Hey Hey Honey is releasing their debut album, "Eyes Closed," with a party this Friday night at the Bard's Town. You can RSVP for the Facebook event here. We spoke with Alex Petersen, the female half of the bluegrass-country-Americana-alternative duo, about "Eyes Closed," how Hey Hey Honey came to be, and what it's like to make music at this exciting time in Louisville.
Louisville.com: So how did Hey Hey Honey come to be?
Alex Petersen: "Charles and I met at an open mic in 2011. The following year we were beginning to play music together and had started dating. Working together on music, has allowed us to develop, grow, transform and learn as writers and musicians. Each of us has achieved new things as musicians. For one, collaborating on songwriting opened each of our eyes to new methods and ideas of writing and arranging songs. Since becoming a duo, Charles has picked up the mandolin, I've picked up my violin after a 4-year hiatus from the instrument, we've explored the use of harmonies and have learned a lot from each other on guitar. Charles is self-taught, and I'm classically trained, so our different histories and approaches to music have inspired and taught each other as well. We feel very lucky to be able to share all this with each other, and have fun while doing so."
Louisiville.com: Why the band name?
Alex Petersen: "'Honey' is how we address each other most of the time. The name Hey Hey Honey is one of those things that just came up, and then fit. We tried another name for a brief time before this one, but once we started going by Hey Hey Honey, we saw how much it effected people. Everyone smiles when they hear the name. It's fun."
LC: Tell me about the inspiration behind Hey Hey Honey's debut album, "Eyes Closed."
AP: [Eyes Closed is] "An acoustic blend of whimsical stories, personal reflections, and feel-good medicine, you will discover that there is much to savor in this folk duo’s debut collection "Eyes Closed." The honest and humble talents of these two multi-instrumentalists are presented to you raw and exposed on an auditory palette of minimal production; incorporating influences of blues, rock, bluegrass, alternative, and Americana into their experimental folk sound. Guitar, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, and harmonies interweave their way through these broad-ranging distinct works. Every song is its own story. All songs are written and performed by Charles Price and Alex Petersen."
LC: What's your favorite song on "Eyes Closed?"
AP: "In spring 2014 we completed "Eyes Closed;" recorded at nationally recognized local studio, La La Land, with Kevin Ratterman, and later mastered at SAE mastering.The album is titled after a track on the album. The song "Eyes Closed" is a very powerful one that we have long gotten a very positive response from. Listeners often tell us this is their favorite song. Then one day, when we were playing a show at Crescent Hill Radio on the FAT trolley hop, another musician/artist Rosella Pearl, who we'd never met before, drew a fun simple drawing of us while we were performing. We liked the drawing so much, we decided to use it for our album cover, and low and behold, in the illustration, both of our eyes were closed. So it just made sense to us, to name the album after this song."
LC: So, what's next for Hey Hey Honey?
AP: "We are excited to share our debut album and look forward to playing our music more and more for the community. So far, we've played at local venues like The Rudyard Kipling, The Bardstown, Crescent Hill Radio, Diamond Pub Concert Hall, Barret Bar, Monkey Wrench, and others. But after releasing this album, we hope to play for some of our favorite local community events. We also have enough songs to record two more albums, so we hope that continuing to record is also in our future."
LC: Louisville's love for local music and musicians is growing. What do you love about making music in Louisville?
AP: "The music scene in Louisville is a gold mine of awesome talent. Our community is so lucky to have such a diversity of musicians and venues. I strongly encourage people to get out and enjoy all the superb music going on out there. Also, the music community is one giant group of great people. We love meeting and getting to know all these fine musicians, exchanging songs, going to each other's shows, playing gigs together, learning from and inspiring each other. When there's that much talent being exchanged within our community, wonderful things are bound to happen. We love Louisville and love playing in it."
You can listen to Hey Hey Honey's songs here, like them on Facebook here, and RSVP for their show tonight at The Bard's Town here.
Images courtesy of Hey Hey Honey's Facebook Page.
