HONNE on fanbase in Southeast Asia: It still blows our minds

After touring Southeast Asia recently, including the Philippines where they did not just one but three shows, it appears that HONNE’s Andy Clutterbuck and James Hatcher’s ties to this side of the world have just gotten stronger.

It was recently announced that neighboring Singapore’s Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with Warner Music Singapore and the English alt-pop duo to produce inside-out in Singapore. It’s a video series that taps into the power of music to showcase a fresh perspective of Singapore in hopes of enticing more tourists.

A brainchild of Andy and James since 2021, inside-out started out as a video collection of the duo performing acoustic renditions of their hit songs, all captured by a camera placed inside a guitar. Because it was created during the pandemic lockdown, the videos initially featured scenes from their everyday lives at home.

In a virtual interview with The STAR and other press from Southeast Asia recently, HONNE’s Andy recalled what led to the birth of the inside-out series, saying that it came about “kind of like during lockdown, around that time. Semi off the bat where we could see a close bubble of friends. So obviously, James is a very close friend that I wanted to carry on making music with, so we decided to do it.”

He continued, “I don’t really know what made us put an iPhone inside a guitar and start to film like that, but we thought it might be a cool idea to kind of get a different angle on things.”

James added, “And with social media and stuff, we’re always looking for ways of; first, showing our songs in a different light like stripping them back and just playing acoustically. But also trying to make it with an interesting visual and aesthetic…”

Following this new partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the band’s first-ever collab with a travel destination, their series has gone overseas for the first time. It’s, in their own words, a big step and a unique experience for them compared to just doing videos in their garden.

Inside-out in Singapore consists of three videos shot from the signature perspective of being inside a guitar.

Each installment introduces viewers to a different neighborhood and features exclusive performances of some of HONNE’s biggest hits in the region such as Location Unknown, No Song Without You and Day 1.

Winning over international fans for their soulful and dreamy soundscapes, HONNE has an online following of over one million YouTube subscribers, 1.5 million Spotify followers, and over four million online streams per week. They have a particularly loyal following in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and here in the country, where they did shows in Manila, Cebu and Davao, during their 2023 Asia tour. The band sold over 50,000 tickets for their headline shows across the region.

“HONNE is hugely popular in Southeast Asia. While many travelers from this region may be familiar with Singapore, we hope HONNE’s new take on some of their most-streamed hits will inspire their fans to uncover fresh perspectives of our city,” Terrence Voon, executive director, Southeast Asia, STB, said in a statement, adding that they partnered with Warner Music and HONNE to spotlight their country’s lesser-known offerings through music.

Gerald Ang, managing director, Warner Music Singapore, on the other hand, described the group as having a universal appeal, thus, “making them the perfect ambassadors to showcase Singapore’s hidden gems and new offerings to fans around the world.”

The STAR personally asked Andy and James to name their must-do things in Singapore.

Andy began, “We’ve been to Singapore quite a few times in the past so we’ve kind of ticked off a lot of the more well-trodden paths that people do when they go to Singapore. But on the last trip, we got to explore some of the places that we might like to hang out if we were more of a local. And kind of getting into where residents live and all the places we would really want to discover if we were going traveling to places on a holiday or wherever that might be.

He further said, “So, we were in an area called Joo Chiat/Katong and it’s a nice area that felt very local and like a home away from home. It’s almost like somewhere that we could see ourselves living quite easily — people walking around with dogs, having coffees on the street, it was just a really lovely area.

“There are so many options. I think what surprised us most about Singapore is how much there is to do there and what is on offer and I’m really talking about everything from all different bases.

“So, you could get coffee and brunch in the areas that we just talked about (Joo Chiat / Katong). Or if you were looking for something a bit more adventurous, there’s a whole island at the bottom of Singapore called Sentosa, which we spent a bit of time on when we were pretending to be big kids and we went on The Luge, which is this unpowered downhill go karting basically. There are beach clubs you can go to — a pool and get drinks and lunch and things like that.”

James, for his part said, “Other times we’ve been to the Botanical Gardens and at night, when the classical music is on, and you sit down on the floor and just look up at the kind of light show. The Gardens by the Bay was really beautiful and kind of — a very special experience.”

Andy added, “We went to a coffee shop that we loved, we thought it was amazing and we had coffee and breakfast there, but we didn’t write down the name of the place and we didn’t save it on Google or anything like that and we didn’t really know what area we were in. So, when we went back a few times later, we were trying to find this coffee shop and we were really struggling, and we were describing it to everyone we met because we knew what it looked like.

“And people were like ‘could be this could be that’ and then eventually we described it to someone, and they were like Chye Seng Huat Hardware and we were like ‘that rings a bell!’ so we looked it up and we were like yes! That’s it so we went, immediately, back there.”

Meanwhile, HONNE told The STAR that they never expected that they would gain a fanbase and receive appreciation from this region for their music.

“It still kind of blows our minds that it’s possible,” Andy admitted.

“In a way, it’s kind of been the dream since we were little boys like young teenage boys, we were playing instruments at our homes — we didn’t know each other back then but we always wanted to be in bands and then as we got older, always wanted to travel,” said James.

“And so, to have got to — I think when you start a band in England you’re just thinking about — if I could just make a living out of this, that would be great and you think about touring in England and stuff but then for us to have had the opportunity to grow and see our fan bases around the world grow and tour abroad and in Southeast Asia, has been like an incredible experience that we wouldn’t trade for anything.”