‘Over time you find the songs develop a life of their own.’ Unfashionable Male talks to Honey Ryder’s Jason Huxley

Honey Ryder are currently dominating the BBC Radio 2 playlist with What If We’ve Only Got Tonight from their stunning album Born In A Bottle. We caught up with guitarist Jason Huxley to find out about the thought process behind the record and manage to garner a couple of drinking tips…

Born In A Bottle – interesting title. Where did it come from?

The song Born in a Bottle is about a girl living in a dysfunctional home who dreams of breaking away from her alcoholic parents and the constraints of poverty. The theme of the song is about the struggle to overcome personal hardship or being trapped and trying to break free to find a better life. Weirdly the song never actually mentions born in a bottle but it’s just a euphemism for someone’s struggle to find freedom.

Drink With Me was the lead single… Be honest, was there a lot drinking done during the writing and recording process?

Lots of tea was consumed during the recording of this album by Matt and myself as we’re typical northerners, other than that, yeah the odd tipple of JD and Rum and coke spurned us on during the creative process.

What’s your tipple?

Rum and coke.

And your favourite haunt?

The best place I’ve had a drink is at the Vertigo and Moon bar which is a rooftop terrace on the 61st floor of the Banyan tree and overlooks the city of Bangkok, just amazing!

Other than that the Dog and Partridge, Skegness.

As a group, how do you divide songwriting responsibilities?

It varies, one of us may come up with an interesting riff and then Lindz tends to work on the top line and lyrics. Sometimes one of us comes along with a finished track although a majority of the lyrics tend to be written by our Lindz.

Which song are you proudest of?

I’d have to say Born in a Bottle because I wrote that one, but I love all of the songs on the album. Over time you find the songs develop a life of their own and become very personal to you.

The album centres of anthemic numbers. What is your personal anthem?

My personal anthem would be All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers, I find that song very uplifting and motivational when I’m up against things.

And your motto for life?

Don’t follow the crowd and be true to yourself.

Lastly, if you could change one element of your career to date, what would it be and why?

If I could have my time again I’d have carried on songwriting from the year 2000 onwards, as it was I took a ten year break and didn’t write a thing until we went to Thailand for the first time, totally bonkers really! I just got consumed in being the session musician for other people and lost interest in the songwriting side. On the other hand I’ve worked with some amazing artists over those years and hopefully embellished their music in some way, no regrets.

Born In A Bottle is out now.