With their new album A Fistful Of Peaches (reviewed here), arriving on March 17th, Brighton quartet Black Honey reveal new album cut OK. Already a live favourite, the new track follows on from previous singles Charlie Bronson, Heavy and Up Against It.
OK is all about being kinder to yourself in the reality of platonic love. As usual, frontwoman Izzy B. Philipps is the mastermind behind the song and the accompanying video. Speaking about the track she explains:
OK is a love story I wrote for my friend who was getting high all the time to dull anxiety. I didn’t want them to be struggling anymore and this song is like ‘I will stand by you and if you need a weird 10 mins where you smoke weed after drinking 8 pints till you whitey. If that’s what you need to do then it’s okay’. It’s too much to expect someone to be happy so just okay is enough.
Grunde laden single ‘Heavy’ out now
Previous single Heavy was written after the band’s fan club founder passed away from Covid. The line “Serotonin let us down/ Don’t wanna watch the white horse drown” is a reference to the death of Artax in ‘The Neverending Story’ (yep, the one with the white horse drowning in the swamp…).
Frontwoman Izzy B. Philipps comments on the track:
We wrote this song the day I found out the founder of our fan club passed away from Covid-19. We were talking about the weight of grief and the way it holds you down, about the parallels between grief and depression. The weight of mental illness and how it brings you a deeper understanding of grief. There’s always a glimmer of light though and I love how Heavy has that kind glitter darkness. It’s in my nature to become co-dependant and I think in this song I’m reaching for someone to help me climb back out. I talk a bit about the never-ending story as it was my first dialog with death and depression as a child. Watching Artax the horse getting swallowed by the nothing whilst Atreyu screamed helplessly from the edges of a swamp really spoke to me.
Izzy B. Philipps
The new track from with a stunning video directed by Drag Race UK’s Dakota Schiffer who comments on the inspiration behind the visuals:
For my directorial debut it was crucial to me that Heavy centred around the themes of trans femininity. A self-portrait of a struggling trans person who’s exterior appears alluring and glamorous but is constructed out of a need for survival… Writing the lipstick on the mirror as a reference to Butterfield 8, an infamously misogynistic movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, is the finale to a dreamscape of an evening in which the song narrates perfectly.”
A Fistful Of Peaches was promises to be Black Honey’s most personal album yet and dives into mental health and trauma as Izzy explains:
I’d been in intense therapy which was exhausting, and what came out was just me regurgitating things from my entire life and building my brain cells back to how they should be… Most of this record is me trying to figure out where the line is between normal mental health and when you’re having breakdowns every day that then become part of normal. I thought everyone cried everyday, I thought everyone had traumatic flashbacks and nightmares. This album is like, what the fuck? I didn’t have to have that?
A Fistful Of Peaches Tracklist
- Charlie Bronson
- Heavy
- Ups Against It
- Out of My Mind
- Rock Bottom
- Cut the Cord
- OK
- I’m a Man
- Nobody Knows
- Weirdos
- Tombstone
- Bummer
The announcement follows on from recent single Out Of My Mind and Charlie Bronson, both of which will be featured on the album.
A Fistful Of Peaches is available to pre-order now on limited edition vinyl and other formats.
Black Honey Tour Dates
To celebrate the album’s release, the band will head on a UK tour in March as well as performing a couple of instore gigs across the UK. Tickets are available here*.
Instore Gigs
- 14/03/23 | Kingston | Banquet
- 17/03/23 | London | Rough Trade East
- 18/03/23 | Crawley | HMV
- 18/03/23 | Brighton | Resident
- 19/03/23 | Cardiff | HMV
- 19/03/23 | Bristol | Rough Trade
- 20/03/23 | Bournemouth | Vinilo
- 20/03/23 | Southampton | Vinilo
- 21/03/23 | Portsmouth | Pie & Vinyl
- 22/03/23 | Oxford | Truck
- 23/03/23 | Nottingham | Rough Trade
UK Tour
- 24/03/23 Bedford – Esquires
- 25/03/23 Norwich – Arts Centre
- 26/03/23 Birmingham – O2 Academy2
- 28/03/23 Exeter – Cavern
- 29/03/23 Bristol – Thekla
- 31/03/23 Brighton – CHALK
- 01/04/23 Nottingham – Rescue Rooms
- 02/04/23 Sheffield – Foundry
- 04/04/23 Manchester – Gorilla
- 05/04/23 Newcastle – University
- 06/04/23 Glasgow – Classic Grand
- 08/04/23 Liverpool – District
- 09/04/23 Stoke – Sugarmill
- 11/04/23 Southend – Chinnerys
- 12/04/23 London – KOKO
