the festival season.

One of our favourite gigs of the year was yet again at The Louisiana supporting She Makes War along with DIONVOX. She Makes War has become one of our big inspirations and it was an honour to be given the opportunity to play with her. We had great fun both playing and watching, and the gig ended in a great way when we were invited up on stage with She Makes War for some musical collaboration. 

Having now recorded our album, we had to start thinking about all the visual and physical aspects of it. We spent some time brainstorming and experimenting, and after a couple of photo-shoots the new look of Wolfhound was born!

A lot of people ask us about the name change and why it happened, so here’s the story. It was at this point in our progress that we felt the change was necessary. Compared to only the beginning of the year we had changed massively, both as people and musicians. And to think of the original Wolfhound, Sally and Natalie in their younger teenage years writing more acoustic songs as sisters, seemed so different that we started to feel like the band we had progressed into should have a name of its own. We learned a useful piece of knowledge during this time – trying to think of a new original band name, which meanwhile won’t disappoint your followers and supporters, is VERY difficult! Oh how we racked our brains and thought of name after name that had already been used somewhere before. We still remember the Eureka moment; we were in Devon filming a video and we were sitting around the dining table after midnight, tired and hungry after a long shoot. In front of us were written a long list of words we all liked that would hopefully motivate inspiration by putting them randomly together. ‘Honeyfire’ was mentioned and we all realised how perfect it was. It suited our music and style perfectly, ‘Honey’ representing the times we laugh together, our love for pretty things, our friendship etc. and ‘fire’ representing the darker shade of music we write and the way we don’t think of ourselves as your typical ‘girl-band’. So there you have it, an in-depth explanation of how we became ‘The Honeyfire’!

During the time we were creating our new image, name and website, we released our second single of the year, ‘Road Signs’. It was the first song we were releasing from the album which was actually kind of scary, since we didn’t know what to expect as a reaction to the new sound that had developed since our last EP ‘Tales of Truth and Lies’. We spent a few weeks with a camera in the car, filming through and out of the window whenever we found ourselves driving in Bristol. We took a trip across Clifton suspension bridge especially for the video, which was really beautiful. Thankfully we had a great response, and thus we started planning video number two – Dreams.

The Dreams video was a long work in progress. We can’t complain though, because we are so pleased with the end result. It took a large amount of planning and preparation; we spent several weeks creating and perfecting story boards, making handmade costumes and planning the locations where we would film. After we had collected up all our weird and wonderful footage, it was cut down and edited into exactly the kind of visual match to the song we had imagined. For those of you who didn’t know, ‘Dreams’ is about the strange and disturbing dreams we have, and that is what we wanted to video to represent.

We started an interesting project this year, a collaboration with songwriter Richard Williams writing a song about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Richard has also co-written a song with musician Zoë Wren about the same theme for the project. We recorded our song 'Falling for Orpheus' in Toybox Studios, and it was really nice to be recording in a studio again, especially one as lovely as Toybox. Falling for Orpheus will be released 17th April 2015. Details to follow soon.

While creating the video and recording Falling for Orpheus, we started coming closer and closer to the last stages of finishing the album. Having designed the album cover, layout, CD and booklet we were ready to send the designs off to be made. Along with the albums we also had our own badges made, which was another first!

And so we get to the end of 2014. The albums arrived safe and sound, and we will never forget how it felt to hold them for the first time. The video for Dreams was released, and we want to say thank you again for all the wonderful and supportive comments we received about it.

This left us to get extremely excited and nervous for the last significant event of the year, our album launch on the 11^th of December at The Louisiana. All the hard work we spent working towards it, the large amount of planning and rehearsing really paid off in the end. 

It was one of the best nights of all of our lives and we still can’t quite believe that it’s over. It marked the end of a brilliant and eventful year beautifully, and we are so extremely thankful to our families, our managers Craig and Steve, Jelli Records, and everyone who has helped and supported us along the way. You are all so lovely and we wish you a wonderful 2015.

Sally, Natalie and Anja xx

The Honeyfire at the Spiegeltent

Just a reminder that we'll be playing at the Spiegeltent tomorrow (Saturday 20th) at 2pm.

We'll be playing a more acoustic version of our set, so come on down for a chilled and festive afternoon!

