A Chat With: Honduras
Honduras is Pat Phillips, Tyson Moore, Josh Wehle, and Paul Lizarraga
Brooklyn's Honduras has been garnering buzz over the past few years with their fuzzy, lo-fi punk sound, which has seen them play festivals across the country, tour with the likes of Acid Dad and Public Access T.V., and even catch the attention of Tony Hawk. The band will soon be taking a little break from the road to finalize the follow up to their 2015 debut album, Rituals.
While on their most recent national tour with Public Access T.V. last month, the band took some time to chat with us before their show at Schubas Tavern. Catch up with Honduras as they discuss their most recent SXSW experience, their go-to karaoke songs, their bartending skills and more!
What was your first music memory from when you were younger?
Tyson Moore: My first thing was on road trips, like family trips, my parents had this Beach Boys live double album. We would just play that thing over and over. So I've loved the Beach Boys for forever.
Pat Phillips: My parents divorced when I was like a baby, so they had split custody. My earliest memories of music are when I would visit my dad, just listening to the CDs he would have. It was like Tom Petty, The Cure, and Sonic Youth...those are like the three that I really remember hearing as a small kid.
Paul Lizarraga: For me, my dad had all these records that he collected in high school. He’s a big music lover. So like David Bowie, The Cure, Pink Floyd. He had all kinds of music. Earth, Wind, and Fire…
Josh Wehle: I’m the youngest of four. Everyone in my family is very musical. So I just remember being in diapers and being on the drum set.
Pat Phillips: He was always sneaking into shows at like Mercury Lounge when he was 13. He was that kid.
So basically your parents all had great taste in music! Fast forwarding to the present, you guys just played a bunch of shows down at SXSW. What were some of your favorite showcases?
Tyson Moore: Yeah, it was intense. I think we all agree our hottest show was the AdHoc official show. We played with a bunch of really cool, fresh diverse artists. You could just be there all night and see every type of music.
Pat Phillips: Yeah, I agree that was the best one. Ten shows is a lot in four days though. So if you’re gonna do it you gotta be prepared to just like call it quits as early as you possibly can.
Any other SXSW Survival tips or hacks?
Pat Phillips: If you’re fortunate enough to have an aunt that has a condo in Downtown Austin, stay there. That’s where we stayed.
Then on this tour you’ve had the limited edition 7 inch record for "Need The Sun" and "Water Sign." Can you tell me about those songs, and how it came together?
Pat Phillips: They were just demos we recorded in our practice space. But then we had a friend who started his own record label and wanted to put it out on vinyl and wanted to do all the artwork and package it in a really unique way. Also, they came out sounding really better than we expected. Tyson recorded everything himself.
Do you usually do the recordings yourself? [To Tyson]
Tyson Moore: Not in this band I haven’t. But this process, it was just demos, so we were like let’s just get these songs done. Then mixing them, they turned out pretty good. We were like these are worthy of release, and it’s vinyl only right now.
Pat Phillips: Those songs will be out soon. After this tour we’re gonna release it on Spotify and stuff. We just wanted this little run of only vinyl.
Do you have any other new music in the works?
Pat Phillips: Yeah, we got a records worth of material. We’re just waiting on the right opportunity.
John Eatherly from Public Access T.V. is in green room and the band ask what he's drinking
Pat Phillips: We all work at bars at home.
What’s your favorite drink to make? You're all bartenders?
Pat Phillips: Yeah we work at venues in New York where everyone just gets beers and shots though. So we don’t really make drinks...
You should create and name a drink after one of your songs
Pat Phillips: I had one drink I made, I forgot what it was called. It was Jameson, grapefruit juice and lime juice. I called it something...I call it Paulie’s backyard.
Paul Lizarraga: I enjoy an old fashion. Tyson makes really good cocktails...Gotta have the rye, gotta have the orange wedge, muddled with sugar cubes.
This is a new segment called Drinks with Honduras now
Pat Phillips: That would be a good segment cause we’re all bartenders!
Speaking of going out and having a good time, I saw you guys went out and did karaoke last night
Pat Phillips: Yeah, at Cafe Mustache!
Oh I didn’t recognize that’s where that was! Is this a regular occurrence to do karaoke on tour?
All: It has been on this tour!
Tyson Moore: There’s this place-- we were staying in Temecula, which is in Southern California, for a couple weeks. There’s this kind of locals, blue-collar dive bar...but they have karaoke every night. Except for one night. So we went there a couple times. It was a weird scene, really fun.
What are your go-to karaoke songs?
Pat Phillips: I sang The Smiths last night, but I usually like The Strokes or Rolling Stones.
Paul Lizarraga: The Doors...Depeche Mode. More baritone vibes.
Tyson Moore: I didn’t do it this tour yet, but in the past I’ve done Johnny Cash.
Josh Wehle: I couldn’t figure it out last night. There was a moment of weakness, where it came into conversation [to do Smash Mouth "All Star"]. We did The Strokes in California. That was a nice one. I’m not really a karaoke guy, but I want to be. I need to find my song. I really do think Smash Mouth is the one. I’ve never done it, but I need to just break the seal and then I can be known as that guy.
What else do you guys like to do when you’re in Chicago?
Pat Phillips: We have friends here. We got here yesterday. So we had this really fun night out, with some friends’ bands that we’ve toured with. Like the band NE-HI, we were hanging out with the drummer [Alex Otake] today. Tyson also lived here for a bit.
Tyson Moore: Yeah, I lived here for like four years. I went to Columbia College. I only went for two years, for the last two and then I lived here for two more. I was gonna go there [for music business] when I was a freshman, but I decided not to. Then I got into the recording side of things, so then I went for audio engineering.
Nice! Anything else you guys like to do while out on the road? Are you podcast people?
Pat Phillips: We love podcasts! We love The Daily, the New York Times podcast.
Tyson Moore: We’ve been on the Pod Save America political stuff. Marc Maron, 99% Invisible. That’s a really cool podcast. 20,000 Hertz is a really cool podcast. It’s audio based.
Any new music that you’re into?
Tyson Moore: Deeper is pretty sick!
Paul Lizarraga: The new Total Control album is pretty good.
Pat Phillips: I really like the band Sextile. We saw them in LA and listen to their record nonstop. They’re an LA kind of post-punk kind of band. I love that band, they’re really rad. I listen to a lot of Deerhunter. Total Control. We did a lot of Rolling Stones earlier in the tour. Just kind of revisiting all those records! We always love Beach House. Then we listen to a lot of Afro Soul kind of music too.
Tyson Moore: We’ve been listening to the Kanye podcast. Not hosted by Kanye. It’s this podcast called Dissect and the dude breaks down My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy like he talks about the samples and the notes…
Pat Phillips: It’s 16 hours long!
Any favorite NYC based bands?
Pat Phillips: Parquet Courts. Bodega. Sunflower Bean
Paul Lizarraga: I really like Haram, a punk band coming out of New York, they’re friends of ours.
Josh Wehle: There is a sick rapper named SAMMUS that we discovered down in Austin.
Anything else you’re looking forward to this year?
Pat Phillips: Yeah, this was the long tour. We have some cool shows in New York coming up and some things on the horizon. We had two days of recording out in LA where we recorded two or three new songs and it really inspired us to complete this new material that’s been floating around. So I feel like that’s really what we’re gonna be focusing on the next couple months. Hopefully try to record that by the end of the year.
