Artist Interview: The Honey Badgers

The Honey Badgers, Erin Magnin and Michael Natrin, have been making beautiful music for over 13 years.  Calling Delaware their home, they take their duet harmonies and guitar/fiddle driven Americana-folk music all along the Eastern seaboard, with regular forays westward, performing at folk music gatherings, house concerts, and in intimate venues across the USA.  A few years back the Honey Badgers recorded a few Christmas tunes which captured the attention of the Christmas music collector community, as well as the folk music audience. 

Erin and Michael returned to making holiday music in 2020 and 2021, with the release of two singles, "In the Bleak Midwinter" and their original "Warm Winter".  Along the way they have released a steady stream of outstanding folk albums and singles, all available from their Bandcamp site.

I've been a fan of the Honey Badgers for many years, and earlier this year I got to meet them at the fabulous Australian bakery/cafe Banksia.  They were passing through Kansas City on the route between Manhattan KS and Knob Knoster MO, and made time for a quick lunch and meet 'n' greet.  You will never meet nicer folks than Erin and Michael.  During our lunch I pitched the idea of a blog interview, and they enthusiastically agreed.  And so, here we are - my interview with the Honey Badgers!

Der Bingle meets The Honey Badgers

Links to all of their web presences follow the interview.  Please take a few minutes to listen to the Honey Badgers and (as I always say) if you like what you hear, do your part to support these excellent independent musicians (i.e. buy their music!).

Merry & Bright Interview with The Honey Badgers

Merry & Bright: Hello Erin & Michael! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for Merry & Bright!

The Honey Badgers: Thanks for chatting with us. It feels like we just saw you in person, but somehow that was all the way back in February!

MB: Let’s start with a quick ‘getting to know you’ question. How did The Honey Badgers get started? How long have you been doing the music thing as a duo?

HB: We started performing together as a duo in July of 2011, which means we’ve been performing for 13 years now. Our first gig together, where we jokingly came up with our name, was a competition to play the local folk festival. We made the finals and have been performing with the name since then. In 2019, we both quit our corporate jobs and began performing music as a full time job.

MB: Back in 2012, you released a Christmas EP, “Christmas with The Honey Badgers”, featuring “What Child Is This”, a short but reverent “Silent Night”, and a lovely performance of “O Holy Night”, plus a very amusing “Meowtro”, your closing message to your fans. It’s been a few years ago now, but what can you tell us about choosing the songs and creating this EP?

HB: Great question! We found a list of public domain music and picked a few of our favorites. Those are all songs that we grew up singing along to. We tracked that EP in my college apartment and pulled the whole project together pretty quickly. It was a lot of fun. It’s definitely a snapshot in time - I think we’d both perform those songs quite differently today.

MB: Let’s move ahead a bit: in 2021 you gave us a wonderful original single, “Warm Winter”. While not technically a Christmas song, it’s full of wintry imagery – ice, cold winds, bare branches, footprints in the snow. Can you tell us the story of “Warm Winter”?

HB: We wrote Warm Winter in February of 2014 as both a love song and an ode to winter, centered on how even a freezing winter can feel cozy and warm with the right person. Erin was experimenting for the first time with the alternate guitar tuning of DADGAD, and thought it sounded just like a quiet winter day, sparkling with snow. For a few years we only performed it every once in a while during holiday-adjacent shows. Late in the first winter of the pandemic we decided that it was about time to finally record and release it. We bundled up and filmed a music video for it as well, immediately following a snowstorm, which resulted in us both almost freezing our little fingers off.

MB: I’ve saved my personal favorite for last – your just-before-Christmas 2020 release of “In the Bleak Midwinter”. This is one of the seasonal songs that I love most, and your rendition is simply beautiful. Christmas 2020 was the (first) pandemic Christmas. Did the circumstances of that year lead to your choosing to record and release this, as, for many of us, the year and season were bleaker than most?

HB: The weight of the pandemic was definitely a huge part of what made us decide on recording this song. Earlier that year, we were guests on a podcast and the host asked us to contribute a tune for the holiday episode. Our usual cheery favorites didn’t feel quite right in 2020. We landed on this after again looking at a list of public domain holiday tunes. It was certainly topical for the year and we’re really happy with how the final version sounds.

MB: Your arrangement of the song seems so heartfelt. Christina Rossetti’s lyric “Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow on snow” is so perfect. What was your approach to arranging this canonic song into a Honey Badgers’ tune?

HB: Thanks! Making something fit our specific folky sound is sometimes challenging, but always fun. We were originally playing this with a traditional 4/4 timing, then Michael jokingly started playing the song with the 6/8 guitar part that is on the recording. He was just messing around, playing it really fast and silly, but then we realized - wait a second, that sounds kinda cool! With that guitar part the song has a bit more movement, feels more hopeful, and maybe a little less solemn. After that it felt natural to fit in the rest of the folky instruments; Erin on violin, and Michael with the “tasteful” banjo. We can never resist doing a signature Honey Badger trade-off of verses, and ending with some sweet harmonies. “Snow on snow on snow” is our favorite part too, especially with Erin’s high harmony at the very end of the song.

MB: You’re really good at this Christmas-music thing. Do you have any other Christmas songs in the works? Merry and Bright totally supports more Honey Badgers holiday music 😃

HB: You’re too kind! I think we’ve finally almost recovered from releasing a full length (non-Christmas) album this past June, so maybe it’s time to start thinking about our next project… maybe a “Christmas with The Honey Badgers: Part 2” next year? Stay tuned! Speaking of the new album, there are a few songs on it that could be fun for this time of year: “Bring With You Nothing”, our ode to community and being there for each other, and “She Awakes”, a reminder that out of the dark winter comes new life and light.

MB: Erin & Michael – thanks again for your time and your music. Have a very happy holiday season!

HB: Thanks so much for the interview! Have a great holiday  ❄

Honey Badgers Weblinks

Honey Badgers on Spotify

Honey Badgers on Bandcamp

Honey Badgers Website

Honey Badgers Instagram

Honey Badgers on Facebook