Matt Wellham
After years of photographing and filming the London music scene, Matt’s now based in Sydney, Australia. A lover of the post-punk and alternative movement, he can usually be found in the grassroots venues, camera in one hand and a beer in the other.
Honest Work are on a mission to bring back unapologetic, straight down the line rock and the feelings that genre evokes. “We just wanted to blow people’s faces off with a wall of sound,” the band tells me over a couple of pints in an East London pub
Honest Work are a rock outfit based in London. They recently released their debut single ‘Horses for Meat’, a hard hitting track that explores themes of bleakness and the human instinct to survive. Having had the single on constant rotation, I was stoked to be invited to sit down and share a pint with the band. What follows is a conversation about their formation, finding their sound and the finest Welsh kebabs.
Honest Work are Curtis Connor (guitar and vocals), Tom Simpkins (guitar), Matthew Osborne (bass), and Finn Fox (drums).
Matt: Cheers lads (pint glasses chime together). So, introduce us to Honest Work. How did the band form?
Curtis: We were all in different bands at the time and I’d just moved to London. Tom and Nick, the original bassist, kind of got together and then recruited Finn. Then we went straight into the rehearsal room all together and it was just instant shred.
Tom: We just played and we thought, damn, we better come back next week.
Finn: I feel it was really organic when we first played together. It felt natural from the start.
Matt: When you came together, were there any particular musical influences that helped to form the sound of Honest Work?
Curtis: What I think we all wanted, when it first started, was to be pure rock. Because no one was doing pure, straight down the line rock anymore. We wanted a sound that was straight down the middle and raw. Over time our sound has developed, but at the beginning we just wanted to blow people’s faces off with a wall of sound.
Finn: I think there wasn’t a lot of that going around at the time. I grew up on that stuff and that’s what I was looking for as a drummer. Recently there have been a lot of shoegaze bands, and there’s been post punk and dream pop, and I was just like, let me hit hard, let me hit fast.
Matthew: There still isn’t much of it. It feels like there’s a big scene for alternative, indie, dream pop and shoegaze, but no one’s making that sort of early Foo Fighters sound. Or that Tenacious D style rock. And I feel like we’ve come at a good time, because there’s a proper noughties revival happening at the moment. Like, Paramore are fucking massive again.
Tom: At the start we wanted a sound that was fun. When we played live, we’d all be smiling at each other on stage. Just shredding away. We saw Neil Young at Glastonbury this year and I loved how they were just having fun, playing as a band together. Nothing else to it.
Matt: You’ve been playing all the London grassroots venues over the past couple of years. Have you got a particular favourite venue in London that feels like home?
Finn: I love the George Tavern. I don’t think we play it enough. That’s one of my favourites.
Tom: I wouldn’t say we’ve got anywhere we call home, but that’s probably my favourite out of the smaller venues.
Matthew: Since I’ve joined, we’re there so much that I feel like the place we call home is The Lanes in Bristol.
Tom: It’s a great venue. I always enjoy a venue where the bar is in the dance floor area, because I want to see pints being poured while I’m on stage.
Curtis: Also, on The George Tavern, the crowd’s always good there. It’s a venue that’s not too up its own arse and that reflects in the crowd too.
Matt: It says a lot about The George Tavern, and the team behind it, that they can pull in acts like Geese or The Last Dinner Party, at the height of their fame, to do small secret shows.
Tom: The more shows like that, the better. It’s great to see bigger artists putting their support back into these smaller venues.
Matt: London is filled with these venues and they’re all over town. Do you ever find a difference in audience or atmosphere depending on where you play?
Curtis: I’d say pretty similar crowds. Each genre seems to have its own scene in the city, and those people will travel around to see specific shows.
Matthew: For example, if you go to a certain type of show at somewhere like The Windmill, week after week, you’ll see the same people there. Which is cool. That sense of community can be really nice.
Tom: I feel like London’s kind of in it together, wherever it might be in the city.
Matt: You guys recently finished a run of shows all over the UK. Tell us about that. How was the experience of touring around?
Tom: I have to say that Port Talbot has the nicest people and possibly the best kebab in the whole world. If you want me to do the whole interview on this kebab, I can. It was absolutely delicious. The tenderness of the meat…
Tom continued to passionately describe his kebab for a good couple of minutes, which I’ve taken the bold editing choice to cut.
Curtis: We played at Afan’s Ales, which is such a cool spot. It’s like a corner shop with beers and wines on sale, but they have this venue in the back. It’s such a fun place and the crowd were amazing. Also The Lanes. We always love going and Bristol in general is a really cool city.
