Ep 247 Honeyspoon
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Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock
and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike on a
very hot Wednesday evening.
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You got that right. Oh my god. Holy crap.
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It's been scorching. What the heck has been going on? It's called weather. Yeah, I guess it is.
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It's called weather. I guess it is. It's called summer.
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And I've been doing everything outside. Have you been hanging out outside? Yes, sir. You have
a pool.
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Oh, of course. That was in the pool. Yeah, that's sweet.
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Yes, it was. It's almost like a honey spoon. Almost.
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Yeah, you know, how sweet is honey? That's right. Yeah, and guess who we have in the studio?
Don't tell me. We've got honey spoons.
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Rock and Roll Chicago. Oh, that was... There we go. There's the girls.
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They brought the girls with them. So somebody changed this on us now. Somebody changed
that on us too, yeah.
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I was just sitting here thinking to myself, everything's going perfect, what's wrong? That's right.
So somebody changed that on us is what it was. Well, they just... You can change back and
forth.
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The memory bank is what they did on here. Yeah, they did. Well, that's okay.
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So we have to check that ourselves. I like the girls scream because normally it's a bunch of
dudes that are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like you're at a Gwar concert.
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So Josh and Claire. Hello. Welcome.
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How are you guys doing? Hi, good. Thanks for having us. Great to be here.
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Absolutely. So we're going back. Oh, what was it? It was probably just after COVID lifted.
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Yeah. Right? Yeah. And I was hosting an open jam at a place that will no longer be mentioned
on this podcast ever again.
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And you guys walked in and you just wowed the crowd that was there with your brand of
acoustic rock and singing in the whole bit. And then along the way, I'm just going to say along
the way. Along the way.
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Their fans and everybody in that culture of music that we have there in Lockport, Illinois
learned about the love story that is Honeyspoon. Oh, okay. So I'm just going to leave it right
there hanging.
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And you guys take it over from there. Yeah, I mean, we met you, Mike, and a bunch of other
people. And it's 2021 when we started playing together.
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We have been together a long time, but not as a musical group. Josh has always been a
musician, but me joining him is recent in the past few years. Yeah, yeah, it was it was, you
know, just during the pandemic, we got kind of bored at some point.
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And I was, you know, sitting in there playing guitar and said, Come on, get in here and come
sing with me. I got I got nobody else around me. And then I can't do anything else.
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So so let's go. And, you know, I've always thought that she would have been a great singer. And
so it turned out she is.
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So yeah, yeah. So never before. No, no, I just was always too shy, like belting out in the car by
myself.
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But I never joined choir when I was younger or, you know, always been a music fan. But never
myself as musical. I did start taking lessons at the end of 2020 and took them pretty regularly
for a couple of years, which, I mean, helped a ton.
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I had a great coach and we practice. I mean, we live together. So, you know, it's easy to practice
while dinner's in the oven and put the kids to bed.
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Yeah, exactly. Just run through a few songs. So how long were you guys together before? I
mean, give us the whole love story, you know, real quick.
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I mean, seriously, how? Because that's what people love. They want to hear the story. How did
you meet? How long were you together? And then all of a sudden you're like, OK, I'm going to
sing with you.
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Well, next week is our 15th wedding anniversary. Wow. Nice.
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OK. We met through Josh's brother and mutual friends who I went to college with and they had
a band. Yeah.
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And their bass player was going to be out of town. And Josh was in town and happened to play
bass. So he filled in and I met him there backstage.
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Backstage at a show. It's been a bit. And he was mostly playing bass in a Caribbean salsa band
at the time.
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You know, that makes total sense. And as soon as and as soon as as soon as everybody hears
them play, you'll know that I didn't realize you were a bass player. But when you listen to the
way he plays guitar, he plays the way a bass player would play guitar.
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You hear the bass line. And he's a very busy scrummer, you know, in a way. And which is very
indicative of the type of music that that he was.
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And that makes total sense. Now you'll get it. Remember, I said, I'm sorry to go ahead.
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No. Yeah. And he's always been interested in the world music element that we sometimes try to
bring into our covers of songs that aren't world music or put into our originals now.