Free entry.

The Honeyfire Album Launch

It’s safe to say that last night was one of the best nights of our lives. The night of our album launch had finally arrived after a year’s worth of hard work, ups, downs and many laughs along the way.

We can’t quite believe that it’s over! Thank you so much to everyone who came along to support us – we would be nowhere without you. We all hope you had a great time, and also hope you didn't suffer too much from the awful weather and traffic you had to battle through to come and see us! At least it was warm and cosy inside.

For those of you who couldn't come along, here’s a summary of the night.

Having sound checked and decorated the stage with fairy lights and paper snowflakes, we were ready to go!

We enjoyed standing on the door when they were first opened; it was a great chance to meet some of the people who were coming to support us.

The fantastic Dear Light opened up the night, and his set couldn't be described as anything else but truly stunning. Creating a beautifully dreamy sound that pulls you right in, we really were loving every moment.

For his last two songs, we were welcomed up on stage to perform alongside him as his backing band. We've had a few rehearsals together for our collaboration, which has been a great way for us to get to know each other more and it was really lovely playing together on the stage.

 After Dear Light's set was over it was time for us to play our set, and we started to fill with excitement and nerves. As soon as we started playing, the nerves went away and all we were left with was a strong feeling of exhilaration and adrenaline.

Phil (Dear Light) joined us on stage for our first song ‘Road Signs’ adding keys.

We went on to play all the songs from the album, as well as two new songs. One was called ‘Prisoner’ which featured Natalie playing electric guitar, and the other ‘Falling for Orpheus’. It was nerve-wracking, but also really enjoyable to show everyone what else we had been working on.

For our last four songs, Phil joined us back on stage for more collaboration. It was so much fun to play with a fellow musical friend and the extra texture added a lot to our sound.

For our song ‘Blind Eye’, Anja got up to the front of the stage for the first time, since she was singing lead and playing bass. It was nice to have all three of us at the front together, and with Phil adding drums it made the song a real pleasure to play.

At the end of our last song, ‘Noah’, we invited members of the audience up on the stage with us to play along with percussion instruments we had brought with us. It was the first time we’d done anything like it and we have to say we loved it! Everyone was having a dance and clapping along, and it was a wonderful way to end the night.

After our set we went back onto the door to wish farewell to those who had come. We really enjoyed all the conversations we had and it was lovely to meet everyone!

Thank you again to everyone who has supported us along the way; the night wouldn't have been anywhere near as special as it was without you.

Here's to next time!

Anja, Natalie and Sally xx

'Radio Tour'

You may have noticed we seem to have been living in your radio these last few days! It’s been great fun and a bit different having been so involved with various radio stations over such a short period of time.

Believe it or not, we were on BBC Radio Bristol twice on Saturday morning. Natalie took a solo trip down to the Martin Evans Show and we all later went in to chat to Dr Phil Hammond on his show about the upcoming album, as well as playing live in the studio.

We would like to thank BBC Introducing for playing our song Delusion from the new album on the weekend!

Natalie and Sally appeared on Pirate Nation Radio co-presenting alongside James Hyden. Listen again to hear them talking about the album, cats, and playing quirky games!

To finish off our ‘radio tour’ we all had a great time on Bradley Stoke Radio last night on the Jelli Records Music Show playing songs from our new album and talking about our plans for next year.

Radio Shows This Weekend

We're going to be on five radio shows over the next few days before the album launch!

Tomorrow Natalie is on BBC Radio Bristol at 5am where she will be talking about her perfect weekend morning with Martin Evans. Don't worry if 5am sounds a bit early as you will be able to listen again afterwards.

At 11am on Saturday we will be on BBC Radio Bristol with Phil Hammond on his show where we'll be playing a few songs off our album live. 

Then on Sunday between 5 and 7pm Road Signs has been play listed on Ralph's Indie Show on Radio KC and straight afterwards Sally and Natalie will be guest co-hosts with James Hyden on his new show on Pirate Nation Radio at 7pm. 

Finally on Monday we'll be playing live on BradleyStoke Radio at 8pm on the Jelli Records Music Show. If that's not enough of us, this show also goes out on Tuesday at at 10pm on Somer Valley FM!

After that it's the final rehearsals for our launch show at The Louisiana on Thursday! We can't wait!

