ShowHub Artist Spotlight: Honeybear, the Band
Everybody Loves Honeybear
When I was 9 years old, my parents — in a mild lapse of judgement — allowed me to watch The Blues Brothers, a screwball romp through the music rooms of Illinois, set to the soundtrack of 60s soul music. By the time the credits rolled, I had found my new obsession. I loved John Belushi and his crazy eyebrows. I loved how Princess Leia inexplicably appeared in the third act, brandishing an M16 rifle. Most of all, I loved the music: joyous, larger-than-life soul tracks from the likes of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles.
Not since that first encounter with the Blues Brothers can I remember being quite so excited about a band as I am about Honeybear, Vancouver’s hottest new blues-soul outfit. Soaked in the warm nostalgia of Motown and Stax, this quartet burst onto the scene in 2024 with a brand new catalogue of soul, blues, and roots numbers. The response was overwhelming, and they’ve racked up more accolades in two years than many bands achieve in a whole career. They’ve sold out shows across Canada. They’ve performed on the stages of Rifflandia and the Vancouver Jazz Festival. They’ve accumulated millions of streams on Spotify, and were recently hailed as “New Discovery of the Year” by Roots Music Canada. The list goes on.
Last week I met with Honeybear guitarist Colin Brumelle to chat about the band’s runaway success. For fans of Honeybear, Colin is everything you’d hope he would be: unpretentious, self-deprecating, and slightly unaware of just how popular Honeybear has become.
There’s a timeless charm to Honeybear’s records that attracts listeners of all ages. My mom loves them. My metalhead friends love them. Jen and Cliff (the co-founders of ShowHub) love them. In this interview, Colin takes us on an all-access tour of the Honeybear hit machine.
Meet the Artist:
Interview With Colin Brumelle
How did all you Honeybears first meet?
Ian [our singer & bassist] and I grew up, like, a block apart. And we’ve been playing together for a long, long time. Honeybear is a new band, but we’ve all played together for… I can’t even say the number, it’s so huge! When we started, Ian was underage. We used to play in the US a lot, and he definitely was not 21, and did not look 21. And he’d get a big X on his hand.
You ever pull the ol’ fake ID routine?
That’s how we got into the blues, was by going to the Yale Saloon! Because they were the only ones who would accept our fake IDs. They were terrible, they looked like our moms made them.
Did you have a musical hero growing up?
Steve Cropper is my absolute hero. I just love that kind of “feel” player. I’m not like Eddie Van Halen, I’m not gonna shred up and down the neck. I do the understated Steve Cropper style. Steve Cropper would just play quarter notes, and it was so funky. Like, who can make a quarter note sound funky?
Did you guys have any bands before Honeybear?
Yeah, many. The one that we played in for the longest time was called Green Room. It was a 6 piece horn-funk band. We gave it a good try. We toured for a decade plus. And then I just was not into it. Waking up on someone’s cold linoleum floor because you had to sleep there. You have a towel draped over you and it’s freezing cold. I was like, “I’m out.”
So you took a hiatus?
Yeah, yeah… I was burnt out on music. I had a whole other career, and we moved to California, all this other stuff. And then during COVID, we all had a lot of free time on our hands. We just started playing in the park with Mike and Ian. This good friend of ours, Jon Cartwright, hooked up this motorcycle battery to a PA, and he had this whole contraption that was like a park bench on wheels with a cooler built into it, and he would wheel it out from his garage to the park.
What does Honeybear’s songwriting process look like?
I can show you. This is a voicemail from Ian.
[Colin plays a recording off his phone, featuring Ian humming and scatting. To the untrained ear, it sounds entirely incoherent.]
And it’s your job to interpret that?
Yeah, I’m like, “What on earth is that?!” I have hundreds of these… But I’ll send him guitar tracks that I’m sure are just as unlistenable.
So it’s kind of a ‘Lennon and McCartney’ thing between you guys?
Yeah, if Lennon and McCartney were dumber maybe [laughs].
And who’s your George Martin?
