Sledgehammer Honey are starting 2023 with a bang with their new track Headcase, a track that sees them take a heavier turn.
Sledgehammer Honey is a four-piece Alternative Rock outfit hailing from the surrounding suburbs of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula. The band is composed of three brothers Daniel, James, Hayden, and their best mate Aussie.
Sledgehammer Honey is not a band that confines itself to genre norms, as their music covers a wide range of sounds from pop rock, heavy rock, alternative and melodic ballads. They aim to create a unique point of difference with their music and have been working hard on producing a sound that resonates with lovers of catchy hooks and compelling melodic compositions.
Their latest single Headcase is the band’s heaviest track to date, and they have definitely left us wanting more. Here at Happy, we got to have a chat with Sledgehammer Honey about what it is like being brothers in a band, with their best mate as well, their approach to songwriting, and what else they have in store for us this year.
HAPPY: What was the exact moment you fell in love with music?
DANIEL: We’ve all been in love with music since we can remember. There wasn’t a specific moment when we thought “oh this is great,” it’s just always been a part of us.
JAMES: Well, maybe when we were listening to Mum and Dad’s CD collections on family road trips and that, we’d always be paying close attention. Even our parents’ record collections would be constantly played.
HAPPY: I love the fact that you guys, apart from Aussie, are brothers in the band! Did you grow up in a musical household?
DANIEL: Well, music was always playing in the house, our parents don’t really play instruments or anything like that, but they’re big music lovers.
JAMES: Also, Aussie is as much a part of the family as any of us are. Him and Hayden have been best mates since they were both about 5 years old.
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HAPPY: Did being in a band together happen organically over time? Or was it more of a conscious decision of “let’s do this together”?
HAYDEN: There was always a plan to start a band together, once we all started to pick up and learn instruments it kind of took off from there, and once Dan’s voice broke, we were ready! haha. It’s always been an ambition of mine to form a band with my brothers and my best mate!
AUSSIE: Of course, the pandemic happening, delayed us being able to perform live, so we spent that time mostly songwriting and jamming.
HAPPY: You guys have been releasing killer tracks over the past two years, I would love to know more about your songwriting process, and if there are any artists you draw inspiration from?
JAMES: Thank you so much! It’s Dan and Hayden that write most of the songs. They have very different approaches to writing. Daniel can sit down and pump 10 out a night, whilst Hayden channels his emotions into his writing.
DANIEL: The bands that inspire us the most, hmm. Well, all of us love the Beatles. Some of our favourite bands are Silverchair, The Clash, Nirvana, Soundgarden as well.
HAPPY: How do you think your songwriting has evolved from the first song you ever wrote to your latest release Headcase?
HAYDEN: Well, to be honest, we’ve had Headcase written for a very long time, it was just about one of our first songs written together.
DANIEL: Our songwriting has evolved though. We started with just heavy, grungy, songs and now we write lots of ballads and funky stuff, just anything that’s catchy or poppy enough to be a song.
HAPPY: You just released your latest single Headcase, what made you guys change up your style a bit and go towards a heavier sound?
JAMES: We haven’t changed our sound, really, we just like a lot of different types of music, so we write a lot of different types of music.
HAYDEN: Headcase is one of our heavier songs, which is sort of why we released Hanging On, our softest song yet, right before, to give a bit of contrast in our catalogue.
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HAPPY: Headcase is such a drastic change in sound compared to your other tracks, are there going to be any other songs similar to Headcase that you are planning on releasing? Or are you guys continuing on experimenting with your sound?
DANIEL: Absolutely, we have plenty more songs like Headcase that we want to release, and we have plenty of other songs that aren’t like anything we’ve released. We definitely are going to continue to explore and experiment on all the genres we love.
HAPPY: What is something someone has said about your music that you hold close to your heart?
DANIEL: Sometimes after we play a show, someone might come up and say, “Hey you sound like Silverchair,” and it almost makes me shed a tear of joy, cause it’s probably one of our favourite bands of all time.
AUSSIE: Not really something someone has said but It’s pretty cool when we play a certain riff and people in the crowd make that scrunched up face while nodding along haha, you know it’s hitting the right spot.
HAPPY: What is the best way that we can all support you guys as a band?
DANIEL: Come to our gigs! You support other local acts too when you go. You can get some of our merch, follow our socials and of course, listen to our music!
HAYDEN: Spread the word! Tell your friends, family, and pets about us, even if they don’t ask. It means the world!
HAPPY: What does 2023 have in store for Sledgehammer Honey? Any hints that you can give us to look forward to?
DANIEL: Well, I think we’d all really like to do an album, we have too many songs, haha.
AUSSIE: Just want to release as much music as we can, play some bigger shows and build up a following.
Stream Headcase via Spotify below.
Interviewed by Laura Hughes
Photos supplied.