Durango Herald - July 28, 2000
by Matt Joyce, Herald Staff Writer
One night a couple of years ago, a few Durango musicians were goofing around and looking into the night sky when they struck upon a name for their new band. A band member saw two words on a beer bottle, and in an inspired moment, the two words swirled into the astral visions, and BlackHoney was born.
"We like to think of the stage as a space ship," says Michael Coble, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the seven-member band. "We blast off and cruise around the galaxy."
BlackHoney's name is intentionally open to interpretation, as is its music. "It's infinite," says Adam Smith, guitar and mandolin. "It's a name that means nothing, yet anything."
BlackHoney has been playing regularly in Durango since the summer of 1998, making it one of the longest-running bands in town. The band's energetic, open-ended jams, and its hippie family mentality, have attracted a loyal following that grows bigger with each performance.
Smith describes BlackHoney's music as a loose skeleton, with freedom for the musicians to experiment connected by distinct transitions. "We're actually pretty texture oriented," Coble says. "It's a nebulous cloud of conveying a feeling about what's coming, and then delivering."
Along with guitar, drums and Antoni Burgett's rock-solid bass, BlackHoney incorporates violin, percussion, flute, bass clarinet and saxophone into its music.
Also, band members aren't afraid to bust into some harder-edged, metal-tinged songs, which sets them apart from the run-of-the-mill Colorado jam band. But don't be afraid, BlackHoney also does a cover of "Dancin' in the Streets" - a la the Grateful Dead.
BlackHoney is a band that disappears moments before each show to "align heartbeats" in a meditation circle. It's a band you'll find playing under the stars at a camp-out keg party on Red Mesa, at a friend of a friend's land. It's a band that openly expresses a willingness to play benefit shows.
BlackHoney met last month for an interview at Carver Brewing Co. Over beer and nachos, the band members tried to talk about themselves and their music, but normally broke down into joking and chastising one another.
Underneath the sibling-like banter, the musicians, who range in age from 21 to 26, exhibit a gravity and intensity that reeks of sweet commitment and optimism.
Dummer Matt Knight says the band has a strong, unified vision. "Everybody can feel in their body that we could go as far as we want to take it," he said. "If we leave it alone, it will work out just fine."
Rector says BlackHoney has found its success, and been embraced by friends and fans, because the band members love what they're doing. "The reason it works is because we've all quite literally dedicated our lives to the pursuit of music," Rector says.
To that end, the band plans on making a studio recording at the close of the summer, said Jody Biesiada, who manages the band and recently began singing. She's also Smith's girlfriend of two years.
Since it doesn't take long for a dedicated band to outgrow Durango, BlackHoney says it will probably take off for a bigger city, or maybe even Europe, when the two remaining college students graduate in the fall of 2001.
Coble and Matt Moon, violin and trumpet, are the two Fort Lewis College students in the band. Both are studying music. Rector is the other classically trained musician in the band, with a degree in orchestral percussion from the University of Southern California.
"We're proud of the fact that all of us are not classically trained," Coble says
"(Smith) has never had classical training and reminds me to have fun," Rector says.
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