We work with this guy Jeff Zipp from Light Machine Records. He’s the nicest guy. His studio is small, but there’s something about that space, the way that Jeff makes you feel comfortable that gives the best performance. I think that’s all that really matters.
Oh yeah, Jeff’s the best. He’s great at pushing for the best possible take, but he’ll also be a cheerleader for you if he can see you’re nervous.
And even if you mess up, Jeff’s like “Interesting. I’ve never heard someone play a guitar part so differently every single time.” And you’re like “OK, I get it…”
So you release your first single in 2024, and the success is pretty immediate. Aside from racking up huge streaming numbers, you’re also getting booked into festivals like Rifflandia and Jazz Fest. Were you surprised how quickly things started rolling?
A little bit, although we did hustle for it. I sent a lot of emails [laughs]. We were also very lucky, and luck has an outsized role in all this. Those festivals are truly amazing to play at, but we’re also really proud of our club shows … We sold out the Horseshoe in Toronto, and our last 15 shows have sold out. That’s the thing that honestly surprises me.
Oh you gotta tell me, how did you settle on the name ‘Honeybear’?
There’s two stories. The truth, which you should not print, is really kind of boring and lame. “Honeybear” was the name of my wife’s ancestral teddy bear. That was it.
That’s cute.
It’s cute but it’s not a good story.
And the lie?
The story I’ll tell people is like, “It was a nickname an ex-girlfriend had for me. I had it tattooed on my arm. The girl’s gone, but I still have the tattoo.”
Do you have that tattoo?
No I don’t.
Before we go, tell me about your upcoming show at the Pearl.
It’s a great spot, and it’s run by really good people. It’s a good bill too. We’re soul, and Antonio Larosa is country, but the difference between soul and country is much smaller than people realize.
The range of people you see at a Honeybear show is incredible. You’ve got teenagers, millennials, baby boomers — everyone seems to love Honeybear. What is it about your music that’s connecting with people?
Well I don’t know… We’re certainly peddling in nostalgia.
In a good way though.
In a good way. I also think that there’s something about this kind of music: just simple, four people playing their instruments on stage. And that’s kinda unusual. I mean, we’re obviously not AI. There’s no way that AI could get up on stage and screw up our tunes that badly.
Tickets are now available for Antonio Larosa + Honeybear the Band, Live at the Pearl (April 25th, 2026). See the show details.
Mini Interview with Antonio Larosa
(On the April 25th Pearl Bill with Honeybear)
Antonio Larosa is one of those enviable musicians who just seems to be good at everything: a powerhouse vocalist, a blistering guitar player, and a seasoned songwriter, his talents have earned him accolades from the BC Country Music Association, SiriusXM placements, and much more. With new releases set for the summer and national tour dates booked through July, he still found time to chat with us!
Meet the Artist:
One of the things I love about your records is that you’re blending together all kinds of genres at once: blues, country, rock, roots. Do you remember the first artists that really lit you up as a kid?
Yeah, I remember it pretty clearly. Johnny Cash was a big one for me early on, same with Elvis Presley. There was something about the honesty and the feel that just grabbed me. Then as I got older I got into The Allman Brothers Band and B.B. King, and that kind of sealed it for me.
I was just saying to Colin (of Honeybear) how blues and soul seem to be making a comeback lately. Colin says it’s about authenticity — people wanna see real musicians performing live. Would you agree with that?
I think Colin’s right. People can feel when something’s real. There’s so much polished stuff out there that when someone actually plays and means it, it cuts through. I think people are just craving something human again.
Your music is taking you all over the country this year. What’s it like to experience success after so much woodshedding and hustling?
It’s honestly pretty surreal. There were a lot of years just grinding it out, playing anywhere that would have me. So getting to travel across the country now and have people show up and connect with the songs, it means a lot. It feels like things are starting to click.
What have you got lined up for us this summer?
The Pearl is gonna be the full band. That’s really how I love presenting the music. It’s raw, energetic, a bit loose, and we let things breathe and stretch. It should be a fun night. This summer’s shaping up nicely too. We’ve got more shows across Western Canada, some festival plays, and I’ll be continuing to roll out new music leading into the record. Just trying to stay on the road and keep building.