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It's something a little more unusual that we do that. I don't know of a lot of other bands that
are also throwing those kind of world music elements in there unless they're specifically, you
know, we play salsa or we play Caribbean or we're, you know, we're a reggae band or
something like that. Or you're Paul Simon.
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Yeah, I don't love Paul Simon. I mean, why not? If you can get Ladies in Black Mambazo to do a
record with you, you say yes. Say yes and do it.
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Yeah. So it started just like he said, we it was COVID. We were fine.
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I was finally bored enough. And I'm like, I mean, no one else can hear me. I'll give it a shot.
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Plus there was nothing else to do. Yeah. I mean, we all took up weird hobbies.
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Right. You know, when you can't leave the house, you just kind of realize like, hey, I always
wanted to do this, but I was too shy or didn't have the guts. And now it's like, what do I have to
lose? You know, we've had all these weird months where life isn't what it usually is.
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You don't know. Nothing's guaranteed. You don't know what's coming next.
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Let's just go for it. So yeah, we started we did a couple of live streams during COVID or like
made a video and posted it. And that was the introduction to a lot of people.
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I knew like, oh, you sing now? And then when things opened up, it was like 2021, we started
going to open mics and met a ton of people. It made us want to keep adding new songs. And
then, you know, we started doing our own shows and kind of branded.
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It was just Claire and Josh for a long time, which doesn't have the same ring. So we were
looking for a band name. And yeah, that led to, you know, writing originals and wanting to get
into singer, songwriter showcases.
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So, yeah. And if we can get a little adult for just a second, when I first heard about it, I, the first
thing I said to Josh was, I know what you were thinking when you came up with that name, and
Josh looked at me and he goes, yep. But that is a pretty cool name.
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I was going to leave it right there, though. That's it. We're just going to leave it right there.
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We're not going to talk about it anymore. You know, it's sweet, right? You got the. Mm hmm.
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Yeah, yeah. So what do the kids think about you guys playing together and doing this? They
love it. Yeah, they did.
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Our oldest is going to be in seventh grade and is in a band and does percussion and played
xylophone actually on one of our album tracks. So that was a lot of fun to include, you know,
include the family in that. Actual xylophone, not like the like the rainbow colored thing from
Toys R Us.
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No, actual xylophone. It's a real nice. With his, you know, his wooden thing and his mallets and
everything, man.
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Wow. We got shots of him with the with the headphones on in the studio. Oh, that's great.
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No, it's so fun. Our daughter's doing a little bit of shaker because she didn't want to be left out.
OK.
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So no, they you know, they both play piano. And so I think it's good for them to see us
rehearsing. Right.
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Right. We got to do it, too. Yeah.
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Did you play any instruments at all? You were completely. No, you kind of always went more in
school. I always went more of the sports route, like I was a runner and I did volleyball and
basketball and I just loved music always, you know, went through that.
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Like, I wish I was born in the 60s and went to Woodstock phase when I was a teen and always
loved. Like, I think Janis Joplin is a big influence for me. Loved her just kind of raw.
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Vulnerable voice. But no, never just kind of always by myself, always had friends who were
musicians. And so I was around a lot of live music.
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But it was really just these past handful of years. Right. So how was your first public
performance? I felt like I was going to throw up the whole way there.
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But, you know, it's one of those things. You told me that several times as I did. It was actually
perfect because we signed up to go third on the list.
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I was like, OK, this is good. We'll get a couple of people under, you know, going before us. Was
that at the place that shall not be mentioned? It was a Thursday night, though, the like more
acoustic.
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Right, right, right, right. Was our very first rodeo. But I think the very first act, it was like, oh,
they're outside on the phone.
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OK, we'll go to number two. Oh, they're in the bathroom. All right.
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It's Claire and Josh. OK, so we went first. I think it was like ripping the bandaid off.
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Once I had done that first song, I was like, oh, I love this. Yeah. You know, people clapped and I
was like, oh, yeah, I can see on her face.
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You know, I mean, I've been doing this. I've created a monster like right in the middle of the
second song. I saw this look on her face and it was just like, oh, yeah, she's hooked.
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Yeah, yeah. It was a very I had this idea in my head that it was going to be this cutthroat
environment, and it was not. Everyone was very supportive and, you know, everyone's doing
something different.
