Honest Iago

Honest Iago interview conducted June 2006 by Jaclyn Snow.
I could tell you who played what in Honest Iago, but then I would have to kill you. Honest Iago's shtick is that you never know who is going to be playing or what function they will fill. Their Myspace description reads like a mission statement: "the music collective known as Honest Iago (pronounced yah-go as the Shakespearean villain) hopes to bring something actually new, different and dare we say cultured and intellectually stimulating to the punk rock scene." Honest Iago is out to challenge the assumptions of punk.

 Honest Iago

San Diego Punk: How is Honest Iago different than any other bands you've been in?

Honest Iago: It's more not being a band in the sense that "oh were in a band" its more "oh were a bunch of people collaborating and trying to write more stories that people can connect to" that is set to music. We hope the music acts more like a soundtrack to the story rather then just songs to dance to.

HI: Hopefully it's something that can stand on its own without us being members. Usually in a band you're saying "oh that's this person's band and I listen to the music they play and like..." We're hoping the stories will stand without us the people playing.

HI: Yup, pretty much.

SDP: Your line up changes... a lot.

HI: That's the whole idea when we started this music collaborative-

HI: collective!

HI: The whole thing with music and everything and the stories told through the music I think it's really about being in the moment, and of course that comes through in the lives shows, there is nothing better than music in a live show and really connecting. In order to do that I think, you know, seeing the same people or the same music over and over again in the same venue, yeh it's fun but you cant really have a cool connection with it, like it's only happening tonight, it's a one time deal. I kind of wanted to change the members constantly and different song writers styles so that it's always sounding different.

HI: The line up has been different every time we've played so far it has been at least so we're going to try and keep that up.

HI: So everyone that comes and sees us will be like "wow that's really cool no one else is every going to see us like that." It's not really to make things not as boring, a lot of music is still really fun no matter what. It's more of having a connection with everyone.

SDP: Who are these guest members?

HI: There has been people from Park Tradition, Paradigm, Cetera and some Next to Impossible people. We try to contact other bands that are playing with us and that are kind of interested in the music and will practice us with for a week or so. We had some drums at some of the shows and we don't record with shows. New people have different takes to the song or different rhythms, different lines will make it interesting for everyone.

HI: If we get to the point where we are on tour, which hopefully we will, I think it will be a little harder to constantly changing members. But right now were always getting input from other sources.

SDP: How does *NAME DELETED*'s music major effect the music?

HI: The orchestration, I do know how to arrange harmonies and things so others come up with guitar lines and I can say these are the chords that we can add the string parts too.

HI: It's harder to ignore him.

HI: It's also kind of nice thinking of music as a story, sort of along the lines of an opera, at least I do, not a lot of punk bands listen to opera so it's nice to have some of that background.

HI: Everyone brings in what they know about music or what they wanna do and that adds to everything some people might know more "musicology" (laughter) we want the music to be something different than the next persons.

SDP: Here's that generic question I just have to ask: Where did the name Honest Iago come from?

HI: Honest Iago has always existed and always will (more laughter). But basically it's a character that is suppose to be telling these stories, based on what he writes about in his journal's and what experiences. He's an omnipresent person or thing that just notices things that other people don't notice, things people take for granted. It's a character that we can write from the point of view from so that we can write something bigger then just ourselves.

HI: All the taking of granted is Shakespearean from Othello.

HI: Iago is anything but honest in the play. We're basically a punk band, we're heart, we don't really sound like it but we have the heart of it. The Shakespeare stuff, the stories are much bigger than the plays. For the Merchant of Venice, you don't have to be a merchant in Venice to understand the feelings and relate it to your life and that's what we wanted our stories to be like.

HI: All the songs go together to create a bigger story but can stand on there own. Like how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have their own stories but contribute to something greater.

SDP: Plans for HI?

HI: More shirts (laughter).

HI: We're trying to play more shows. As time goes on, we're trying to play shows with more people and bigger venues. We're working on an EP, full length, at Capricorn Records. We're also trying to make a conceptivy album-

HI: We're also all pretty much moving in together. (laughter)

HI: We have all these songs and we're going to try and do a video for each song like Death Cab did with a huge long video that encompasses the whole album. We're working with people to do some dialogue between songs to make it more like a real story. Do some cool art too.

HI: We want it to be something you have to really get involved to listen to and enjoy but that still sounds good. No one really sits down and listens to music anymore you know with your vinyl. We want to make it a really cool experience, something you don't put on in the car when you're heading to a party.

HI: There are bands that are trying to do it right now, I think a lot of them get so wrapped up in the idea that the music looses some of its effects so were trying to do all that and still make it listen to able. (laughter) I just destroyed the English language.

HI: Basically were trying to do cool things that hopefully people will enjoy.

official website: http://www.honestiago.com
mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/honestiagopoop

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