Jun
17
with The Mosers & The Midnight Hollow
Wed June 17th, 2015
8:00PM
Main Space
Minimum Age: All Ages
Doors Open: 7:00PM
Show Time: 8:00PM
Event Ticket: $15
Day of Show: $18
free for members
This is a general admission, standing event in-the-round.
Oh Honey
Oh Honey, named both for Mitchy Collins’ favorite episode of How I Met Your Mother and the burgeoning artisan honey movement in Brooklyn that captivated him and band-mate Danielle Bouchard, is a blend of bright folk and uplifting pop which – like the sound of a cold beer snapping open in the summertime – represents the promise of something great.
After working in music since his late teens, musicians and songwriter Mitchy Collins woke up in the spring of 2013 inspired to create a new project, a folk pop duo that balanced his own voice with a female counterpart. Mitchy, who had joined Billy Mann’s Green & Bloom Publishing two years back, enlisted the help of a few of his fellow Brooklyn songwriter and producer pals. The idea was to channel an organic sense of candor in the propulsive, acoustic number in a way that felt free of industry pressure.
The Jersey-born Brooklyn musician connected with Danielle Bouchard, a songwriter and theater actress, through a friend who sat Mitchy down and played him an iPhone voice recording of Danielle covering a Bonnie Raitt tune. When they met, the duo clicked immediately, both personally and in the studio, where their voices matched seamlessly with each other. The end result was the duo’s independently released debut EP, With Love.
The EP’s four songs are amiable, hooky and infused with a humble optimism. “That;s where we started with the music and we just kept that vibe organic,” Mitchy says. “I prefer to leave the emotions in the songs since I’m not so good at doing that in life. And the songs and our friends – the musicians and producers who helped us – really led the way.”
Since then, things have grown quickly for the band. With Love was released in November of 2013 and it’s flagship single, “Be Okay,” has celebratory buoyancy to it’s folky riffs and infectious chorus that reflects Oh Honey’s overarching affirmative tone. The single’s accompanying video was shot by more friends in the Brooklyn community around New York, and captures a day in the life of the city as the musicians engage passerby and local musicians around the Bedford L stop. In December, Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black star Danielle Brooks enlisted Oh Honey to help her and costar Uzo Aduba create a Christmas medley for the holidays. The medley, which is featured in a charmingly irresistible video, leads a folky sensibility to classic Christmas numbers.
“Be Okay” was added to rotation on Sirius XM in January of 2014, after their programming team discovered the group, a success that was added to the band’s growing list of organic achievements, including a buzzed about performance at CMJ, and sold out shows around New York. To top it off, Oh Honey joined the Atlantic Records roster in February. The collaborative connection between Mitchy and Danielle has only gotten stronger as things have progressed for the band. ” Each time we sit down together, whether it’s to write or sing or just grab coffee, it feels like we’re in harmony,” Danielle says. “Sometimes we’re singing and sometimes just being, and that’s made everything so much more fun.”
Oh Honey’s aesthetic all comes down to the theme of “Be Okay.” For the musicians, that’s the whole message of the band. “We hope our music can affect people,” Mitchy says. “I once read a quote that said ‘I don’t want to spoil the ending, but everything’s going to be okay.’ Life happens but there’s always tomorrow and there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