Dreams Music Video

How could you have a video for a song about crazy dreams without masks, handmade costumes, dancing around a big fire and face paint? That’s exactly what we said, and here it is – the new video for Dreams!

We've really enjoyed making something a bit different – we like a bit of a challenge…

We really hope you all like the video. Let us know what you think! x

Glastonbury FM and Bocabar

We had a great night last night (Thursday 27^th November) in lovely Glastonbury.

Our evening kicked off on Glastonbury FM. We chatted to Ian Liversidge about our upcoming album and launch, what we've been up to and just the general, and often strange, things that happen in our lives. We played three live acoustic songs too, which we always find enjoyable.

After we had finished on Glastonbury FM, we headed over to the Bocabar for the Thursday Live After Show Party. Being in the same building as GFM, our shoulders were thanking us for the small distance we had to carry our gear.

After a sound check mostly spent fixing a feedback problem, we had a genuinely great time playing through our set. The audience were so appreciative and listened quietly to our set. It meant a lot to us and made us enjoy the night a whole lot more.

We loved watching Missart play after us as the headline act. They were fantastic and so welcoming too. We hope to see them play again soon.

Just a quick reminder that we’re playing an acoustic set at CICCIC in Taunton on Saturday the 29^th November. Headlining will be Darren Hodge, a fellow Jelli Records artist. 

Upcoming Shows This Week

This week we have two very exciting shows.

On Thursday 27th we're performing live on Glastonbury FM radio from 7pm. Then afterwards we're playing at the Bocobar supporting Missart from 9pm for the radio show's after-party.

Then on Saturday 29th we're heading to Taunton to the Creative Innovation Centre (CICCIC). We're playing alongside three other acts: Darren Hodge (another Jelli Records artist who is an exceptional guitar player), Ged Stephenson and Lee Rahn. This will be an unusual acoustic cut-back set for us. Doors open at 7pm.

The Honeyfire Album Launch 11/12/14

As you may know, we are launching our debut album 'The Honeyfire' on the 11th December at The Louisiana in Bristol. To those of you who have heard us talking about it enough, we apologise, but we're just so excited it's coming up so soon!!

Having been working on this album for over a year now, we've had some time to plan a few special things to happen on the launch. We're determined to make this our best show so far, and to really celebrate the 'birth' of The Honeyfire.

We are so pleased to have the brilliant, talented and kind Dear Light support us for the evening. He creates a lovely, intimate sound and is definitely not one to miss. These last few weeks we have been working with Dear Light, planning some collaboration for the launch. We will be playing as his band on a few of his songs, and he will be adding piano, bass and drums on a few of ours. Our last rehearsal was great fun and the added instruments to our songs really helped re-create the full album sound. Not to mention we loved playing his songs - there's just something special about playing music with friends.

Another new and exciting thing we'll be doing is a projection show. We've been putting together embarrassing clips of us just being us, clips from our music videos and footage of us playing. So make sure you get your ticket if you want to catch us doing any embarrassing dancing that should never have been caught on camera!

As well as collaborating with Dear Light, we might be inviting other friends and some of you onto the stage to make the night extra special.

We won't give away any more for now, but it would mean the world to us to see as many of you there as possible. We truly can't wait to show you what we've been working so hard for.

We've just noticed we're one of the Bristol Ticket Shop's recommended shows too!

Tickets are £4 and can be pre-ordered from our Bandcamp page or Bristol Ticket Shop.

Sally, Anja and Natalie xx

Somer Valley FM

Tune in to Somer Valley FM tomorrow evening from 7pm to hear us chat to Phil Gibbons on the Bristol Life Show about what we've been up to recently, as well as play a few songs.

Listen live here: http://www.somervalleyfm.co.uk/

Gig Review – Marika Hackman at The Birdcage 16/11/14

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing the brilliant Marika Hackman play in Bristol at The Birdcage. She is one of our inspirations and the opportunity to see her perform meant a lot to us.

Even though we got there early before doors, we had to fight our way to the front and although we missed out on the big comfy sofas, we got a great (although uncomfortable) spot on the floor in front of the stage. It was a nice surprise to bump into Phil Collings (Dear Light) there too, who will be supporting us at our album launch.

