Like Ursula Andress rising from the sea in her white bikini, Honey Ryder are guaranteed to be making heads turn this summer.
Sweet dreams are made of this – and not since the Eurythmics have we witnessed such a distinctive male/female songwriting duo as Lindsay Boyle (vocals) and Martyn Shone (guitar). With its lyrical catchiness and (whisper it) commercial appeal, new album ‘Rising Up’ should come as standard with every sports car sold this year.
Somehow a band born in a Balham basement have managed to create the perfect soundtrack to a Californian road trip. Drive through the city this summer and be transported to a sun-kissed ocean road for the surging, superfeelgood ’Fly Away’, then to a moonlit desert highway for the achingly poignant ’Choices’.
As for their origins, flash back to the early 90s and you’d see why this particular musical partnership was destined to happen. While Lindz was already lipsynching self-penned lyrics into her hairbrush at the tender age of fourteen, her Slash-worshipping sidekick was busy smashing up another air guitar to ’Sweet Child Of Mine’.
Forming initially through mutual friends at MTV, they spent several years honing their sound with various bands on the London circuit before striking out on their own. Little wonder this is a band as comfortable on the stage as they are in the studio.
‘Rising Up’ is bursting at the seams with the kind of anthems that rise and fall and rise again. Produced by Goldust (Bryan Adams, Natasha Bedingfield) and mixed by LA’s Brad Gilderman (Madonna, OutKast) and our very own Bob Kraushaar (Robbie Williams, Pet Shop Boys) it’s been crafted with precision by some very capable hands indeed.
Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and wind down your windows, this is Honey Ryder…
