Start Listening To: HONK

Manchester’s “Trashcan Country” misfits talk wine, lapsteels, and why Nashville probably hates them.

HONK make country music the way a raccoon might rifle through a skip: messy, chaotic, and strangely compelling. Calling their sound “Trashcan Country,” the Manchester-based rotating cast mash together twang, punk grit, and a healthy dose of absurdity. With their new EP Closing Down Sale on the horizon, the band reflect on learning their instruments on the fly, the fine art of brewing illicit wine, and why every live show teeters somewhere between a barn dance and a total breakdown.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

We’re HONK, from nowhere in particular. But actually we are a rotating cast - you’ll always find someone in there from Dublin, Valencia or Yorkshire, but we come out of Manchester. The perfect recipe for country music?

You call your sound “Trashcan Country.” What does that mean to you, and how did the name come about?

It’s country music, but in the bin. We’re a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll. Nashville hate it, the punks don’t like it, it’s in the gutter with the rats.

Can you tell us the story behind your new single ‘Vine-Glo’?

Vine-glo was a dissolvable brick of grape concentrate sold during prohibition in the US. The package contained exact instructions how not to ferment it into wine. There is never any wine on the rider, no matter how much we ask, so we resort to brewing it ourselves.

Country music isn’t the most obvious starting point for a band like HONK. What drew you to that style and made you want to twist it into something new?

A lot of the bands we love straddle the country line. And then Tom got a lapsteel for his birthday and it was lockdown, so it seemed fitting to try start a country band, but then it came out sounding something like this.

How has your sound evolved between Grand Opening and Closing Down Sale?

When we started off, none of us had played our instruments before so the first EP, Grand Opening, was really a learn-on-the-job number. It was self-recorded in our practice room during a deliriously hot lockdown night but by the time we recorded Closing Down Sale, we could almost play our instruments and had an idea of our sound and recorded it in Delicious Clam in Sheffield (s/o Ed Crisp). It feels like a little more polished than the first go. We’ve also had more members than The Fall at this point - people come and go and it gets bigger and honkier with every show. If you want to play an instrument (or can’t) you’re welcome to have a go?

Your live shows are described as part hoedown, part meltdown. What’s the key to getting that balance right on stage?

No such thing!

You’ve shared stages with bands like Delivery, Being Dead, and Tramhaus. What’s something you’ve picked up from watching those bands perform?

We picked up all of their riffs but we couldn’t play them right. And a lot of merch. And a lot of good friends along the way.

The new EP is coming out on cassette. What made you want to go that route, and how important is physical media to the band?

If you can touch and feel it, it lives and breathes. Just like The Blob.

What’s one song on Closing Down Sale that you’re most excited for people to hear live, and why?

Tom: ‘Duck Duck Goose’ is a bit unhinged, like dancing around the maypole in hell, but feels like it’s pushing HONK to its logical conclusions.

Xavi: ‘Last Order’ for me. I think it’s our most country one on this EP and I can move my hips to it.

Gareth: Same again - ‘Last Order’

Tash: ‘Low Life Trash’ because I think it’s a good combination of all the sounds we love rather than leaning into one individually. And it’s just a banger.

Leah: My favourite is ‘Vine-Glo’. I like wine and, well, it’s led by a keyboard riff.

What do you love right now?

Gareth: Each other

What do you hate right now?

Gareth: Each other

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Tom: His and Hers by Pulp. It was the first time I heard songs about the life I was living.
Tash: Hybrid Theory – Linkin Park. Can still sing every word.
Gareth: Iron Maiden by Iron Maiden, that’s why I have long hair and play bass.
Xavi: Nos Vemos en los bares by Celtas Cortos. It’s pure nostalgia. It’s me and my dad on the road as a kid.
Leah: Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette. I wasn’t a cool kid.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

It’s fun, it’s real, it’s relatable, it’s sad.