Interview by Denise J. Mallabo

Friends James Hatcher and Andy Clutterbuck, collectively known as HONNE was at the Philippines for a series of mall shows and they’re excited to see their fans again since it’s their second time performing in the country. The electro-pop duo’s 2016 release Warm on a Cold Night was a hit debut album that got positive reviews, which was followed by Love Me/Love Me Not two years after. The London based ex-music teachers turned musicians have been on tour; performing in festivals and fairly enjoying their hard-earned success. We caught up with James and Andy at their press day in Manila and told us about what they miss when touring, seeing their former students at their concerts, and working with BTS’ RM.  

What’s your favorite and least favorite things about touring? 

James Hatcher: The best things about touring are getting to travel and see the world without having to break the bank because it's part of our job, which is incredible. And it's always our dream to do that so we're really incredibly lucky. The other best thing about it is just being able to play our music to everyone and see people's reactions to it all over the world, which is great.

Andy Clutterbuck: The toughest thing are missing people at home; missing out on things like friends' weddings and babies being born. That's kind of tough but it's all a balance.      

Have you guys seen your former students in your gigs?

James: I have. I used to teach guitar in a girls' school in Peckham and we're doing a gig in Bristol, which is a long way, like a two-and-a-half-hour drive. I saw some of my students were there and I was like "what?!" They've been really supportive.  

Andy: When I left teaching, I gave it to one of our other friends and he took that position. All the students would go up to him and say "Sir! I think our old teacher is famous now because he's in the newspaper."  

How was the experience like working with BTS' RM and how was that remix of "Crying Over You" happened?  

Andy: We saw BTS play live and it was amazing. 

James: It was absolutely incredible. I think it was at the Wembley Stadium.  We started as being fans of RM, like his solo stuff. His music is cool and production is great. He posted about us at the BTS Twitter page regarding one of our songs about a few years ago now and we started listening to them and it's really amazing how they build a whole story in everything they do in all their albums and across the whole campaign. We started chatting with him, then he came to our gig in Seoul when we played there for the first time and we just stayed in touch. We sent in that track to him and said that "we'd love to get you to be in this track" and we had a few back and forth and then it was born.  

How easy it is for you to write about love?

Andy: It comes fairly naturally. I've been in a relationship for more than 12 years and got married this year and a lot of it is just about that, basically. But also, all our friends are not quite a romantic group but we're not a bunch of players. 

James: We're all looking for the good stuff; a proper relationship. 

Andy: There's a lot of inspiration in our group.

Was there a change in your creative process when you were working on love me/ love me not as compared to warm on a cold night?

James: Yes. There were quite a few changes, one of them is that we wanted to collaborate with loads of the other people that we've met over the course of touring Warm on a Cold Night and like Tom Misch we met in a festival in Germany then Anna of the North came to our show in London, and loads of people like that. Collaboration was definitely a big change. We wanted the whole album to be brighter, more upbeat, and more day time sounding because Warm on a Cold Night was more low-fi and subdued. We just wanted to push ourselves and we learned so much during the process of making our first album that now it feels similar throughout with the same kind of sound since we're finding our feet. It was fun to open up more with this second album.     

Between performing in huge festivals and intimate settings, what's more nerve-wracking and how to you hype yourselves to have a good show?

Andy: I find intimate settings more nerve-wracking because it's so in your face and I they can see everything like the bit of sweat coming out from me, so yeah, that's really scary. But you just have to break the ice, it's like presenting something cool, and as soon as you do that, it's going to be fine.

What is it about performing in asia that you like most?  

James: Fans here sing that loudest, that's the best thing about it.   

Andy: We love it. It helps me out a lot. 

James: That's the best feeling. It's like playing a gig with a choir every night, which is a really nice sensation.  

What are you looking forward to the most next year?

Andy: Just a clean sheet, basically. We're going to be releasing new music next year. It's really exciting for a creative person to release new work. We've been touring Warm on a Cold Night for a long time and this last album for the last couple of years so new music would be very fun and exciting.