Wearing a sequin jumpsuit and a tie-dye tassel jacket, Black Honey frontwoman Izzy B Phillips leads a synchronised dance of extravagantly clad club-goers on an LED floor, while in a toilet cubicle next door, her ex-lover bleeds to death. In a silk white shirt, flared trousers and cowboy boots, she buries indeterminate body parts in the middle of a desert. She is not someone you’d want as an enemy.
Motels, diners, guns and Cadillacs form the neon-lit backbone of the Brighton four-piece’s cinematic videos (Midnight and Hello Today). Fittingly, their sound is the aural equivalent of a lurid California road trip: big vistas and even bigger riffs, set against lyrics that dissect the less salubrious side of human relationships (their self-titled debut, released last month, opens with the pleasingly acidic I Only Hurt the Ones I Love). Formed in 2014, Black Honey have cultivated a devoted following with a sound that combines 90s indie rock, psychedelic guitars and the sheen of Lana Del Rey’s pretty melancholy.
With peroxide blonde hair and black kohl eyeliner – Debbie Harry by way of Bonnie and Clyde – Phillips’s aesthetic is part tribute to, part pastiche of female rock-star tropes. The band’s music reflects this playfulness, nodding to the past while delivering timeless choruses designed to be shouted back at them in a sweaty club.
Black Honey’s self-titled debut is out now on Foxfive Records. Their UK tour starts Bristol 13 October, ends London 24 October
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