Easy Honey band members Darby Mcglone, Webster Austin and Selby Austin (left to right) perform at Boulder’s Fox Theatre on July 20, 2024.
While on their “Cupidity Unlimited” tour, indie rock band Easy Honey stopped at the Fox Theatre on July 20 with the High Lines, a local band made up of University of Colorado Boulder students, as an opening act.
Easy Honey, based out of Charleston, South Carolina, consists of brothers Selby and Webster Austin on guitar and bass, respectively, along with Darby McGlone on guitar and Charlie Holt on drums.
The band has been traversing the country as they promote their new album “Cupidity Unlimited,” released on July 19. While at the Fox they mesmerized the crowd with a distinctly playful style of music and energetic stage presence.
CU Boulder junior Rue Murray originally came to the Fox to see the High Lines but stayed for the entire concert after being impressed with Easy Honey’s skills.
“[Easy Honey’s] musicianship is so impressive and they’re so in tune with each other,” Murray said.
Before the band headed up to shows in Evergreen and Frisco, the CU Independent sat down with Easy Honey’s bassist, Webster Austin.
What’s the meaning behind the name Easy Honey?
Our bandmates Selby and Darby were driving one day and they needed a name for the band because they were coming up on their first show. They passed these two billboards – one had the word “easy” on it and the other had “honey” and they thought “Cool, that works.”
What inspired the new album?
The guys had finished their last record right before COVID. As COVID was ending I joined the band and we started recording music again. We spent a year doing singles and an EP, getting to know each other. We were going on tours and then recording when we got back home and things started to feel like a nine-to-five job. We missed having our recording sessions feel like when we were in high school making music with friends for the first time.
Charlie’s grandparents have a beach house in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, so we went up there. From the instant we started to work on stuff we were like “Man, this feels good.” Every time we’d get songs closer and closer to being done we’d always make room for more and more last-minute ideas. It just felt like we’d returned to that kind of youthful energy and inspiration.
Where did you get the name Cupidity Unlimited?
The album is sort of poking fun. Cupidity really means greed, so it’s like greed unlimited, but everyone thinks that cupidity means stupid love; they think it’s a cognate. I was like, “Well if we want it to mean that then that can be our meaning of it.” That’s kind of a statement. I love that idea of just being stupid in love with people or when people get their heart broken, they – no pun intended – get back on the horse.
How did you choose the album cover?
The cover is just a picture of me as a kid on our little pony named Pumpkin… Once the vinyl was printed and about to get shipped to us, I was thinking symbolically about that picture. It just came even more so into focus for me. It’s just this naked, innocent, laughing. That’s just the energy we were wanting to capture for the album.
What’s been the best part of the tour?
Always just getting to meet so many people and have so many jokes among ourselves and adventures and getting to play cool places like the Fox Theatre. In Colorado, everything is like two or three hours apart so we’ve had some people come to multiple shows which is so awesome. You think about people following [bands like] U2 or the Grateful Dead around, but to see that happen with your band is cool.
Worst part of the tour?
[Charlie Holt] was feeling really sick and we took him to the doctor after he wasn’t getting any better. That same day our car got messed up on the side of a mountain and he ended up getting under the car and fixing it so we could get to our gig in Aspen. That was pretty triumphant and heroic of him, so shout out to Charlie.
Dream band to tour with?
Maybe this band from the 70s called Big Star. We love them as a band. The funny thing is they never even really toured, they were just more of a studio band. Smashing Pumpkins would also be really cool. We all love them and love their live shows.
One thing you can’t live without on tour?
Rolling suitcases. Recently we got some and they are just so nice. We all used to have duffle bags and we’d put them on our backs. So we’d have to carry our instruments by our hands and they’d get all beat up so it’s nice to have those on our backs instead.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Arts Editor Lincoln Roch at lincoln.roch@colorado.edu.
