{"id":155289,"date":"2020-07-02T07:40:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T23:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/?p=155289"},"modified":"2025-01-16T18:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T10:17:45","slug":"blood-wine-or-honey-fear-and-celebration-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/blood-wine-or-honey-fear-and-celebration-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad poets or obsessive perfectionists? Blood Wine or Honey discuss the making of Fear & Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hong Kong band<\/a> scene is getting more diverse, with genres from shoegaze (bands like\u00a0Thud<\/a>) to pop (groups like li’l ashes<\/a>) being solidly covered at regular gigs across town at live music venues<\/a>. Consisting of multi-instrumentalists James Banbury, Shane Aspegren and Joseph von Hess, Blood Wine or Honey is a mischievous trio that knows how to dazzle its listeners with unexpected chaos and endless grooves. Having released their debut EP Anxious Party People in 2017 – that is a little bit eerie, yes; and very much playful, yes – we chatted with these whimsical music makers about their latest album Fear & Celebration, their silly daydreams, as well as being obsessive perfectionists.<\/p>\n

Interview with Blood Wine or Honey<\/h3>\n
\"Blood
Blood Wine or Honey never play by the rules when it comes to musical experimentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hi, guys. Thanks for sitting down with us. Can you give us an understanding what Fear & Celebration is about?<\/h3>\n

Joseph: No\u2026? Haha.<\/p>\n

James: It\u2019s kind of like a move-on from Anxious Party People. I have this thing where I\u2019m excited to go out but also slightly nervous about what might happen, whether I\u2019ll enjoy myself, as well as the pressure of social interaction.<\/p>\n

Shane: These words came out in a stream of consciousness while we were writing the lyrics together, and going back and forth between various ideas.<\/p>\n

Joseph: I imagine a party at the end of the universe, and that\u2019s what they say, enjoy yourself it\u2019s later than you think. Sometimes we say things and the meanings follow. So hopefully, it\u2019s open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

People use an array of labels to describe Blood Wine or Honey, electronic, jazz, funk, psychedelic rock\u2026 What is taken into consideration when you make a new piece of music, or is the creative process more in the moment?<\/h3>\n

S: We weren\u2019t aiming at anything. I guess what happened is what happened at the end of the process of making it. Our influences are diverse, even as individuals, so I guess that all just get spread in.<\/p>\n

Joseph: It kind of feels like a backward thing. The concept for a thing – poetic ideas or silly ideas – was there for a long time without us necessarily thinking about genres, and the music just comes out of that rather than us going for it.<\/p>\n

S: But even if it\u2019s silly, it\u2019s serious. And if it\u2019s serious, it\u2019s also silly at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"Blood
Blood Wine or Honey chat like three romantic poets – without losing their charming sarcastic nature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do you think you have achieved that state where you can express yourself more freely via music?<\/h3>\n

Joseph: Oh, NO! (Shane laughs)<\/em>. It\u2019s always something I\u2019m striving for, but not necessarily reaching. I think being a musician is where you\u2019re always looking beyond where you are. That\u2019s the joy but it\u2019s also painful. I think we\u2019re looking to do something, and whether or not we\u2019ve achieved that isn\u2019t really up to us to decide.<\/p>\n

S: I also think any great art, no matter what it is, always turns into something beyond or different than you originally set out to be.<\/p>\n

James: For visual art or music, it changes as soon as someone looks at it, and people develop their own perspective. So I feel like experience and expression shift.<\/p>\n

Which track on the album took you the longest to make?<\/h3>\n

S: I feel like may be The Undying Overrated. It\u2019s actually the most pop of all that we\u2019ve made. What was hard about finishing it was that we had a hard time deciding when it was done.<\/p>\n

James: Fear & Celebration seems to take ages too.<\/p>\n

Joseph: All of them took too long! But those two are definitely up there. There are other tracks that we did and we finished and then we decided they weren\u2019t, so we went through a whole thing to re-record this part and that.<\/p>\n

S: We\u2019re all control freaks and obsessive perfectionists in a way.<\/p>\n