By Shawn Perry
Now that things are getting back to the new normal, people are dying to get out and mingle. Whether it’s traveling, going to restaurants, or enjoying the company of others, it doesn’t seem to matter. Interaction with others is what drives the world onward.
Going to concerts is one activity music fans have been yearning for over the past year. The live music industry took a major hit when the pandemic lockdowns were initiated. Live Nation, the world’s leading promoter, claims their revenue fell 84% in 2020. At the same time, long-standing venues around the globe shuttered their doors for good.
For some artists who tour regularly, it was a time to reflect and reassess, while others scrambled to make ends meet. Like everyone else, Los Angeles-based hard rock quartet Dirty Honey, who were just beginning to catch fire before everything went dark, stood in the wings to see what the future had in store.
The band’s members are no strangers to the rock and roll assembly line. They burst onto the scene in 2019 with “When I’m Gone,’ which zoomed to the top of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, making the band the first unsigned act to land at Number One. Their second single, “Rolling 7s,” a Top 5 hit with a saucy, slow riff that evolves into a punch in your gut was enhanced by a stylish, irreverent video. The song captures the whole essence of what Dirty Honey are all about — straight-up, no non-sense riff-rich rock with an old-school gloss and a modern-day attitude.
After a string of opening slots with the Who, Guns N’ Roses, Slash, and Alter Bridge, appearances at various music festivals across the nation, and a few headlining gigs (including one in Los Angeles), Dirty Honey joined everyone else in the pandemic lockdown and sheltered at home. They put their time away from the road to good use by writing and recording new music.
“We were going to go to Australia,” John Notto, the band’s guitarist, remarks during a phone call about their derailed plans for 2020. “It was about two days too late when quarantine started. We had a slight idea that maybe we could sneak into Australia, but we decided against that. Australia would have been about three weeks making an album. We would have played the Byron Bay Blues Festival. We were going to jump over to Japan real quick and do Download Fest Tokyo. Then we were going to come back and do all the radio festivals for six weeks here in the U.S. and then we were going to go to Europe for a month and do the Download Fest UK. We basically just erased the year tour by tour until there was nothing left.”
Stuck at home in Los Angeles, Notto didn’t waste a second and got right to work. “I took the extra time and played a lot of music in my studio,” he says. “I wrote some of the demos that became songs like “California Dreamin’.” We just tried to push the ball forward.”
“California Dreamin’” was the first glimpse of what would become the band’s fully formed album for 2021. The song, supported by a surreal, exploratory video that embraces the California vibe, dropped on March 5 to great acclaim. Notto notes how the song evolved. “The demo I did was like real loose and kind of swampy. By the time the guys were done adding their thing to it, it became a stadium rock kind of sound — big and powerful.”
A month later, the group’s self-titled album appeared. With people salivating for piping hot rock and roll, the eight-song LP is a satisfying slab that’ll have you violating every social distancing law in the book. You’ll ease in on the slumbering waves of “California Dreamin’” before a new set comes in and takes you out for a ride.
Other songs like “The Wire,” Take My Hand,” and “Gypsy” pretty much jump out the gate and slap you across the face. There’s nothing too heavy-handed or overly ambitious — just Notto’s crunchy guitar work and Marc LaBelle’s impassioned vocals stretched out over bassist Justin Smolian and drummer Corey Coverstone’s resolute foundation for a fulfilling elixir of blues-based rock.
Because the group couldn’t make it to Australia where their producer, Nick DiDia, is based, they opted to record the album in Los Angeles. Fortunately, DiDia was able to work his magic remotely. In the end, even with the pandemic in full swing, it all seemed to work out.
“The only criticism we’ve received is that the album’s short — about 30 minutes,” Notto explains. “We’re really not concerned with length; we’re just concerned with quality, especially in today’s times. We’ve sort of taken an all-killer- no-filler kind of approach.”
Though the guitarist demos a lot of the material for the band to try out, he stresses it’s not quite that cut and dry. For one, he leaves the lyrics for LaBelle. There are other exceptions as well.
“It’s a mixed bag,” Notto says. “There’s a lot of songs, especially on the first album, that came about by us just playing together. When I’m here by myself, I just have fun. I have a full kind of studio setup, so I just make the most of it. I don’t usually encourage Justin or Corey to copy the parts that I put down because they’re such incredible players. We’re all open to the answer coming from everywhere, but mostly everybody takes care of their own part.”
Indeed, the four members of Dirty Honey each contribute to the whole, however and whenever inspiration strikes. Notto recalls that the smooth opening for “Rolling 7’s” was actually Labelle’s idea. “I thought that it should start with the chorus riff because that was so fun and so good,” he says. “It was his idea to start small and grow. And it’s perfect.”
The new album blossoms with hard-knuckle rockers, but as it winds down, you begin to realize that it isn’t all bluster and ballsy. “About Last Night,” the final track, is a slow blues pattern shaped by LaBelle’s soulful vocal. The song is reminiscent of something Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn would record, though Notto points out that the solo was actually based on AC/DC’s Angus Young. The guitarist draws on any number of different influences when it comes to riffs, chord progressions and solos.
Along with AC/DC, Notto cites Aerosmith and Van Halen as bands that give him ideas. “My influences play into the band when they need to,” he reveals. “When it comes time for a solo once the song has shaped up, I just follow with what my ear hears. Sometimes, I’ll hear a melody. Sometimes, I’ll hear a style for the solo.”
As for the band’s “vintage” style of rock, Notto is quick to recognize that Dirty Honey isn’t the only relatively new and young band to leverage the sound and swagger for a rock-starved audience. “I think we thought if there is one band to pay attention to and maybe imagined our model would be, we thought it was Rival Sons for a minute,” he says.
By sheer coincidence, the band worked with Dave Cobb, Rival Sons’ producer, when they covered Aerosmith’s “Last Child.”
Then there’s Greta Van Fleet, arguably the most scrutinized band of the “new” classic rock scene. For Notto, it’s anything but a competition. “It’s cool that they exist. I’m glad there’s another group of young people like us, making the same music,” he muses, before adding: “We sort of share fans. The more we came up, the more we saw Greta Van Fleet fans coming to our shows, which is nice.”
Notto also mentions another young band from Los Angeles: Joyous Wolf. In fact, they were hired to open a two-week warm-up tour in June for Dirty Honey. By all reports, the jaunt was well received.
Hungry to bring their music to the masses and play more shows, Dirty Honey is now ready to make the big leap after being selected as the support act for the much-anticipated Black Crowes’ ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ reunion tour, which kicks off July 20 in Nashville.
“It will be one of the first tours out,” Notto says. “It’s going to be exciting and you don’t want to miss it.”
After a year of empty stages, things are set to explode on the concert circuit. Everyone’s announcing big tours and raring to get back on the road. Catching Dirty Honey with the Black Crowes should be nothing less than a pure celebration of rock and roll. And who knows — by this time next year, Dirty Honey themselves could very well move up the ladder and start filling arenas on their own. For all their hard work, diligence and fortitude, great rewards most certainly await.
