For more than 30 years, Honeymoon Suite songs have been an integral part of the rock and roll soundtrack for millions of Canadians. With now legendary songs like New Girl Now, Stay in the Light, Love Changes Everything, What Does it Take and Feel It Again still staples of radio, the band continues to perform regularly from coast to coast for both long-time fans and new devotees.
But it’s been a while since any new music came from the Honeymoon Suite camp – eight years in fact since the release of the band’s last studio album Clifton Hill. And even though the band’s two primary composers – singer Johnnie Dee and guitarist Derry Grehan – had been writing, it took some not-so-subtle encouragement from another Canadian axe master, Sean Kelly (Crash Kelly, Nelly Furtado, Trapper, Helix etc) to get the ball rolling on what is now an EP featuring seven new songs and a couple of bonus tracks.
“I guess we’re doing it now because things have really lined up for us. I am always writing songs and so is Johnnie but over the last year we hooked up with Sean Kelly and started doing some writing sessions with him. And Sean was really instrumental in hooking us up and really motivating us to get serious about recording,” said Grehan from his home in central Illinois, where he has lived with his wife and two teenaged children for the past number of years.
“And I think at the end of the day we got a good group of songs down. Honestly, we could have done a record three or four years ago, but I don’t think the songs were as strong as they are now. And I think deciding to release an album or EP is more about a feeling. Once you get three or four songs that you’re really happy with then you start thinking maybe we should put something out, because it’s good for the fans. The fans love getting new music, so here we are.”
Grehan said he and his bandmates in Honeymoon Suite, including the aforementioned Mr. Dee, original bassist Gary Lalonde, original drummer Dave Betts and long-time keyboardist Peter Nunn, don’t want to be simply a nostalgia act.
“We could go out and just play the circuit and do the old songs because, for the most part, that’s what people are coming to the shows for. And that’s fine, because that’s our legacy and that’s what keeps this band going. We’re pretty lucky to be doing this for more than 30 years and still headlining and still doing so many cool things. I don’t take that for granted and I don’t look on that negatively. It’s so awesome,” he said.
“At the same time, new music is the lifeblood of a band like us. I think you should always be writing, recording and releasing songs. And if you look at what’s going on with a lot of older bands, so many of them are putting out records; bands like Night Ranger and Duran Duran, Def Leppard – the list goes on and on.”
The as-yet untitled new album is in the final stages and Grehan said he is excited to be using the PledgeMusic platform to generate support and funding for the album.
“We’re basically an indie band for intents and purposes. We haven’t had a major record deal for a long time. The last couple of records were on the Frontiers label out of Europe. So you have to take things over and market things yourself and learn how to do the things you need to do yourself. And I think that can be a good thing if you’re smart about it and work at it. So that’s why the PledgeMusic thing is so cool because basically the fans will help make this record. At the end of the day, we will have a great CD, we won’t owe tons of money to a record company, it will be 100 per cent ours and we can do what we want with it,” Grehan explained.
“It did take me a little while to get my head around the whole PledgeMusic thing. I have a manager out in California who is helping me with business-related things and he kind of talked me into it, because I am the most skeptical person and I thought it was the most cheesy and desperate move to do. But after I wrapped my head around it and saw bands like Cheap Trick and Megadeth out there doing it for things I saw that it wasn’t cheesy, and in a way is the new model of the music industry. Unless you’re Rihanna or Coldplay and have these huge records deals, a band needs to do things a different way.”
As for the new songs themselves, Grehan said they will be unmistakably Honeymoon Suite – the sound and vibe that fans have known and loved since their 1984 self-titled debut album.
“The new songs are going to sound like Honeymoon Suite. The thing about our band is, if you listen to the records, we don’t put out albums that had 10 of the same kind of songs on them. Our records are really varied. We will have a song like Wave Babies on the same album as a song like Burning in Love. They’re two completely different songs, but they still fit into the Honeymoon Suite style for some reason,” he said.
“So we have that luxury of being flexible. With these new songs there’s a bit of everything – there’s some slow songs, some mid-tempo ones and some all-out rockers. But they all have that Honeymoon Suite stamp on them as soon as Johnnie starts to sing and I lay down my guitar parts. I think these songs are classic sounding melodic rock Honeymoon Suite songs, but they don’t sound dated.”
While Honeymoon Suite has been around since the early 1980s, there have been numerous lineup changes over the years. The original band reformed around 2007, and while keyboardist Ray Coburn subsequently departed again a few years later, the key quartet of Dee and Grehan (who have never left the band) alongside the rhythm section of Lalonde and Betts, remains as vital as it was in the band’s 1980s heyday.
“We used side guys for many years, so a few years ago I said to Johnnie, ‘let’s call the other guys
and see if they’re into it.’ I much prefer having those guys, including Peter too. Peter has actually been in the band longer that [previous keyboardists] Ray or Rob Preuss ever were. He’s been a full-time member now for so long. But there’s just a sound that the five of us make together that is uniquely us and special,” Grehan said.
“None of us are virtuoso players in our own right, but together, as with a lot of classic bands, there is a distinct sound and I love it. It’s really true that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a real personality to the sound of our band that only these five guys make. Also there’s a true friendship and understanding between us all because we know one another so well. There’s no
bullshit, and we’re truly having fun. At the end of the day, at this point in my life, I am not going to go out on the road and deal with egos and prima donnas in a band, because that’s miserable. And that’s why the original band is still together – because it works. And we will keep it going as long as we want to keep it going.”
The new album will also be released on limited edition vinyl, something that Grehan is also excited about.
“I still have a turntable although I got rid of most of my records a while back. But I kept my old Deep Purple and Alice Cooper records, just because they meant so much to me growing up. And I actually put one on the other day and there’s just that warmth to the sound. I think vinyl seems to be coming back in a big way. I think there is still a novelty aspect to it, but the popularity is on the rise. I believe there is something about vinyl that you can’t replace,” he said.
“What I missed about vinyl was when you got a new album and it had this nice big cover, with big pictures and all the liner material. You never really got that as much with cassettes and CDs and don’t really get anything with digital downloads. And I think you miss something of value when you’re just clicking a button. The action of turning on the turntable and placing the needle down and just sitting and listening, then flipping it over to the other side – I don’t know, I just think there’s something really special about that experience.”
Honeymoon Suite is also slated to play the Molson Canadian Studio in Hamilton on May 6, a special fundraising show at Classic Bowl in Mississauga on May 7, and at the Sikorski Hall in Oshawa on July 22 – as well as a number of dates in western Canada and the USA.
For more information on the Honeymoon Suite PledgeMusic campaign, visit http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/honeymoonsuite
For more information on the band, including other tour dates, visit http://honeymoonsuiteband.com/
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