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It was really that's one of the things we still like about going to open mics occasionally is like
just the chance to connect with other people and see what they're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
think this this community, this music culture that we've created in this part, our little corner of
the world is supportive like that.
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It really is. At least the places that I go to, we like to we like to encourage people. We create a
safe place for people to mess up or or be great.
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Right. I think that's the way it goes here. Yeah, absolutely.
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Now, did you ever did you ever do anything? I mean, were you a music major or anything like
that? Oh, yeah, I mean, the dark secret is I'm a music school cat. OK, I went so we don't talk
about it. He's one of those guys.
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No, but that's that's exactly why I don't talk about it too much, because, you know, I went
through I have a I have a master's degree in composition. OK, well, right. But that's the thing,
because for me, the what I really wanted to do the most, as I look back on it now, was I wanted
to write music and I wanted to perform it.
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And I ran into a lot of things in college and in grad school. You know, I learned a lot about the
music itself, but I learned a lot more about art music. And there's a lot less of like, hey, you and
me, let's go play.
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Right. You know, or or there was a lot of elitism that that, you know, like it was a competition in
the conservatory system and things like that. So I generally don't try to talk a whole lot about
that with people because I just want to play with somebody.
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If I like how you play, I want to play with you. I want, you know, come come sing with me
because I like the way you sing, you know. And and I don't I don't think it's a competition.
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And I think that the whole point is that we're supposed to enjoy, you know, the music together
and that it's better if we just do it that way. So so I throughout school, though, was always
performing and still writing original music for other bands. And so, you know, I started after
grad school.
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I had a professorship at a teeny little, you know, teeny little Quaker school in Iowa. And so in
the summers, I had a faculty contract and I was still getting paid. So I went out on the road.
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You know, I would go out on tour with with this band or that band or, you know, whoever. And
so it was really great experience. You play with a lot of people.
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You learn a lot of things. And that was really I mean, that was what I was doing when I met
Claire. And, you know, then we then, you know, things got kind of serious.
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And then it was time for, you know, family and and serious career stuff. And then a little later
on, I remember the kids were going through a box of like old music stuff. And and then they
held up to, you know, a couple of old like picture old promo pictures.
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And, you know, and one of them asked, Hey, Dad, when are you going to be in a band again?
Oh, yeah. And I kind of looked at Claire and Claire looked at me and kind of raised an eyebrow a
little bit. And so, you know, sort of started thinking about that, but hadn't really done anything
serious.
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And then here was the opportunity like I'd been working on all this music. And since it was just
me and her, like now it's a it's a really interesting opportunity because I've never written for this
few people. Right.
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Oh, yeah, right. And I've never really done duo stuff. I've always been writing for a four or five
piece band.
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And sometimes we have horns and sometimes it's big band or, you know, whatever. But this is
this is really hard because you got to play everything and you got to and you got to, you know,
and we got to sing everything. You got to make it sound right.
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And yeah. And if you make a mistake, you can't turn around and blame it on anybody else.
Yeah, that's that's that's right.
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It is. It's playing without it's it's, you know, flying without a net. Yeah, I'll tell you what.
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And really, when you're when you're singing and playing guitar, I mean, and you can turn
around and put the blame for your mistake on somebody else. That is an art form to do it with
confidence. It really is, you know, blank.
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You turn around and everybody knows it was you except the crowd. It's except you the lead
guitar player. So you should be standing in the front.
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And I've always been the bass player. And so I'm the guy that gets pointed at that. That's
usually what happens.
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That's usually what happens. The bass player or the drummer. Yeah.
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So who are you writing for? Anybody we've heard of? If you ever are out in the if you ever are
out in the Iowa City, Des Moines area, you might run into Jumbies. They are a fantastic
Caribbean salsa band that yeah, I wrote. They're still touring.
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They are. They're still out there. They're great.
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They are still out there. Let's see. A couple things for Chicago Afrobeat Project way back in the
day.
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But but yeah, I mean, so you've got to type around. You've got to type, I guess. I like the funky
stuff.
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Yeah. And so that's why we keep doing that. And there's a lot of, you know, it's interesting
because we really kind of.
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Our duo is kind of based almost on a show in a way, because a lot of my guitar technique is
really based on the things that, you know, guys like Charlie Hunter and Tuck Andress and
people like that do, because frankly, I'm a really terrible picker. OK, so I gave it up a while ago. I
can't do anything but that.
