This is the Honeyrunners
A four-piece group in Toronto (sometimes up to 12, when performing live), fronted by high energy Ottawa-born singer/songwriter Dan Dwoskin (lead vocals, piano, wurlitzer, rhodes, synth), Canadian-Peruvian audio-engineer/producer, Guillermo Subauste (bass, drums, vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, cajón, percussion, synth), Conor Gains (electric guitar) and Toronto-born drummer and filmmaker, Lewis Spring (drums).
A blend of Southern Roots and Americana style in the realm of bands like Alabama Shakes, Nathaniel Rateliff, Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons, with a little Rolling Stones thrown in alongside some Anderson .Paak and Frank Ocean, topped off with the soulfulness of Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Ray Charles. They like to push the limits of everything, musically. Ensuring not to conform to what’s happening in the mainstream, but rather to follow their own sense of what they love about music, and what excites them about songwriting, production and tone.
They were first featured in Coca-Cola’s 2013 compilation “52 Songs of Happiness” with their song “My Garage”. They released their first self-titled EP in 2013, followed by a second EP, simply titled EP2 in 2014.
As a band, they embody community building. They are a product of local venues like the Cameron House, Horseshoe Tavern, the Monarch Tavern, and the now defunct Silver Dollar (where they had their first EP release party with Toronto tastemaker Dan Burke) – places where music advocates do each other favours to help foster the community as a whole.
Their latest album, an antidote to everything that was happening pre-pandemic and a celebration of everything we need to recover from the past 20 months, “Everything Is on Fire” was released on October 22, 2021 after 20 months of sitting on the shelf.
The Honeyrunners started writing the album in 2018. Over that time, they wrote more than 50 songs. The band trimmed it down to 9, and took their time with crafting the production of each chosen song. The album title was originally meant to be ironic; a criticism of the media and how news headlines and social media clickbait constantly suggest that everything is always on fire. It was tiring. The media had become absurd. This album was an expression on how to put all of that absurdity aside and how to stop letting the headlines stress you out.
Dan and Guillermo wrote the songs together and co-produced the album at Subauste’s Roncesvalles studio on the West side of Toronto, Pacha Sound. Being a new Dad at the time, Dan had a lot of late nights with a singular driving thought through all of them, “What kind of world am I bringing my daughter into?”
You can catch an early performance of one of the songs on the album, “Cabin Fever”, live at the Horseshoe Tavern in April 2018. They were first set to release it in 2019. Then Australia caught fire. And then California caught fire.
The band headed to New Orleans to play Folk Alliance International in January of 2020. On the way back, they noticed full flights of people arriving with masks on and the questions they were asked at the border check-in appeared far more serious than when they had first traveled to New Orleans.
Prior to that flight, they had planned to release the album on March 27, 2020. But, now they knew everything was going to shut down. They had 25 tour dates that were immediately scrapped. Venues closed. Side hustles in the hospitality industry, gone. Everything they had built towards building a community, gone. And they knew: live music was going to be the last public service back on the table when the dust settled. So, they shelved the album…until now.
On October 22, The Honeyrunners hosted a sold out record release party and performance at the Horseshoe Tavern with the capacity capped at 130 people, seated. They went for it. Dwoskin and Subauste brought in the 11-piece band for the show – a fully orchestrated wall of sound. After 2 years of everything being on hold, they wanted to celebrate this album and the return of live music together (#ForTheLoveOfLIVE).
For a taste of their energy, you can watch a performance of the title song, “Everything is on Fire” on YouTube. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for new music videos for singles “Ghosts” and “Mixtape”.
Stay in touch with the Honeyrunners at the following:
Rogue Mischief 