Honeyblood - FUV Live - 2014

Glasgow's Stina Tweeddale and Shona McVicar of Honeyblood released an eponymous debut as a team earlier this year, but in mid-September, McVicar departed the band. A Facebook post cited her choice to move on to "other endeavors." Replacing McVicar on drums is Cat Myers. However, earlier this summer, when Honeyblood's lineup was still singer/guitarist Tweeddale and McVicar, the pair visited Studio A for an FUV Live session.

The women had met serendipitously when they were both in other bands. They found common ground in a mutual affection for artists like PJ Harvey, Best Coast, the Breeders and Elastica, eschewed recruiting a bass player and began writing and recording together. Their first release was a lo-fi two-track cassette, the Thrift Shop EP, which they recorded with a single microphone and a 4-track tape deck in a bathroom. Shortly after that release, Tweeddale and McVicar nervously played their first live show in February 2012 where they caught the eye of FatCat Records founder Alex Knight, who not only bought the pair's handmade merchandise but began the process of mentoring them, eventually signing Honeyblood to the label.

Honeyblood's eponymous full-length debut is out now and it maintains that same caustic, swaggering, punkish DIY spirit that fueled their early days. Collaborating with producer Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National), who brought Tweeddale and McVicar to his Connecticut home studio to record their debut, Honeyblood also expanded their terrain with the record, incorporating lusher, more layered pop and even a twangy Americana lilt.

Listen to a conversation and session with Honeyblood, which might have swapped out drummers, but is still led by confident singer and songwriter Stina Tweeddale.

[recorded: 7/31/14]