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But we went to see Charlie Hunter one night and he we'd previously seen him with with Scott
Amendola, another fantastic drummer friend of his. But this particular night he was with Lucy
Woodward. Yeah.
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And this was before we'd started like I'd started singing with you. Yeah. But it was like an
unexpected.
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She was filling in for someone. I think she's this amazing jazz singer. And yeah, I know exactly
the show you're talking about.
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If you want to I don't mean to interrupt you. But no, but but she was fantastic. And just the the
dynamic they had was something very much that, you know, when when we started singing,
not a whole lot later, she was really kind of picking up on that vibe and kind of channeling that.
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And and it's it's worked out super well. Yeah, yeah. Excellent.
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Well, you know what time it is? What time is it? I think it's time for them to put their money
where their mouth is. I think so. Or put their spoon where their mouth is.
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Yeah, definitely. So we're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back after a quick ad
or something like that.
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Yeah, something like that. So we'll be right back. Yeah, we'll see you in a minute.
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You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And
this is Hollywood Mike of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.
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If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you. Just tune in to Road to
Rock radio on Mondays at 7 p.m. and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes.
Then again, on Thursdays at 7 p.m., you can hear our most current episode brought to you by
the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66.
(15:59 - 16:16)
So go to Road to Rock dot org, scroll down and click on radio station. That'll bring you to the
Road to Rock radio, a station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois, from Chicago
blues born on Maxwell Street to today's rock and roll and everything in between. 24-7, all music
with its roots in Illinois.
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And for the first time tonight, Honeyspoon. All right. This first one we're going to do is off of our
album that we put out in September.
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The album's called Wanderlust. And this is the first track called Sticks and Stones. And I hold on
to them, everyone, and boy, it's getting heavy.
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Did it make you feel big to tear me down or did you not even know? You don't think before you
speak and it's really starting to show. Use your power for good, spread it all around the
neighborhood. Be careful what you say, sometimes the words get in the way.
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If you can't say something nice, why'd you even come at all? You know the old saying, pride
always comes before the fall. A careless word can change the mood or shift the whole room's
latitude. Now's the moment, time to choose, what have you got to lose? Use your power for
good, spread it all around the neighborhood.
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Be careful what you say, sometimes the words get in the way. If at first you don't succeed,
tomorrow is another day. But karma comes back around if you've got too much debt to repay.
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Our world is pretty bleak, but you can still land on your feet. Give a friend a safe space or show
that stranger a little grace. Use your power for good, spread it all around the neighborhood.
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Be careful what you say, sometimes the words get in the way. Hey, hey, hey, spread the love,
it's okay. Hey, hey, hey, give a little bit today.
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Hey, hey, hey, spread the love, it's okay. Hey, hey, hey, give a little bit today. Give a little bit
today.
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Hey, hey, hey, spread the love, it's okay. Okay, so my left hand is cramping just watching him
play. How the heck did... My left hand is just going, oh, stop right now.
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See what I mean? Holy crap. I mean, playing the bass line, doing all the other stuff like that.
Now I tell the truth, you're the six-fingered man.
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He is, he's the six-fingered man. It's kind of like an angel's wing pops out, the sixth one, when
you're playing. They're stretching, I guess.
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Yeah. Wow, that's pretty good. What were those chords you were playing? Like this one? Yeah.
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That's a nice little suspended chord there. Yeah? Yeah. He had to contort to play that.
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Contort, yes. Yeah. Wow.
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Major seven suspended. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. I like minor sevens myself. I like major sevens, too.
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It's got a great sound to it, though. Wow, that's pretty cool. That's a good song, guys.
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It is a good song. And that's on your current album? Yes. Well, it's your only album right now.
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It's the first one. It's our first one. How long did it take you guys to do that? I know you were
working on it for a while.
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Yeah. We went into the studio four separate times. We recorded with a friend of ours, James
Scott, over at Populous Recordings.
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You know, since it's just the guitar and our vocals, we were able to get, you know, quite a bit
done. But then Josh did go in and put bass in on some songs. We added some percussion.
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We added some bass and some percussion over those. So yeah. So that added some really cool
depth to some of them.
