Hunny

“I feel like this is like something that maybe people don't realise or remember about most bands is that most bands are not like, hey, let's start a band and then you record the record like six months later and then you're playing shows. It's like years of people coming in and out, making group chats and then they fizzle out. Especially with this type of music, like, you're quite vulnerable, you know, like, I'm getting up there and being like, I've lost my friends and I'm tired and I'm sad.”

Hunny are a relatively new band – recently releasing their debut EP Hunny Time – but are well acquainted and embedded in Sydney’s hardcore and DIY scenes. Pia and Carmen from the band spoke to Ify on Up For It about their relationship with these growing scenes.

“I've been trying to make a spreadsheet of all of the bands in Sydney that are just hardcore bands, there's more than 40 at the moment… I feel like you would not be able to say that years ago, at all.”

The 5 track long Hunny Time ticks in under a tight 8 minutes - a blast of energy reminiscent of the many live shows the band played in the lead up to the EP’s release. Uniquely, it shies away from the ultra-compact, maximum-loudness production common amongst contemporary hardcore. Instead, the band are swallowed by an inviting, warm layer of fuzz – a sound beckoning towards a history of DIY Sydney hardcore – particularly, Western Sydney hardcore –music. It’s a legacy the band are proud to be a part of.

"I remember like, my relationship with alternative music was always like, alternative music is something that happens overseas and not in Australia. [Then] I started going to Beatdisc [Records]  when I was like, 16 years old and I was like, oh, all these people are in my area, they're like living around the corner from me and actually just creating music and putting on shows. You can just do that. I didn't even know that you could just do that."

Hunny pays respect to this legacy, but also feel a responsibility to contribute towards it and its future, in terms of both participation, but also culture.

"With all these new people coming in, it's so refreshing to see the excitement. And I'm seeing such a big cultural shift with respect. And it's things like people making an effort to say hi, like, you know, like eight years ago, there was this weird attitude in hardcore, where sometimes you wouldn't say hi to people, even if you'd known them for a decade."

It’s that word so often brandished and spoken of: community. Hunny understand the importance of making their local scene a real, thriving community. But they’ve also discovered community within the band itself.

"The music is honestly secondary to why we keep showing up every single weekend, even when maybe we don't want to, or feel tired or overwhelmed. It's because our obligation to other people is what keeps us coming back. But with Hunny especially, where the journey is at is I'm like, these are my best friends. These are the people who I hang out with, whether we have band practice or not.

And that's so sick."

Words by Lindsay Riley