The North End Honeys: The Beginnings of a Band

We met Erin and Hannah, co-founder of the North End Honeys, in Bristol in October.  They had just finished playing a set at a harvest fair, an upbeat and self defined “screaming honky tonk” duo with crooning harmonies and smooth strummed guitars. We stopped to chat as the two blonde friends started to pack up their van. They kindly propped open their back door with a lone crutch and welcomed us into conversation.

The North End Honeys is a relatively recent group and started playing together in Burlington just about six months ago.  Hannah had heard Erin playing at a local spot and said she knew that they had to play together.  When they finally started to make music, it all unfolded rather quickly.

“We didn’t know each other, but we were like, ‘Let’s go on tour!’ That was the first thing we said! And it’s actually happening now and it’s just so weird because we weren’t friends at all.  It was like the friendship music relationship of going on a first date with someone and saying ‘We’re getting married—it’s gonna be sick!’” Erin laughed, nudging Hannah, who gave a smirk in return.

The duo had to develop depth faster than most friendships in order to sing, write and drive for days on end together.  “We definitely did everything about this pretty backwards,” Hannah added. “We’re complete opposites and we rushed into it not knowing.  I didn’t know how his brain worked, and he didn’t know about mine.”

The two also both articulated the importance of having music as the center of their bond.

“All of my closest friends are probably due to music, Hannah being one of them,” Erin said.  “And for me, performing is one of the only times when my brain is calm.”

Hannah nodded, agreeing as she expanded on Erin’s ideas, “It’s one of the only things that I really love and I know it’s not going anywhere.  Cause you can love somebody and they can leave, or you can love certain things and they can break, but I’m going to be able to play music forever.”

Sitting in the back of their van, one could see the history of their band building amidst the clutter of papers and stack of guitar cases.

We noticed how they worked together in dialogue, supporting each other through playful banter and more serious musings.

It was clear that Hannah and Erin are two songwriters learning to write on a page together, rather than try to pull the other onto his or her own.  “We’re balancing it out,” Erin explained.  “We’re pushing each other to grow a little bit in the ways we haven’t worked on so much. This sounds kind of cliché or whatever, but Hannah’s pushing me to move a little a faster and I’m teaching her to slow down a little bit.  I think we have a really good thing going on.”

As we listened, we found lessons of true collaboration, finding humor in the little things and not being afraid to get up and go for it.  Needless to say, the Honeys had our hearts.  So, look out for this dynamic duo; they’re coming to Middlebury in January!