Swedish quartet Honeymoon Disease play music mainly influenced by 70’s rock and they are willing to spread their message around the world. They have just unleashed the 2nd album “Part human, mostly beast” and Metal Imperium had a conversation with Jenna.
M.I. - Why the name Honeymoon Disease?
Honeymoon Disease is absolutely the best way to summarize this band. We’re on a constant all-inclusive honeymoon you know. We play our music, we dance to the groove and we sing straight from our hearts about our lives and our experiences. This life that we have chosen to live is definitely like an addiction, a disease, a honeymoon disease.
M.I. - The band formed in 2014… how would you describe it to someone that hasn’t heard your sound yet?
Groovy honest action rock from Gothenburg with a lot of influences from the 70’s.
M.I. - Honeymoon Disease remind me of Abba in their looks but then again you have already played looking like Kiss. Why are you trying to copy other bands’ looks?
Haha! Yeah, once a year our childhood dreams actually come true, at Halloween. We dress up like Kiss and give the audience a hell of a show! Everybody gets freaking mental everytime!
M.I. - On the promo photos and logo of the band, dark yellow is all over the place. Is it because it’s a retro colour or do you really appreciate it?
We love denim and yellow. I didn’t know that it was categorized as “retro” colours?
M.I. – Well, it was a colour extremely used in the 70’s so I used the word retro. Are you into 70’s rock?
Of course.
M.I. - Which bands/musicians inspired you to be a musician?
Kiss, definitely Kiss. My first record was Destroyer and honestly, I don’t think I was the only kid out there that wanted to be their fifth member? That record just blew me away to Nangiala and back!
M.I. - The band’s logo has a classic car and you often appeal to bikers… why are you so fascinated by it?
I don’t think we’re the only people out there who’s fascinated by the culture and life of bikers and car addicts. The speed, the creativity, the clothes and the sound of the engines, these things are more or less exactly like the rock n roll culture. You can not NOT like it man!
M.I. - The band’s been quite active and has released material every year since its formation… that’s being quite creative, huh?
We are creative people and like all creative people we want stuff to happen. We have a lot of ideas and want to show everyone what we are up to as fast as possible. So yeah, I think that’s why we’re just pumping out new stuff as fast as we can all the time!
M.I. - Your new album is “Part human, mostly beast”… what’s the main message behind it?
We think that the title actually describes itself more or less. I think we can all feel sometimes that we’re either more human or more beast. For us the beast side is more often showed in our live performances when we go nuts on stage and bring out the beasts in us! The human part is of course also a part of the live set and how we write the songs, but it’s more emotions and feelings written between the lines so I think that side of us is showed more on the album. When you can sit down and read the lyrics.
M.I. - What’s your favourite track of the album? Why?
It’s actually a hard choice but I guess I would say “Night by night” and “Rymdvals”. ”Night by night” is a real fun song to both play and sing and it has this constant mysterious feeling to it from the first tone. “Rymdvals” is a favourite because it’s a real personal song for me. It was written in a time when I was loosing control because of stress and anxieties. This song was really a help to come back and take the fight.
M.I. - What are your lyrics about?
Our lyrics are mostly about real life experiences and how we feel about different things. Our lyrics are definitely always human and honest.
M.I. - There are already at least 2 videos for new songs… how are fans responding to them?
The responses have been great! I really think we’re giving the fans videos that they have been longing to see, and of course that we want to do and see too!
M.I. - When compared to the debut album “Transcendence”, which one was more complicated to write and record?
The writing progress on the new album has been more thoughten through and also the arrangements compared to The Transcendence. The recording progress on ”Part human, mostly beast” was also more thought through but it was definitely harder to do because we recorded everything live. Over all it went real smooth but to catch the live feeling even though you’re in the studio is hard, but I think we really nailed it!
M.I. - How do you feel when other bands make covers of your songs? (Thinking about the cover of “Electric Eel” by Brazilian band Black Venusa)
It’s a big honour of course! It’s so cool that people like our songs so much that they want to do a cover of them! I mean, wow!
M.I. - The audience always seem to appreciate your energy onstage. How complicated is it captivating an audience these days?
I don’t think it’s complicated as long as you are yourself on stage and show that to the audience. Give them what both you and they want and a hell of a rock n roll set and it will be a blast for both the band and the audience!
M.I. - Is there a festival Honeymoon Disease would like to play at? If so, which one?
Hm, that’s a hard question, it’s a lot of cool festivals out there! To mention a few we would really like to play at Keep it true, Freak Valley, Hellfest and Sweden Rock.
M.I. - Are the members of the band involved in other projects? Which ones?
We are working 200% with Honeymoon Disease so we really don’t have so much time left to have projects besides this. But Cedric actually has one called “Aphuset”, a real cool blues rock project.
M.I. - As musicians, what’s your long-term goal?
When we talk about long-term goals we are talking about like 1-2 years from now, cause like I mentioned before, we’re always aiming high and want stuff to happen now and not too far in the future. So yeah, our goals is definitely to do more tours, especially in the States and Canada (got a lot of fans over there that are craving for HMD right now), releasing more music and videos and just keep pushing the rock n ’ roll as far as we can!
M.I. - Please share a message with Metal Imperium’s readers. Rock on!
Keep spreading the Disease!
For Portuguese version, click here
Questions by Sónia Fonseca
