Oh Honey: Keeping it Positive

Brooklyn indie folk pop outfit Oh Honey began just last year, yet they’ve already, in a sense, come full circle.  The quartet, whose core of singer/songwriter Mitchy Collins and...

Brooklyn indie folk pop outfit Oh Honey began just last year, yet they’ve already, in a sense, come full circle.  The quartet, whose core of singer/songwriter Mitchy Collins and vocalist Danielle Bouchard are rounded out by drummer Robbie Ernst and guitarist Ian Holubiak, was named for Collins’ favorite episode of How I Met Your Mother and the band has already had music featured in FOX’s Red Band Society and ABC’s Selfie, in addition to the trailer of the Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey produced film, The Hundred Foot Journey, and they even had a song performed in the 100th episode of Glee.

Oh Honey came together in 2013 when Mitchy, an established musician and songwriter, decided he wanted to pursue a male/female folk pop duo.  He enlisted Danielle, a Jersey-raised songwriter and actress as his musical other-half.  The band released their debut EP, With Love, last November and signed to Atlantic Records this February.  Oh Honey released their Sincerely Yours EP last month and they’re currently on the Honda Civic Tour with American Authors and The Mowgli’s, which will hit the Trocadero this Saturday, November 8th.  I got a chance to chat with Mitchy and Danielle this Halloween prior to their show [and Danielle festively embodying the loveliest Tinkerbell you could imagine] in Minneapolis about the band’s brief history and just what the two of them are exactly all about.

I ask what have been the highlights of Oh Honey thus far and Mitchy laughs and says, “Just getting to play music and calling it work,” before adding, “It’s great just getting to play shows every night and getting to hear our songs on the radio and on TV shows is incredible.”  Danielle adds, “The biggest highlight for me was first signing a record deal and getting to quit my job as a waitress.”

While Mitchy and Danielle seem to be a pretty cohesive entity, when I ask them about their process of writing and recording together they admit that it’s not something that they spend much time thinking about.  Mitchy tells me, “Every song is its own beast.  There’s no real process,” while Danielle emphasizes, “We try to keep it organic.”  They also seem to have a shared vision of the purpose of their music and what they hope to convey to their listeners.  I ask them if they think there’s anything significant for fans or potential fans to know about them and Mitchy tells me, “We pretty much put ourselves out there in the songs and the main thing is that life is too short to be pissed off all the time, so we always try to keep an optimism to everything,” and Danielle adds, “It’s all about always keeping up hope. We always keep it positive.”

Mitchy and Danielle are more than open about the music that they enjoy, but they each consider their biggest artistic influence to be something a little more general and abstract.  “I’m a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams and anyone who can tell a story,” Mitchy tells me, but says, “Life in general is really the biggest influence and, I mean, people who know me tell me that if you know me and you hear the songs, you can definitely hear me in there.”  Similarly, Danielle admits, “I love people like Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, and Damien Rice, but it is really life that’s the biggest thing, and I also take a lot of inspiration from my family, like my mother who’s an English teacher.  But when you live in New York City, where I’ve lived for six and a half years, that is just so inspiring in so many ways.”  I also prod them about influences (or just likes) that people may never guess and Mitchy tells me, “I’m a sucker for straight up pop music.  I like good pop music,” while Danielle adds, “We also love ‘90s R&B jams… there’s definitely a lot of that going on in the van.”

And like so many artists of our day and age Oh Honey are taking a postmodernly proactive approach to releasing their music.  They’ve already released two EPs, yet their Wikipedia page claims that they have a “studio album” set to drop next year… in addition to two more EPs.  I ask about the possibility of an LP and Mitchy explains to me, “Rather than doing a traditional LP, we’re releasing four EPs throughout the year, two of which we’ve already done and they’ll all eventually add up to the equivalent to an LP,” which will be realized in 2015.  In addition to that, I ask them what they’re planning for next year and Mitchy tells me, “Hopefully touring more and going overseas,” with Danielle clarifying, “We’d love to go overseas… So far we’ve only been to Canada.”

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During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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