Ema Sierra was the support act for the night. Performing as a two piece with just two guitars and a vocal, they created a really lovely and delicate sound. The whole audience sat quietly throughout their whole set and watched. Ema Sierra is on Soundcloud.

Marika Hackman performed alongside a bassist and drummer, which she said is a rare and enjoyable set up for them. It did sound lovely with the accompaniment, and both the drummer and bassist played in very sensitive and gentle way, which worked so well with Marika’s beautiful songs.

We enjoyed every moment of Marika’s set, and although we know all her released songs by heart, we were equally mesmerised by her new songs.

At the end of the gig we were lucky enough to get the chance to meet her (and of course buy almost matching t-shirts). She was a really lovely and down to earth person and we can’t wait to get the chance to see her play again!

Album Launch One Month Away!!

It is officially just ONE MONTH until The Honeyfire Album Launch!

We’re not quite sure where the time has gone either, but we’re practically jumping out of our seats at the thought. This album has been our main focus for over a year now, and we've put so much work into it. We can’t wait to both show the world our hard work, and have a great time by playing our music and seeing the fantastic Dear Light perform. We’re even going to be doing some never-seen-before collaboration! There might be some extra performers involved too…

If you would like to support us and come along to our most important event to date, please do buy a ticket and leave the rest to us! We've been planning how to make this event one of a kind, and as they say – the more the merrier!

A few details – Date: Thursday 11^th December 2014

Venue: The Louisiana, Bristol

Tickets: £4

Hope to see you there. Thank you again for everyone’s support so far xx

Toybox Studios

A few weeks ago we told you we’d been recording a song in Toybox Studios about Eurydice and Orpheus in the underworld.

Today we went back to Toybox for the mixing of the song. By this we mean that we mostly nodded vigorously at Stef’s suggestions and work, and proceeded to wildly head bang the rest of the time.

Our more sensible sides, however, found it interesting and fun to sit in on the mixing session, since we got to share ideas about how we wanted it to sound and could easily fix anything we felt could improve.

We’re really pleased with the result and can’t wait until it’s available to the public. As we previously mentioned, it is quite a different sound to what we normally do, but it’s more exciting that way, right?

We will soon let you know when the song will be available, and share some more information about it too. Good things come to those who wait!

Album Arrival!

We are super excited that our finished albums have arrived!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us and helped make this happen. We can't wait to share them with you. xx

Filming Dreams Video

It’s been a very busy and exciting week for us. You may remember us posting about a new video we were working on some months ago, including a picture of us looking moody by a big fire. Well we've been completing that video, and it’s not long to go until it’s ready!

This being our follow up video from our recent video to ‘Road Signs’, we've taken a more ambitious route. This has included handmade dresses and costumes, crazy make-up and face paint, plenty of hours driving from place to place and even Anja standing on top of the world in a bird costume.

We've been filming everyday this past week gathering up our collection of strange clips, which will then be pieced together to go with our song ‘Dreams’. Having suffered some unfortunate weather-related cancellations, stomach pains and blistered hands and feet, we got there in the end and now we wait for the editing process.

We are expecting to release the video at the end of November.

Stream Our Album

The lovely people at THE FLUX PRESENTS currently have an exclusive preview of our album streaming right now. They have also written some lovely words about the album too.

Jump over to the preview now to listen to the album in full.

Thank you. xx

London 16th October

We had a fantastic time playing in Zigfrid von Underbelly of Hoxton on the 16th of October.

The Honeyfire at Zigfrid von Underbelly

The venue was really interesting, and gave a relaxing atmosphere with sofas, candles and coloured lights. We definitely appreciated the sofas after the long car journey.

There were three other acts that also played on the night, Alex Dobson, Kristin Caswell and Karman Line. They were all amazing and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to see them play.

We really enjoyed playing our set and ended up making a couple of new friends and contacts along the way. One of the parts we like best about our gigs is chatting to members of the audience, so that was a nice bonus!

Hopefully we will be playing in London and possibly seeing our new friends again soon.

Album Update, BSR FM & Other News

We like to keep you all updated, so here are some things we've been working on these last few weeks.

