FUZZHONEYS: GARAGE PUNK FROM MALTA
Fuzzhoneys is a female duo from Malta. Their sound can be summarized as garage rock, spiced up with elements of the Blues, a dash of girly punk and a whole lot of soul. A combination of Francesca Mercieca’s husky vocals, groovy bass-lines and crispy riffs, and Caroline Spiteri’s incisive drumbeats, Fuzzhoneys’ music is engagingly unique and vibrant.
The first sounds of the ‘fuzz’ date back to September 2012, in what was essentially a jam session which actually yielded the duo’s first song “Chemistry”. Working behind closed doors for a good year or so, Fuzzhoneys gave their first public performance in April 2014, when they played at that year’s ‘Rock the South Festival’ at ‘Zion Reggae Bar’ in Marsascala, Malta. Since then, they have clocked up an impressive number of gigs at popular Maltese venues such as ‘Zion Reggae Bar’, ‘Funky Monkey’ and ‘Rumors’, local festivals and several venues in Europe.
Around the month of August that same year, the band entered the recording studio for the first time with producer Daniel Buttigieg. The idea was to record a 5-track EP that would capture the true, raw sound, that Buttigieg had been so intrigued by when he had first seen Fuzzhoneys performing live. The first single, “Soul” was released preceding the duo’s first live show abroad, which experience came about at the legendary ‘Water Rats’ in London’s King’s Cross as part of the ‘Malta takes London’ event.
Fuzzhoneys released their debut EP “CD tal-ġenn” via Maltese label Reciprocal Records in January 2016 during a launch event at Beachaven, Xemxija. The 6-track CD includes a bonus track, an acoustic live rendition of “Midnight Sun“ as featured in the video recording for Sun Sounds Malta’s Little Shop Sessions. Most of the EP’s tracks received a lot of radio airplay, especially “Blues”, which eventually ranked in the BMAT PRS Malta Charts’ Top 3. Their first mini-foreign tour took place later on in the year in Sardegna, one of their live performances was held in Cagliari at the ‘Karel Music Expo’. They were also invited to perform at ‘Malta Takes London’ again, which this time was held at Proud Camden.
Recording of the album began in March 2017 at Temple Studios. With the help of David Vella, songwriting and production on their latest works helped Fuzzhoneys define and strengthen the dynamic sound of the guitar and drum duo. Another mini foreign tour followed, this time with more bookings, in the UK (Nottingham and Sheffield specifically). One of the performances being organised by Nottingham-based promoters and record label ‘I’m Not From London’.Singles, ‘Period’ and ‘Femmetastic’, were released later on in the year. Recorded at Temple Studios, these were eventually released as part of the 3-track ‘Femmetastic’ EP, which also featured a handmade zine made up of selected Fuzzhoneys photographic memories. After this ‘Femmetastic Zine’ launch, Fuzzhoneys kicked off 2018 with another UK tour, playing in various cities around the UK, among them Doncaster and Leeds.
Their debut album “Love Juice” was released late October 2018, with their latest single and visual for “Candy” being released prior. Their longest tour to date, specifically called “Candy” Tour took place mid-November right after the launch of the album. Eight UK dates were booked (London, Brighton, Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield, Doncaster and Liverpool) to help support the album.
