The Honey Toads
A band of friends since the earliest days since prep school, Petaluma’s The Honey Toads have been making some breakout sounds that take on the cycles of change with a sense of togetherness & support. Presenting the world premiere of the video for their single “Plastic Smiles”, the quartet sorts out the superficial from the substantial in a style that doesn’t step away from the inherent intricacies. Lead by Nick Cafiero joined by the fraternal support of Joe DeMars, Jack Hogan & Dominic Bergamini; the group genuinely sets out to assemble their own pop music event that is created out of their own collective experience as opposed to adhering to the canons of musical convention. And while the North Bay, Sonoma County upstarts work toward establishing their own sense of sound there are faint frequencies that echo from the institutional obscure NYC undergrounds, sounds of young Scotland, cult California creatives, Midwest misfits & more.
“Plastic Smiles” is delivered as a performance video from The Honey Toads that mixes a barrage of visual components artfully together that takes the audience behind & beyond the world of smiling faces. The North Bay band brings a barrel-load of energy to the table as they air grievances & frustrations with life’s cycles & situations in a chord arrangement that moves from tense rhythm rumbles to the reprieve of angular-jangle jam sections. The analog blue-framed visuals bounce around from various locales that span from practice spaces, venues, kitchens, to the outdoors with various views that exhibit POV shots of open roads driven at night. Band leader Nick Cafiero offers up all the emotional delivery they can muster, seen bringing the passion while an inquiring reporter tries to keep up with the singer’s erratic stage blocking maneuvers. The Petaluma group wears their hearts on their sleeves, while laying it all out on the line in a cavalcade of sound styles that are served up on a DIY platter. Keeping their creative sensibilities eclectic in an arrangement that is all over the place; The Honey Toads take on the forces of unstoppable change in their lives that channels aspects of loss & disappointment in a cathartic form of creative cataclysms that works to cope constructively with the chaotic shifting courses that comprise our own quixotic existences. “Plastic Smiles” operates outside the paradigms of feigned salutations that confronts a litany of pent-up feelings, observations, confrontations & anger that attempts to deal with the world’s cycles that we cannot control.
The Honey Toads’ Nick Cafiero shared some exclusive insights on the making of the new single:
When we first composed “Plastic Smiles”, we were seeking an outlet for the rejection we were feeling musically, professionally, and personally. The song represents a particular brand of anger and anxiousness that’s delivered in a somewhat passive-aggressive tone that progressively turns into flat out aggression. Instead of these challenges hurting or splitting apart our band, “Plastic Smiles” ended up becoming a rallying point for us: A way of expressing our reaction to underwhelming people, overwhelming emotions and the deaths of those we’ve looked up to the most. For us this song is kind of like a coping mechanism for those anxieties and distasteful moments where you know you’re being ignored that I think many people, especially people our age, can relate to.
As we approached the process of making a music video to follow up our debut single video, “Send Me Out”, we decided we wanted to explicitly avoid a narrative based film with a story and instead focus on the song’s performance.
“Plastic Smiles” features important areas around our local Sonoma County home turf like “Send Me Out” did, but this time we used industrial back lots, Petaluma’s downtown roadways, and more nocturnal hangouts. We still play this song with the same intense emotions that inspired its creation, but we also play with an added joy that I think is very apparent in this video.
Catch The Honey Toads tonight April 13 in Petaluma, CA at The Phoenix Theater & later June 20 in Santa Rosa, CA at the Santa Rosa Downtown Night Market.
Keep up with The Honey Toads via Facebook & Instagram.
