The one thing better than music from HONNE is experiencing their music with others.

It seems to be in the very DNA of their songs. They produce sound that encourages you to collectively funk, move, and groove. They sing about finding somebody who loves you, celebrating them, and holding on to them. In my case, and perhaps for many other fans as well, theirs is the music that foster connections that can be as strong as Andy Clutterbuck and James Hatcher's friendship.

Their songs have found a spot in many of my playlists and have scored many moments of my adult life: At Wanderland 2017 where I first encountered them, they crooned 'Good Together' in the background while I fought off a budding fever. My best friend (who saw the duo with me in 2018 at Vertis North) and I blasted 'Day One' on the speakers as we drove to the beach for our annual New Year's trip. During the height of the pandemic, I discovered that cayenne pepper goes well on top of soft-boiled eggs as 'No Song Without You' played in the background. A colleague and I fought off the stress of a next-day deadline by bonding over 'Free Love' and 'What Would You Do?'.

They were one of those artists I first saw perform live before streaming any of their music. And now their long-anticipated return to Asia is happening throughout May. Their stops include Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Kuala Lumpur. And this time, they are also performing in three different parts of the Philippines: Manila, Cebu, and Davao.

"I don't think we've actually ever done one of our shows in the Philippines. We've always done festivals or just [...] joint shows with other artists. So this will be our own show and we're just extremely excited 'cause the Philippines, from all the gigs we've done there before, just have been insane and it's like having our own personal choir but like the best choir we have ever seen or heard," said Andy. "It's just brilliant 'cause everyone sings just so well and in tune and so loudly. I can't explain how nice it feels to have people sing it back to you in that way."

"Because it's our own show, we're really looking forward to planning and bringing our own production," James added. "So it'll be the first time in the Philippines that people will have seen like what we can put on in London, for example, in our hometown. We're looking forward to them seeing that and being a part of that with us."

James also shared how their fans have helped them prepare for their other shows in the country. "I know [Cebu and Davao] are very beautiful. I've been on Google Maps a lot recently. And we have a thing, like a list that our fans can add to. So we've asked fans to help turn HONNE into locals so [they can] recommend their own local spots. Some of them look unbelievable, like cafes on the top of really high hills that overlook the whole of Cebu and stuff. So yeah, can't wait to go check out some of these spots that our fans have put in."

The gesture of including their fans in their tour beyond just concert attendance is sweet but not entirely very surprising. After all, HONNE is known for putting a spotlight on musical gems by working with them and producing for them. This is reason to believe that the influence of HONNE on the music their fans listen to today goes way beyond their discography. The duo has, in fact, introduced me to many new golden talents. I first listened to BTS' RM through HONNE, in their version of 'Crying Over You'. 

Perhaps another reason why HONNE's music is experienced better together is because they are made with another. They are a duo, after all, and they have collaborated with many diffent artists. And the result? A musical masterpiece, each and every time.

We spoke to HONNE about some of the work they've done with some of our favourites music artists:

'Someone That Loves You '19' - Izzy Bizu (feat. Chris Martin)

Izzy Bizu dropped 'Someone That Loves You '19', a re-recording of her original collaboration with HONNE, which featured Chris Martin on vocals when they performed it in what James calls "a side event" from the time the singer-songwriter toured with Coldplay.

"We'd seen Izzy talk about us in an interview. We messaged her and said, 'We love your voice, do you want to work together on something?' So we got in a room together and made 'Someone That Loves You' and we released that and that was probably one of our most popular songs from the first album, from that time." James recounted. "And then fast forward like a couple of years, she went on tour with Coldplay. I think Chris Martin loved 'Someone That Loves You'. He just loved that song. 

"So that was really nice to hear cause obviously Coldplay were one of our favorite bands for both of us like as we grew up. So yeah, hearing that Chris Martin loved that song was very special. So he then loved it so much that he wanted to record it with Izzi. Which is great. I mean, it was crazy because he was singing my part obviously."

James laughed and pointed out, "Andy got wiped off."

"Which is fine!" Andy good-naturedly countered. "I'll do that happily for Chris Martin! But yeah, I think he did a good job! So, yeah! Thank you, Chris Martin!"

'COMING HOME' (feat. NIKI)

This collaboration with NIKI was what the two described as "a one-in-a-million kind of chance of it happening" after a five year-long attempt of getting in touch with the 'Oceans and Engines' act via Instagram.

"All the stars aligned at the right time," James declared. "So we were just in that sweet period just before the pandemic hit where we were all blissfully unaware of its existence. 

"At the start of 2020, we were in L.A., living the last bit of our best life. We went out to write with some people and just kind of get some inspiration and we were in studio called Gold-Diggers, and we were in a session with an artist called Dâm-Funk and he came back in from being outside the room. He was like, 'I just bumped into Pomo.' He's a producer and artist and said he's in a session with NIKI. And [we said] 'Oh, God, he's in a session with NIKI! We need to try and chat to her. We'd actually been working on a song that we were like, 'Oh, NIKI would sound wicked on this.' So we were gonna knock on the door but we were being a bit wimpish.

"And then NIKI and Pomo came, knocked on our door, and said hi. He said that she'd been a fan of us for a while...really loved 'Location Unknown' and some of the bits and bobs. I played her 'Coming Home' and we're like, 'You can sing on this if you want.' [We said it] kind of cheekily, thinking she'd say, 'Ah yeah, that's nice, guys! See ya!' But no, she's like 'Yeah! Should we do it on Saturday?'

"And so we booked the studio again, she came in and we did that and wrote another song, which a snippet of that became a song called 'iloveyoumorethanicansay' on [the] No Song Without You mixtape. Which we still get people messaging us about on a weekly basis, asking 'When are you going to release the full version?'"

And are they going to release the full version? "When we next bump into NIKI," they laughed.

'Closer' - RM (feat. Paul Blanco and Mahalia)

This is not the first time the duo has collaborated with BTS' RM before: there's 'Crying Over You', there's 'seoul'. And then there's the fifth track from the South Korean artist's debut album.

"So [we] quite often speak to RM online or via text. He was working on some new music and his new album, and he messaged us saying have you got any beats that we could send him. And we've got, you know, boulders of [...], so many beats," Andy said. "So we just had a listen through and we selected a few that we thought would work well for him. And he picked out one called 'Closer'.

"So James made the instrumental, and we'd already worked on that song with Mahalia. She'd recorded some vocals on it, and that was the point that we then sent it to RM and he loved it. So he then took it and worked on it from his end, and got Paul Blanco on it."

"It's always great working with him because he just always has a vision of how he wants the track to end up," James added. "He sends it [to us], and we always like it. And he always likes it. It's like a winning formula. It's much the same with 'seoul' as well. It's a lot of fun."

HONNE is set to take over  Asia with three shows across the Philippines – Manila (06/05), Cebu (14/05), and Davao (12/05), plus stops in Hong Kong (16/05), Singapore (18/05), Kuala Lumpur (21/05), and Taipei (06/05). For more information, visit their official website.

This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity.