“It’s a bridge between Retrovision and whatever is coming next”: Honey Revenge on their new deluxe album, non-stop touring and diss tracks

It becomes a running joke that Devin Papadol, vocalist and lyricist for Honey Revenge, is really good with words.

“Man, I can’t say anything better than that,” jokes guitarist Donovan Lloyd, as Devin throws them the mic following another of her thoughtful responses. “People listen to the songs, and think they’re cool, and that is nice,” they grin, before bursting into a fit of giggles.

And Donny is right. Devin does have a knack for not just writing hooky choruses, but also articulating the complexities of the human experience and range of human emotion. We first lost ourselves in Devin's words on last year's emphatic debut Retrovision, which struck a raw and brutally honest chord about self-reflection, backed by their own brand of dreamy pop-rock.

Just over a year later, having toured across the U.S., the UK and Europe, gaining themselves legions of fans in the process, the dynamic duo are dropping a deluxe, expanded edition of Retrovision this Friday by way of celebration.

Here, Devin – with Donny chipping in – breaks down their sounds, the months of touring and the where they're at with new music...

Your sound is so uplifting, yet you have such raw lyrics. How was Retrovision born from that dynamic?
Devin: "That album was about five years in the making, because it stemmed from an old project, and literally managed to survive to the conception of being an album. We didn't go into it feeling like it was going to be a full-length record when we signed with Thriller, we thought maybe we’d do an EP, [but the process] was very transformative for me.

"I always say half the record is me being really sad, like Rerun or Fight Or Flight, which I feel like a lot of people could relate to during the lockdown. Then there’s this second half, where we had already signed with Thriller and we were starting to get this attention that we never had before. We both had all these new opportunities – getting to open for bands that we really looked up to – surrounded by friends that supported us.

"So there’s this side of the album that’s very existential and about aligning your mental health, and not letting it take over your whole life, [while also] not taking yourself so seriously and not letting those worries hold you back from enjoying what’s going on in the moment. It really expressed the ‘honey revenge’ of this band – the sweet, pop side, and the little more heavy, more emo, revenge side."

And was new track Recipe For Disaster always supposed to be on the ‘honey’ side of the record, or was it a late addition?
Devin: "I didn’t realise that it was a Retrovision song until I was talking to Donny about it – this whole deluxe thing has been a long time coming. We went into sessions for this last October, thinking, 'Let’s go in and write a bunch of songs that are Retrovision songs, and then we worked on Recipe. When I was talking to Donny about what was going to go on the deluxe edition, Donny was like, ‘That song was for Retrovision,’ and I was like, ‘Nuh-uh!’ and I had to look in my voice memos, and sure enough, the first voice memo I had was from January of 2023.

"Donny had the instrumental from way back when, so I finished most of it in the fall session that we did. It was written with Retrovision in mind ages ago, but we were able to experience so much life and musicality since then, so now it’s a good bridge between Retrovision and whatever is coming next. It was the same with the other new track."

When you were in the studio for Retrovision, how did both sides play out?
Donny: "We balance each other out, in a way. Dev and I listen to music differently, which is a thing I didn’t realise was a thing. When I listen to music, I don’t hear the words – that’s not my job (laughs). But I hear what the instruments are doing, I hear the melodies. So, I will put most of my attention into the instrumentation and then whenever we get something laid down for that, Dev will write a vocal part, or have a vocal idea first, and I’ll write instruments around that. We have our own departments that we’re really good at, and we meet in the middle and meld them together."

So, do you have a second album in mind already?
Devin: "It’s funny because we keep thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to go away for a few months, and write,’ and then every time that has happened, we’ve gotten a cool tour offer that’s too dumb to not take, or it’s our friends. So, even this fall, we were like, ‘We’re not going out, we’re staying home. And then Stand Atlantic was like, ‘Do you want to come back to Europe and the UK?’ And we were in the UK when they asked us, having such a good time, so we were like, ‘Ah, what’s another two weeks?!’"

How have you found the UK on your tours?
Devin: "We’ve had two UK tours, the first was with The Home Team and The Used in December. Which was crazy, because it was the first time we were in these countries, and we were playing in these huge rooms. The second, our most recent, was our first headliner, playing for the first time in mainland Europe as well, and we had our first festival at Slam Dunk – it was crazy. I think it was really self-affirming and cool in a way of, ‘Woah, we’ve been working our asses off and just in the six months since we were last here, there are so many more people.’"

So other than another visit to the UK, what else can we expect from Honey Revenge?
Donny: "Uh, naptime?"
Devin: "More honesty, more booty bouncers, more diss tracks! Worst Apology is a pretty good diss track, Sensitive is another good diss track. I am not big into drama; I like to express my feelings through my lyrics. There are a lot of people that I love, and there a lot of people who have done me dirty, so I like the revenge of it all. People always get it switched up. Donny is the honey, I’m the revenge!"

The deluxe edition of Retrovision is released August 9 via Thriller.

Read this next:

• Honey Revenge: “Bands who don’t provide safe spaces are f*cking up big time”
• The Home Team: “We are very precious about what we do – we have no choice!”
  
• Stand Atlantic: “A lot of the Hollywood version of rock is very over-glamourised and a bit fake”