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For sure. There were some surprises on there. We'd be putting some extra, some extra parts in
there.
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Okay. On some things, too. Oh, I'm sorry.
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I've got to readjust those back again. Yep. There you go.
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So you're in there, only guitar player, putting down the music for your album and everything.
How many times did you screw up? I mean, I have to imagine that you're the only one. It's all on
you.
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Right? And you're like, oh, I messed up there. Oh, I messed up there. Well, you know, it's one of
those things where you, at one hand, you know, you want to practice a lot so that you don't,
you know, because if you're just sitting in the studio, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, you
know, time is money.
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So you want to try and be sure that you don't have to rehearse a lot, but then you go in there. I
mean, yeah, I did. I did a few takes of them, but, you know, sometimes it's also, you know, you
do the best you can and, you know, you got to, you know, there is only so much you can
humanly do at a certain point.
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Well, there's one song in particular I'm thinking of that Josh had recorded with a click track so
that we could go back and fix, you know, all sorts of things. Right. And it was this perfect
version of it, but it just didn't sound right.
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The more we listened to it, because it was, he was distracted by the click track that it, it slowed
it down a little bit at certain parts and you did a slightly imperfect take, but it just had so much
more like heart to it that we went with that one. It was 20 seconds shorter. Yeah.
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It was a lot shorter. I think it just needed you to be able to run with it. I just got a little fire under
me, I think, and I just committed, I'm like, I have to do this again, man.
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I'm doing it. I'm killing it this time. Yeah.
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Yeah. No, but I, but that makes total sense though. Cause I mean, I've played to a click track
before in the studio and you, you, you are, you become, you become obsessed with getting
back to the one.
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It's hard. And, and the one doesn't always, you know, show up when it's supposed to, if you're
doing all this fancy in between stuff, you know, then, so then you, it's, I've got to land it
perfectly on that next beat and like, Oh, I missed beat three that time. Or, Oh wow.
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I, this one went early on, you know, and it just, you know, I, yeah, it was distracting cause I was
trying to do it exactly right. And right. Yeah.
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It doesn't, doesn't work. I'm a human. So I'm sloppy.
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Exactly. So did you have all of the songs written before you started going into the studio? Pretty
much. Yeah.
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It started with one of the songs is one Josh actually wrote for me as a gift before we started
singing together and I now just come in on some harmonies. So that one is, is his writing credit.
But the first songwriting experience we had together was editing down a beautiful song you
wrote, but it had, you know, six verses and it was way too long.
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It kind of meandered. So I helped him rewrite some of the verses to have a little more focus.
And that was our first songwriting experience was just kind of me coming in on a song that was
mostly done and just kind of offering my two cents.
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Okay. It's cool, but it's way too long. He had all these other ideas and I'd write some lyrics to it.
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And then there was one that I had the idea for a melody for. But that one we just played, sticks
and stones was a day. It's probably the most perfect songwriting experience we've had.
(26:01 - 26:15)
We both took like a personal day from our day jobs, got the kids on the bus, sat down with a
cup of coffee in the living room and it was mostly written by the time they got off the bus. But
like, I couldn't believe how we sat down with the intention of writing a song. We did.
(26:15 - 26:26)
Yeah. I had this groove going on and and then, yeah, then we started writing words and it
matched up just, just so well that yeah, that's it. That's sticks and stones.
(26:26 - 26:37)
Yeah. Unfortunately, not all of the other songwriting experiences are that nice. You know, you'll
be like, we're going to write tonight and then you don't get much done, but it comes to you and
bursts, I guess.
(26:38 - 26:40)
Yeah, it happens. Yeah. Right.
(26:40 - 26:57)
And everybody's got this. Everybody's got the story where, yeah, I, I literally wrote this song on
a roll of toilet paper while I was in the bathroom, you know, and it comes, you know, five
minutes, you've got a song, you know, which one is that one for you? I mean, yesterday, during
a science fiction television show. Yeah.
(26:57 - 27:10)
Josh had this idea for a song that he, he just kind of the next day it was written and I helped
with the subsequent verses, but you had the whole idea for it. Yeah. There's a, a, a science
fiction television show that we were watching with time travel.
