Q&A: Danielle Gyger talks Wild Honey Collective

Over the summer of 2020, COVID-19 shut down the live music community, but many musicians figured out ways to safely stay active by jamming at home. One of those outfits is the newly formed Wild Honey Collective, a super group of locals who formed to play rustic traditional tunes and some acoustic-driven originals, too. The group’s debut LP, “Volume 1” — which is streaming on YouTube, Spotify, and Bandcamp — features Tommy McCord (lead vocals, guitar), Danielle Gyger (vocals, fiddle), Timmy Rodriguez (vocals, upright bass), Dan O’Brien (banjo, accordion), Drew Howard (pedal-steel) and drummer Dave Shilakes.

The band heads out today for an East Coast tour with Jeremy Porter & The Tucos, but City Pulse was able to catch up with Gyger before they hit the road. Here’s what she had to say. 

Were you in any bands before Wild Honey Collective?  

Wild Honey Collective is my first actual band, unless you count the one-night whiskey fueled performance of me and my friend Charron in a band called Pepperoni. At first, I was a bit intimidated by being in a real-life band because I feel like most musicians, or at least the ones I’m around, joined them before the age of 27, but I’m glad I followed through. Growing up, I would either be playing drums or guitar in the music room with my family during a weekend night, holiday, or at Wheatland Music Festival sitting in a circle with a bunch of fiddle players trying to keep up, so performing is an entirely new experience for me.

So your family was pretty musical, huh?

Most of my immediate family members are musicians, so I was always around it. My dad is a very talented pianist and I loved learning songs from him growing up. I first started playing guitar and writing my own songs around 13, and it just kind of grew from there. I play piano, guitar, old-time fiddle, a bit of mandolin, a bit of bass, and a few tunes on the accordion. I can also keep a simple rock beat on the drums, if need be. 

Growing up, what bands were you into? 

I’ve been a big Joni Mitchell fan since I was a kid. Three-part harmony girl groups from the 1930s, ‘40s and ’50s like the Andrews and Boswell Sisters blow my mind. If it’s Motown, I like it. I’m also big into The Beach Boys, The Zombies, The Kinks and The Byrds. And ’70s classic rock really does it for me. Then there’s Belle & Sebastian, Paul Simon and Neil Young.

Your dynamic fiancé, Tommy, is in the band — do you two write together?

Be still, my beating heart! We definitely do a little bit of both. He will come to me with a song and I’ll think up harmonies or suggest different wording, and vice versa. He’s my favorite person in the world, and I feel really lucky to be able to make music with him and share it with the people we love.

There’s a mix of originals and traditional songs; how do you pick the traditional tunes? 

Well, I play the ones I know. Sometimes I learn them at a festival as the group is playing it, other times I hear someone playing a tune I like and write down the title to learn later. A lot of the traditional tunes I play are hundreds of years old, and have many variations to them, which makes learning them even more nuanced and fun.

What’s the story behind your beautiful song “This Old House”? 

The song is about my grandparents. They’ve been together since they were teenagers and have always been an inspiration to what I want, and have currently, in a lifelong partnership. The song describes their beautiful English Tudor-style home that my grandfather built, and the sort of whimsical happenings that it’s hosted over the years. They come to most of our gigs. It’s their favorite song for some reason.  

The amazing Drew Howard plays on the album. What did he bring to the mix?

Amazing is an understatement! We asked him to add some steel to a few songs, and within a day, he sent us these pristine recordings. I remember listening to the songs with Tommy and both of us got a bit teary-eyed. Pedal steel adds such an inimitable sound to music and, when it’s added to a song that you wrote, it makes you feel some feelings. 

The band released your debut “Volume 1” LP earlier this year. How was it recording that album? 

Again, this is the first album I’ve been involved in making, so the entire process was so new to me. I may be biased being betrothed and all, but Tommy is such an impressive sound engineer. I watch him cut and paste various sound bites and it’s like watching Matthew Lillard in “Hackers.” I don’t know what he’s doing, but in the end, he hacks into the main frame and makes a really tight sound. Recording the many layers of each track was so fun, and dissecting each song really trained my ear and made me a better musician. Each member of our band is so talented in different ways, so it was like watching a messy, chaotic live painting or sculpture come together slowly. 

Follow Wild Honey Collective at facebook.com/thewildhoneycollective.

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