No band emanates the warm, glowing sunshine of California better than Oakland’s The California Honeydrops. The band’s vivacious concerts are more akin to a party that lasts into the early morning, the kind that fill you up with love and joy for the people around you and the music that is flowing through everyone. It’s Delta blues meets New Orleans second-line, by way of Bay Area R&B, all coming together to create an intoxicating nectar. Last year’s excellent release, A River’s Invitation, helped spread the golden rhythms from these West Coast darlings across the whole country.
The Honeydrops are gearing up for what could be the sweetest year yet for the band. Earlier this year, after seeing them perform at an intimate Bay Area show, legendary blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt brought the band along for her spring tour. It seems Ms. Raitt can’t get enough of them, as they are slated to join her again in October for another round of dates. They are currently on tour along the East Coast, and will then embark on a run of shows through the West and Midwest that will have them playing at both Burning Man and Telluride Blues and Brews Festival. They’re also planning a studio visit, eager to record the follow up to A River’s Invitation. It’s a great time to be a fan!
Earlier this month, L4LM’s Garrett Bethmann caught up with drummer Ben Malament at High Sierra Music Festival after a raucous late night set from the band on Thursday night, and discussed the band’s love for Bonnie Raitt and The Golden State Warriors.
Live For Live Music: How did your set at High Sierra go last night?
Ben Malament: It was great! People were ready to start the festival off. They stuck around the whole time. We ended around four in the morning and everyone still seemed to be there for some reason or another and it was good (laughs). Lebo and his band sounded awesome and we had Grace Love and Jimmy James from Seattle from Grace Love and The True Loves come up, they killed it. It was so fun, we were like a powerhouse band last night. Usually we are a five-piece and there were, at some point, nine people I think up on stage. It was fun.
L4LM: This is your fourth straight festival? Did you come to the festival before you played the festival?
BM: I did not actually, and I was just talking to someone about that. The first High Sierra we did was four years ago and it was my first festival, festy experience. I’d played at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival with a reggae band, The Expanders, in 2006, 2007, but I didn’t really see the festival scene, I was just concentrating on playing. But here over the last four years I have learned a lot about being a professional festival goer. We call them profestivals (laughs), people really got it down.
L4LM: From these professional festival goers, what is something you’ve learned or taken away from people trying to live that life?
BM: Man, well we are trying to learn how to preserve our voices and our well beings. I did yoga this morning, so that felt real good. You just gotta hydrate and have fun, it’s nice to just relax. The thing is we are professional festival goers and we are professional musicians, we are here on a job, you know what I am saying? For our band, we put a lot into the show, so really it’s a balance of keeping your mind and body cool enough so you can do four shows in two days if you want. Make them great, play for a long time, keep up the energy and stuff. I don’t have any specific tricks, if you gotta take a rest take a rest. Don’t take the brown acid, I don’t know!
L4LM: You recently finished a tour with Bonnie Raitt, how was that experience?
BM: That was very different than the High Sierra crowd. I mean it was awesome; 3,000 to 5,000 person venues every night with her across the country for two months. Her audience responded wonderfully. Bonnie Raitt is legitimately a Honeydrops fan which blows our mind. Her band and her are just awesome people and awesome musicians. We learned so much from being on that tour. We are linking back up with her in October for another month and it just really puts us on the next level being with her. It was amazing, it was great.
L4LM: How did you link up with Bonnie Raitt in the first place?
BM: Oh man, she loves the music that we love, so we have so much in common right off the bat. Mavis Staples was opening for her before us like a couple tours back, and her assistant got Mavis Staples hip to the Honeydrops. Bonnie Raitt lives in the Bay Area and she got word of us. She came out and saw us at an underground show we used to do at this place called Cloud 9 in Berkeley. Like, we would announce it the day before, super underground, kids, everything, it was awesome. Bonnie came and her drummer Rickey Fataar came, and that was about two years ago. A year and a half later they called us up for the gig and we were just super psyched.
L4LM: That is straight fandom right there.
BM: Oh, it’s the bomb.
L4LM: You mentioned you picked up a couple things just learning and hanging out with them. What did you pick up?
BM: I’ll speak for myself. As a drummer, watching the band and watching Rickey— who’s just a seasoned veteran with the biggest pocket for that music ever. Watching him be so relaxed in these big venues and just doing the job. Because he’s a drummer who has his own sound too, so it was cool watching him be so relaxed night after night and just doing the do. No messing around, real cool, but relaxed and groovy. Not like metronome style, but groovy and laying it down, it was so cool to watch that. And to watch a band that is very relaxed and doing it for so long and watch how Bonnie does not rely on pyrotechnics and BS to get over. She relies on her music, which is great, her voice, which is still killer and her awesome personality on stage.
She’s been doing this for years and decades and she knows how to relate to an audience and play her tunes and make mistakes and have fun with it. Talk dirty, talk sweet, talk real. To see someone doing that— that is what we want to do. She is like the pinnacle so it was very inspiring. And refreshing, because a lot of bands these days in these big theaters and stuff rely on lasers and loudness and she did not and that was really cool to see night after night.
L4LM: As someone who has been to a number of Honeydrops shows, I have to say that is the feeling I get when I see you guys play, so it’s cool to see you guys are learning off each other. I have to ask since you’re from the Bay Area. How are you taking the Warriors loss?
BM: Dude, I went silent on the Internet for a second. I couldn’t even go on the World Wide Web for a moment. But I wore my Monte Ellis jersey yesterday, so I was like “F you.” I’ve been seeing these guys since it was seven dollars on the day of the game, showing up to the Oracle in Oakland, I’ve been seeing them for a minute, so I am not a bandwagon Warriors fan. Super disappointing, you know what I am saying, but at the same time it is just basketball.
I read this article actually about Steve Kerr and Bob Myers that my brother sent me about them going through these insane back pains and surgery and this thing about Bob Myers losing his brother-in-law on a wilderness hike. Just like crazy, deep life things that the people behind the scenes are dealing with. Like, “O.K. we did not win the Championship, but this is life.” We had a good season but we just gotta keep going. I feel like I am on NBA TV right now. But we love the Warriors, the Honeydrops are bonafide Dub-Nation fans. You know, there was a guy with a Cleveland championship shirt and hat on the plane to Oakland with me when I was flying two days ago. I was like, should I buy everyone on the plane a drink except this guy? That might be a good statement, but I was having fun in my head about what I could do.
L4LM: Thank you for your time!
Head here to see where you can catch the next California Honeydrops party!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.