(27:10 - 27:26)
And there was a particular episode where they kept repeating the same day, like Groundhog
Day style. Right. And, and so one of the characters referred to the previous iteration of today,
like they've all been doing this over and over again several times.
(27:26 - 27:33)
Right. And so that, so she referred to the previous iteration of today as, yeah, oh, that wasn't,
that wasn't now that was yesterday. Right.
(27:33 - 27:36)
That was yesterday. That was yesterday. And so.
(27:36 - 27:44)
He got really stuck on that word. Oh, I'm writing a song around that. And then, and, and then I
think during the commercial break, I think I went in the other room and all of a sudden.
(27:44 - 27:50)
Started playing guitar. And all of a sudden there it was. And then, yeah, there was like a verse
and a chorus in, in a couple of days and then we ran with it.
(27:51 - 27:55)
And the song is called Yesterday. Yesterday. Can we hear a bit of that? Yeah.
(27:55 - 27:57)
Yeah. Let's do that. Yesterday.
(27:57 - 28:01)
Today. Yes. And is this also on the album? Yes, it is.
(28:01 - 28:06)
It sure is. And this is the one that guest stars, our, our son on the Xylophone Show. Oh, okay.
(28:06 - 28:14)
Okay. Now, now is it on the album that you just released or the one that you released
yesterday? Today? Exactly. God.
(28:15 - 28:26)
But I mean, you know, it's about kind of just being stuck in a rut and doing the same thing over
and over again. And, you know, everybody has those times when it's like, I'm doing this thing
for the 17th time, man. Actually, it wouldn't be yesterday today.
(28:26 - 28:38)
It would be, it would be last yesteryear. Okay. Anyway, you're listening to the Rock and Roll
Chicago podcast.
(28:39 - 28:57)
Your Sunday nights just got a whole lot bluesier. Get ready for the Bus Stop Blues show that
takes you deep into the soul of the blues with classic hits, road stories, and live jam sessions
hosted by blues man, Kevin Purcell, and me, the one and only Road Bill. The Bus Stop Blues is
two hours of nonstop blues, banter, and badassery.
(28:57 - 30:03)
Check out the Bus Stop Blues podcast at thebusstopblues.com, where you can listen on Spotify,
iHeart, Apple Podcasts, or any other major podcast platform. Hop on board the Bus Stop Blues,
where the blues never stops rolling. And I'm spinning my wheels, lost in the yesterday.
(30:06 - 30:28)
No matter how I try, it's not good enough. No matter how I run, I can't catch up. It's time to get
down.
(30:29 - 30:43)
Look around for some common ground. And find your feet stuck in the mud in this no-horse
town. It feels like I'm just hitting replay.
(30:44 - 30:59)
Because nothing seems to change much anyway. I'm at the same old party just like yesterday.
No matter how I try, it's not good enough.
(30:59 - 31:32)
No matter how I run, I can't catch up. Wandering away, I'll let go, come rise above. I break out.
(31:33 - 31:38)
Take another route. Learn to do without. Shift your fate.
(31:39 - 31:51)
Turn around, shake away that doubt. Finally, a change is underway. Don't let yourself get led
astray.
(31:51 - 32:06)
Because it's not fun when you're stuck in yesterday. No matter how I try, it's not good enough.
No matter how I run, I can't catch up.
(32:07 - 32:29)
Wandering away, I'll let go, come rise above. Come rise above. Very nice.
(32:29 - 32:33)
This is very nice. That was a little Michael McDonald-ish. Yeah, kind of.
(32:34 - 32:41)
You should imitate him and throw that in there. You know, a little Michael McDonald
impersonation. Because it totally had that kind of rhythm.
(32:41 - 32:49)
Yeah, it did. I love Michael McDonald and I don't care who knows it. Wait, did you say you love
Michael McDonald? I do.
(32:50 - 33:00)
It's amazing. Every once in a while I will catch him on YouTube television or whatever. And
there's this one concert where he brings in a bunch of buddies and stuff like that.
(33:00 - 33:05)
I don't care where the concert is. If there's five minutes left or an hour left, I have to stop and
watch it. I have to.
(33:06 - 33:09)
I really do. Amazing performer. People just always got it.
(33:10 - 33:15)
They just always do. Yeah, for sure. Oh, we got to do all of this stuff again.