Firstly a big thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered the album or bought a ticket to the launch show. Your support and generosity means so much to us. We're listening to the final mastered tracks today and really cannot wait to share them with you. If you're signed up to our mailing list you'll be the first to hear the whole album in it's entirety which we will be streaming on-line in a few days time. Here's a little peek at some of the artwork.

As you may be aware, we are playing at the Underbelly of Hoxton in London tomorrow (16th October). We are really excited to be playing in London again and will tell you all about it when we’re back. To prepare we have been spending lots of time rehearsing our set, and with Anja’s garage getting colder this is becoming good practice for playing with stiff fingers.

During our rehearsals we have even been playing around with some new material – one of our favourite things to do!

We have been meeting with Richard Williams about our ‘Orpheus’ song, putting plans into place for how we will launch the project next year. Watch this space!

Great musical afternoon (listening & plotting) with @RosieSingsSongs @thehoneyfire @Jelli_Records @ArnolfiniArts & various untweetables! :)
— Captain Stable™ (@liminalbird) October 11, 2014

On Sunday evening we were on Bradley Stoke Radio with James Hyden for his penultimate show. We had a lot of fun discussing the crazy things that happen to us and eating the cakes we had made, as well as playing a few songs. James has been very helpful and supportive over the years and we thank him for that.

James Hyden- New and Local Music, 12th October 2014 (The Honeyfire Live Set) by Bsr Listen Again on Mixcloud

Another exciting thing we have been up to is planning our new video! We loved making the video for Road Signs for you all and can’t wait to be doing it again. Expect vibrant colours, hand-made (and somewhat eerie looking) costumes and various locations. If you have been keeping an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages, you will have seen glimpses of what we have been making.

London Show - Thursday 16th October

Just a quick note to say we are heading into London this Thursday for a show at Zigfrid von Underbelly of Hoxton.

We're very excited to be supporting Kármán Line along with Kristin Caswell and Alex Dobson.

Entry is £5 on the door (£3 if you arrive before 8pm).

   

Album Launch Update

December the 11th may seem a long time away, but it’s getting closer and we’re getting more excited and prepared each day.

We are now ready to announce that the very talented ‘Dear Light’ will be starting off the night at The Louisiana in Bristol as our support act. We’re very excited about this, and have even organised some collaboration to happen during each of our sets. This will result in a performance that will only happen once, so to make sure you don’t miss out on the fun buy an e-ticket now.



We very much recommend listening to Dear Light’s wonderful material and are sure you’ll love it as much as we do.

In the meantime, we’re going to keep working hard on piecing the album together to create our biggest achievement to date. Hope to see you at the launch night!

New Video - Road Signs

Aaaaaaand here it is!! ‘Road Signs’, our first video release from our new album ‘The Honeyfire’ which is being released on 11th December 2014 though Jelli Records.

We are so pleased to finally be sharing our work with you! We hope you like it.

Anyone who has already pre-ordered the album will now receive an early download of  the Road Signs track as will all future pre-orders.

Don't forget that if you pre-order the album before October 15th you will also get your name printed on the album sleeve as a thank you.

Pre-order the album here.

Busy Bees

It’s been another busy week for us, but we've been loving every moment (sleep included).

Recording at Toybox Studios

We kicked off the week preparing to go into Toybox Studios to record our song about Eurydice falling to the Underworld. We recorded the song over Tuesday and Wednesday. This was our third time in a recording studio over the last year, and we realised that we have become a lot faster and more efficient since the first time. We’re really happy with the results, especially since we have all pushed ourselves to take new directions we weren't used to. Just wait 'til you hear some of the effects on Sally’s guitar she would never have dreamed of using in the past!

We will be back in the Studio in November to help with the final mix.

Performing at The Lantern Society, London

Thursday we had a great day out in London! So maybe half of the day was spent driving and stuck in London traffic, but it was all worth it in the end. Despite the traffic, we managed to have some time to explore the Museum of London before heading off to a meeting. To finish off the day, we went off (walked, sensibly) to The Lantern Society at The Betsey Trotwood to play a few songs. The crowd were fantastic, so polite and respectful. We got to see some great acts too, including the lovely Zoë Wren with whom we are looking forward to working with soon.

The Honeyfire at The Queenshilling

Our week ended late last night at The Queenshilling in Bristol for a women-only night supporting IDestroy which was a complete contrast to the night before but still fun!