Tom: Bristol almost feels like our home city. Outer Town was a really fun festival to play there.
“I have to say that Port Talbot has the nicest people and possibly the best kebab in the whole world.“
Curtis: Finishing with Left of the Dial a couple of weeks ago was pretty great. It was so fun. Everyone loves it there. And the hospitality is amazing. They really look after you. It has to be one of the best run city based festivals I’ve ever been to.
Tom: Every time I’ve gone, the people in the Netherlands, the whole vibe and atmosphere they bring, is amazing. Also, there are so many bands from all around the world, and it feels like everyone’s there because they love music. Everyone is so happy. It makes it a really, really good environment.
Matt: You’ve signed to Nice Swan Records. They’re a label with some of the most eye-catching names in the rock and alternative genres right now. Tell us how it feels to be part of that roster.
Tom: Obviously when you’re making your own music, you’re enjoying it. When we recorded ‘Horses for Meat’ we loved it, and sometimes you can feel like you’re tunnel visioned on how you feel about it. So it’s nice to have someone else confirm that they’re interested and say, hey, we really like that too, we want to put that out. It feels amazing to get that bit of recognition.
Curtis: Overall a lot of time goes into doing it all. We’ve been through a bank of at least twenty or thirty songs, so we were at the point where there’s only so much you can do to keep pushing. So to get that recognition and support from Nice Swan has been massive. Without it, we might have gone insane.
Matthew: It’s quite weird having people do stuff for you. In the lead up to the release, we were all like, do we need to do anything? Genuinely, the song was coming out the following week and it felt like we hadn’t done anything. But yeah, with their support, it all just went so smoothly.
Tom: The team they’ve got working there is great. Shout out to Mal, because she was very on it. It’s just been really easy to work with them. It makes the whole process of releasing easier. It takes a lot of the weight off doing it yourself so you can focus on what you’re supposed to be doing, which is making the music.
Matt: Your debut single ‘Horses for Meat’ came out recently and we’ve been loving it at CLUNK. It’s got a monumental sound, super gritty, super fierce and really well produced for a debut single. Tell us about the concept behind the track.
Tom: It’s about eating horses.
Matt: Ha, I was going to ask if it’s about the 2013 Tesco horse meat scandal.
Tom: Ha, no. It’s a commentary on modern life, with a dystopian feel to it. It taps into not having a lot and having to turn to what you’ve got to survive. I feel like the rhythm of the song, like the heartbeat of the song, is really powerful.
Watch/Listen to ‘Horses For Meat’ here:
Curtis: We do try to focus on the rhythmic side of songs and how the guitars can go back and forth, instead of going straight down the line. I think ‘Horses for Meat’ was the first time we really honed in on that.
Tom: It’s quite a tight song and it’s got a groove to it. I think a lot of the stuff we’ve made since Horses has continued in that vein. So it’s been a bit of a catalyst for us.
Matthew: It’s got a nice feel to it, like it’s a driving song. I reckon if Top Gear still made their driving soundtrack album, it would be on that.
Matt: You mentioned the song touches on modern day struggles people are facing. What are some of those obstacles that can be particularly difficult for a band in this generation?
Tom: It’s not being able to give all of my time to music. I can’t, because I have to work and we all have day to day jobs. I would love to spend every waking minute doing music. But you can’t, so you’re confined to these small amounts of time.
Curtis: Unfortunately making a record doesn’t really make you any money these days. So the only revenue you get is from playing live and that’s committing to travelling and things that then eat into profit. So it’s a bit of a vicious cycle at this level.
Matthew: It’s common knowledge that you don’t get any money from Spotify. Streaming doesn’t pay well, but it’s just accepted. It’s the way it is. There are pros and cons, like anyone can share their music, which is great, but the cons conversation can go on for hours.
Matt: What’s next for Honest Work? Are you working on future singles or do you already have anything prepared?
Tom: What’s next for us is buying more pints right now…
Curtis: What’s actually next for us is that we’re going back into Real World Studios with our friend Xav at the end of the month. He’s amazing and a really lovely person to work with. So yeah, we’re going back to the studio to record as much as we can.
Finn: We’re sitting on a few tracks ready to go, so we’re really excited to get back in the studio.
Matthew: We just want to record more music. We’re going to work with the same team that recorded ‘Horses for Meat’, because as you said, the recording does sound really good. It doesn’t sound like we’ve recorded it in our bedrooms, like a lot of first singles do.
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