On The Rise: HONESTY

An exceptionally cohesive enterprise of independent music minds.

Leeds-based project HONESTY was born in 2020, an exercise in boundless experimentation between Matt Peel and Josh Lewis, that recruited George Mitchell and Imi Marston to form a core group of four ‘hanging out their way to a sound that they still can’t put their collective fingers on.’

Although not native to the Yorkshire capital, Matt‘s Leeds studio The Nave has given them a found home and a chance to reflect on and become a part of the city’s diverse culture of music.

“[In Leeds] You’ve got sound clash culture, you’ve got Back to Basics house music, and then Sisters of Mercy, goth and all the post-punk stuff that happened here. You can’t really put it down to one thing, and I guess we’re just a part of that.”

George Mitchell

Cooked up in vast vat of creative freedom, debut album U R HERE explores industrial and celestial textures amid gloriously glitchy electronics, euphoric pop, sumptuous shoegaze and blissful washes of ambience, with no line left unblurred.

Collaboration is also a huge part of the group’s artistic makeup, the album alone featuring guest vocalists Liam Bailey, Kosi Tides, LizaViolet and Katie Drew, while their 2024 BOX mixtape featured Dry Cleaning‘s Florence Shaw and and rappers Rarelyalways and Kosi Tides. It’s this contemporary DIY approach and continuous hunt for re-birth that sets them apart from many of their contemporaries and ushers you to dig down after every listen into the intricacies of their unique and brilliant production.

HONESTY have crafted a new moment for club music, one that is refreshingly self-aware, enlightening and that encapsulates all that is adventurous about unbridled, communal self-expression. Set yourself free.

HONESTY – U R HERE

Clear vinyl with a bonus red vinyl remix 7″ and signed print.

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For fans of: Mount Kimbie, My Bloody Valentine, Björk, Burial

We’re excited to announce HONESTY as part of Rough Trade On The Rise, our dedicated curation putting a spotlight on the emerging music we are the most excited for you to hear, to follow and become a fan of. Read on to discover more about the group in their own words and don’t miss new album U R HERE on Partisan.

Five by Five

5 Qs, 5 As

Describe HONESTY in 5 words.

Oracle, angel, therapy, bine, lunaria annua.

5 records you listened to prior to making your album?

Burial – Untrue
Mount Kimbie – Cold Spring Fault Less Youth
Bjork – Homogenic
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
Dean Blunt – Black Metal 2

Top 5 career moments since forming?

George singing.
Anyone liking it.
Finishing the record.
New friends Kosi Tides and Rarelyalways.
Coffee and cig breaks at the studio.

Venue you’d most love to play?

That U2 dome thing in Vegas
The Barbican
Back to Basics Leeds circa 1997
Primavera at 2am
Manchester Apollo

Top 5 essential tour snacks?

Ciggys
Owlcotes Maccies
Guinness
Paracetamol
Chewits Extreme