I have two big creative anniversaries this month:
First, on March 8, I marked twenty years since my second band Honey White‘s first rehearsal. Yep, Back on 3/8/02, three dudes from multiple different bands came together with a gnarly newbie on guitar to first create sounds of crushing power and sweet release under the name Honey White.
Just days after meeting our new drummer Billy for the first time at Topper’s Pizza on De La Vina, my brother and I roped our pal Brian in as a 2nd guitarist and convened in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, back when it was actually a truly funky part of town.
The venue was the back office at Table Salt Screen Printing, which my previous band The Mojo Wire had already rehearsed in several times. Three brick walls meant our new band had to learn dynamics, and quickly, to not deafen themselves. It even kinda worked!
The set was a mix of Mojo Wire songs, a new surf instrumental, a Johnny Cash cover, and a Jeff Buckley cover: The Shivering Sand – Windward Mark – Wayfaring Stranger (x2) – I Fly Free – One Last Hallelujah – Fatal Flaws – Heart On A Platter (x2) – Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.
Sadly, the only documentation of this historic meeting is a badly-distorted 2-track tape recording. All of the snapshots below are by Earl Arnold from later in 2002, but Honey White’s first year was full of auspicious milestones, so I’ll probably collect more here throughout 2022.
Second, on March 13, I marked five years since I co-founded Tight Ship Design with Julia Sevin on 3/13/17. We could only keep our business afloat for about 3 years, but we always looked good doing it. I’ll have more (good things!) to say about Tight Ship later as well, so that’s all for now. Photos of me and Julia by Tomas Raul in New Orleans, January 2018.