(33:16 - 33:19)
I keep forgetting that. You can fix it in post-pro. We can.
(33:19 - 33:32)
We got it covered. So, Claire, I have to tell you. Having seen one of your first live performances
and then hearing you now, you have grown immensely as a singer.
(33:32 - 33:37)
You really have. I think the first time, you know, nerves were coming through. Oh, yeah.
(33:37 - 33:48)
And you could hear it in your voice, you know, a little bit. Kind of like the, not meaning to sound
insulting at all, but kind of sounding like the first time somebody sings karaoke. You know, you
had that shakiness in your voice.
(33:48 - 33:56)
Let me get through this kind of thing. And now you actually sound like you've been doing this
for years. So you sound a lot more comfortable and relaxed and everything.
(33:56 - 34:06)
Thank you so much. Is that you're doing? I mean, some of it's just the practice. And some of it's,
you know, some of it's the getting comfortable with it.
(34:06 - 34:17)
Getting performances under our belt over the years. Sure. You know, I mean, one of the things,
like, I was so used to being a working musician that when we really started looking for shows, it
was like, oh, well, we got to build catalog.
(34:17 - 34:25)
We got to get like 60 songs. You know, we got to get a bunch of songs so we can do a whole
bunch of hours. And so we started out with covers.
(34:25 - 34:30)
Yeah. So we started out with a lot of covers and got a lot of that under our belts. And they're
fun.
(34:30 - 34:35)
I mean, people want to hear songs they know. Maybe with a little different spin on them. But
yeah.
(34:35 - 34:47)
Yeah. And so we built a kind of big catalog. And then at some point, you know, we kind of got
established a little bit and, you know, got over our nerves performing together.
(34:47 - 34:53)
And then it was like, yeah, now let's write music. It's time. Let's make our own.
(34:53 - 34:57)
And it's gone real well. Yeah. It's been fun.
(34:57 - 35:07)
But you said you did take some vocal lessons. Yeah, I did. Josh actually tried on more than one
occasion to find me a vocal coach to kind of push me toward this.
(35:07 - 35:19)
One was before COVID and I never called her. And then this was right before COVID. It was like
my Christmas gift 2019 was here's Krista.
(35:20 - 35:23)
Here's her number. Give her a call. And then COVID happened.
(35:24 - 35:33)
And so I said, yeah, I'll do it when things open up again. And then, you know, at that point, I
think I was ready. So it was like October 2020.
(35:33 - 35:51)
I started going once a week to. She was great. I mean, she was the lead singer in the band Hey
Jimmy that did a whole bunch of shows all around and does a duo performance with her
husband, Jim Perona, who's an excellent guitarist.
(35:52 - 36:11)
And so she had a lot of insight, not only on vocal technique and breathing and, you know,
helping with individual songs, but talked about stage performance. You know, what are you
going to do while Josh is doing a solo? Because no one wants to see you just standing there
with your hands behind your back or your hands at your sides. Like, so a lot of that was good to
think about.
(36:11 - 36:19)
Like you're putting on a show, you know, it's like being an actor on stage. You kind of have to
put on a little bit of a almost like an alter ego. Like, right.
(36:20 - 36:37)
I've been hiding behind an instrument all these years, so it's a lot easier for me to do that same
kind of like fake that. Because, you know, I bet you don't necessarily have to dance so great if
you're standing behind an instrument, you know, or something like that. So I kind of copped
out on that a little bit.
(36:37 - 36:50)
But yeah, the performance aspect is really important. If you don't look like you're giving it
everything you got, if you're not finishing playing and just being exhausted, I feel like you're not
doing it right. Right.
(36:50 - 37:11)
I tell you the one thing about your performance, I've seen a lot of your videos and I've seen you
guys live. You guys, I mean, of course you're married, but I mean, you guys are on stage and
people can see that you love each other and you have a relationship and you thoroughly enjoy
being there with one another. People can tell that it just it comes out of your pores.
(37:11 - 37:17)
So, I mean, I think that's your I think that's your show. That's your show is part of the whole
thing. So it's a trip, man.
(37:17 - 37:26)
I mean, I feel really lucky to be able to, you know, to have a duo with my wife. Yeah. Not
something a lot of us get.
