Two weeks after rock band Dirty Honey played back-to-back sold-out shows at The Parish at House of Blues Anaheim and El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, the coronavirus pandemic shut the country down.
The L.A.-based quartet — vocalist Marc LaBelle, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian and drummer Corey Coverstone — had a massive 2019, coming out hot with the single “When I’m Gone” off of its independently released self-titled EP. The band made history that year, becoming the only unsigned artist to ever hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart. Its second single, “Rollin 7s,” also managed to crack the Top 5.
Dirty Honey formed in 2017 and had already managed to land opening slots on tour stops for bands like The Who, Guns N’ Roses and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators and were just starting to enjoy their own headlining runs and extensive radio play on rock stations across the country when the pandemic hit.
“Obviously, it sucks to have all that momentum just come to a screeching halt,” LaBelle said during a recent phone interview.
The group was scheduled to fly to Australia in March 2020 to record its debut full-length album with Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam producer Nick DiDia, who also produced the band’s EP. Their flights were abruptly canceled and through the recording was delayed by several months, they picked themselves up, headed into Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles and brought in DiDia virtually to make the album. Though there were setbacks and technical difficulties, Dirty Honey’s independent, self-titled and full-length record will finally drop on Friday, April 23.
“I think had we gone in last March when we were supposed to, we wouldn’t have come out with this good of a record,” LaBelle said. “The extra time definitely gave us an opportunity to perfect and write better songs. At the same time, we had some really great things scheduled for last year, which I can’t say much about, but we were going to be on tour with one of my favorite bands of all-time and for that opportunity not to happen, it was like a dagger to the heart. But ultimately I think we came out of it with a better body of work and as soon as we’re ready to start playing shows again, I’m going to be very excited to play this stuff.”
The first single off the album, “California Dreamin’,” has a huge, Aerosmith-inspired sound, a ripping guitar solo and LaBelle’s soulful voice soaring through the chorus. Lyrically, it’s about those that come to California chasing a dream and how those dreams don’t always come true. LaBelle, a New York native, struggled after moving to the West Coast and before finding the right players for his band. He was living in his Mini Cooper on the streets surrounding the UCLA campus and crashing on couches at friends’ houses just a handful of years ago.
“I listen to Howard Stern and any time he has an entertainer of some sort on, the interweaving theme is always like just never give up,” he said. “If you’re happy doing what you’re doing, don’t give up. If you give up, your chances of success go to zero automatically. It was definitely hard to sludge through the Shawshank tunnel there, if you will, but once you’re on the other side, you’re really a better artist, performer and person for it and that feels pretty good. It’s nice to have some sort of success, however big or small it may be, just so you can say to your parents that it all wasn’t a waste of time.”
Had the pandemic not forced the band to take a break, “California Dreamin’” wouldn’t have made the record. Notto said he actually wrote the music for it during quarantine.
“We had six months of doing nothing and I was in my studio and I wrote that riff,” he said during a separate phone chat. “So that was born out of me just being in the studio all day. Everything happens for a reason, I guess.”
The band filmed the music video for the single with a small crew and drove to various iconic places throughout the state that showed the beauty and difficulties of chasing the California dream. LaBelle, who worked at a film production company when he first moved to the area, is hands-on with the Dirty Honey music videos and said when it came time to let Notto shine atop a sand dune at sunset for his guitar solo, they gave him the superstar treatment.
“Mark sent me a text and said, ‘What do you think of doing your guitar solo on these dunes?’ and I was looking at a picture and I said, ‘Okay, but you have to Michael Bay me: I want that camera angle all around me,’” Notto said with a laugh. “It turned out great and it was an awesome idea.”
From the start, Notto and LaBelle said the chemistry among band members in Dirty Honey was undeniably strong. They’re all fans of each other. Notto said there are still moments on stage when he gets chills as they drop into a certain song and LaBelle said that now more than ever he feels like he’s exactly where he should be.
“There are moments where I’ll show them a song, like ‘Another Last Time’ on the album is a good example, and I’ll show it on acoustic guitar or whatever and then they’ll say, ‘Let’s do these chords’ and ‘Let’s give this a try’ and everyone kicks in together,” LaBelle said. “And I’m just like, Yeah, this is better than me playing on acoustic guitar. These are the guys. There are a lot of moments like that in recent memory, and that was one of them when we were rehearsing that song before we went into the studio.”
Though they may have some virtual performance plans surrounding the album release, Dirty Honey can’t wait to get sweaty with fans back in the clubs.
“I won’t want to leave the stage,” Notto said once it’s safe to return. “I won’t take it for granted again. Not that I did, I savored every bit of the ride, but I think I’ll even savor the painful parts even more this time. Like the long van rides, things like that. I think the first show back will be an emotional one and I hope the energy just goes off.”
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