(37:26 - 37:30)
So it's been awesome. It's been a fun hobby to have together. It doesn't always work out.
(37:31 - 37:37)
It doesn't always work out. Ask Fleetwood Mac. I mean, they tried it like four different
combinations.
(37:38 - 37:54)
And it just didn't work. So what's next for you guys for this year? You know, I like to ask people
what has to I guess what has to happen in 2025 for you guys to consider it to be a successful
year for Honeyspring. We have some I mean, we have some shows coming up.
(37:54 - 38:09)
We're excited about in April or in August. We are doing a story time song fest at Black Dog Vinyl
with 20 other acts. It's the weekend of August 16th and 17th.
(38:09 - 38:20)
Demi Claire is putting it together. We're really excited. It's always fun to be on a bill with other
musicians who you either know and you don't have a chance to see each other play because
you're doing shows or meet someone new.
(38:21 - 38:31)
In September, we're playing at the Sandwich Fair, the DeKalb County Fair. That's our first fair.
So that'll be just a great opportunity to see a lot of people.
(38:32 - 38:45)
Yeah. So we're on the home art stage on September 6th. And then we're playing at a songwriter
circle at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn in September as well.
(38:45 - 39:01)
So that, you know, just getting in some of those different geographical areas, meeting new
people, new opportunities. I think that's kind of where we're at right now. We are still writing
some other songs, whether it's for a next album or otherwise.
(39:01 - 39:12)
Writing some new material. Trying to get some new material and some new covers probably,
too, because we got another round of shows coming out here. So we'll want to keep people
guessing when they come out to see us.
(39:12 - 39:16)
Oh, that's good. Let's get some more writing. Maybe a second album in the works.
(39:17 - 39:27)
Yes. You know, I personally work better under a deadline. So without that sense of urgency,
sometimes it's a little slower moving.
(39:27 - 39:37)
But we do have a couple of songs that we've written since the albums come out. And lots of
ideas for other songs that are, you know, partially... Half-baked. Right, right, right, right.
(39:37 - 39:38)
Yeah. Well, good. Fantastic.
(39:39 - 39:53)
So how can people find you? Yeah, we're on Facebook and Instagram. We have a YouTube page
and the album's on Spotify and Bandcamp and Apple Music and all of that. Yeah.
(39:53 - 39:55)
Yeah. So we're out there. Yeah.
(39:55 - 39:57)
Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Come out and see us sometime.
(39:57 - 40:00)
Yeah. You know what? I would love to. Yeah.
(40:00 - 40:08)
But I'm in that same boat. I know. I had somebody call me a couple of days ago asking me, hey,
are you available this date? And I looked at my calendar.
(40:08 - 40:17)
I don't have another Friday or Saturday for the remainder of the year available. I'm done.
There's no more bookings for this guy for the rest of the year.
(40:17 - 40:21)
It can be tough to run into your musician friends. Yeah. You know, any night that you play.
(40:21 - 40:33)
And they probably play in someplace else too. Yeah, that's exactly right. So we meet each other
at Open Jams on Thursdays or whatever, which if you guys have a Thursday free, you should
come on out to the Uptown in Plainfield.
(40:33 - 40:35)
In Plainfield. Yeah. We haven't been out there.
(40:35 - 40:37)
It's been on our list. We got to get out there. Yeah.
(40:37 - 40:52)
I am there in the house band every other Thursday. This is not my Thursday, but I will be there
next Thursday. And every other Thursday, the guitar player and singer is Scott Evans, who's the
other guitar player in Cadillac Groove.
(40:52 - 41:00)
Okay. But Mike Brown, good friend of mine, who's also the bass player in Mike and the Steel
Masters, is pretty much the guy that runs the whole thing. So come on out.
(41:01 - 41:02)
Yeah, we will. All right. We'll be coming out.
(41:02 - 41:05)
We'll do that this summer. Yeah. Let's make that happen.
(41:05 - 41:07)
Alrighty, guys. Thanks for coming out. Thanks so much for having us.
(41:08 - 41:09)
Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Great talking to you guys.
(41:09 - 41:16)
Thanks for having us. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song
courtesy of MNR Rush.
(41:16 - 41:23)
The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the
show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.