This is Honestly the Worst!
“Are they really the worst?” “No, that’s the band name.” Laughter.
Whenever I tell a person about them, this is the conversation I have, and it doesn’t seem to be anything new. At least not for the guys from Honestly the Worst because when I told them about this they just chuckled and so began Uncensored’s Interview for May. To begin with it needs to be said that the name is misleading. Their music is raw; their performances even more so. They are authentic, honest, emotional, and it translates into how they talk about their music, the band, and their audience.
“Honestly the Worst, one day almost great.”
This is what guitarist Victor said at one point at the interview and it was charming as it shows, just like they had explained, that they are not taking themselves too seriously. While the sun was beaming down, like a proper day in May, and the park was filled with people going about their Sunday, Vanessa and I sat somewhere secluded, listening to them talk about their beginnings. For vocalist and guitarist Hasan, it was coming to Vienna in 2015 and finding his place in music even though he only had a broken guitar to play on. For drummer Maurice whom he had met in school it was growing up with a musician as a father. Music has been present for him since day one. Paulus switched from drums to bass and Victor, lead guitarist, started playing the instrument because he had a dream about being in a KISS cover band. Their beginnings are different, but they brought them together, and this might have been the best coincidence to ever happen.
“Every concert has its one corner in our hearts.”
The group started out as a post-punk act but eventually their music didn’t fit the mold anymore and, as written on Spotify, “whatever core” was born. With different influences, the guys are making music that is supposed to move people, emotionally or physically. Their performances accomplish exactly this. They make you wanna dance, scream, sing, cry, or mosh. No matter which one it is, everything is welcome. It is a dream come true. One of their favourite parts about performing is watching the audience and creating a safe space, a place to meet new people and make them feel something. While they love being on stage, Hasan has mentioned that experiencing one of their concerts from an audience member’s perspective would be something he’d love to do as he has no idea what he and the band look like performing. Being on stage is vastly different than attending a show, of course. Gaining concert experience started early on in their career, opening for the Viennese band Leftovers’s at their album release for “Krach” and playing a show at a sports venue in Vienna. Every single time is different.
When we asked them about their fondest memories, they told us about an out-of-this-world concert experience in Karlsruhe, Germany, when they opened for the Leftovers again. It might have been 200 people, but it felt like 1000 to them with the audience crowd surfing and going completely crazy.
Apart from experiences like that, jamming is what they enjoy most about being in a band together. “It connects us on a different level,” Maurice explains, when talking about the moments he enjoys most. But sunshine wouldn’t exist without some darkness. For them, being in a band is 70% business, marketing, and organisation. They might not have thought about this when they started Honestly the Worst, as Victor said “I just wanted to make music and jam.” But all this work pays off greatly. They have their first merch coming, new music, and a concert on the 7th of June at Chelsea in Vienna. The design for said merch was drawn by hand and will be available at the next gig. We are counting the days until then as seeing the four perform is an emotional experience that shows just how much music means to them.
Their newest song “Defeated” explains it best:
“And now I feel, I am feeling so surreal […]”
This is exactly what I felt when I first saw them live and we are convinced that it will not be any different this time. The new song, and their others, show just how much music can move you, how honest it can be. “Defeated” has a rawness to it that you can feel, not only in your heart, but also in your gut. It shows that coming from different genres is a blessing as it creates a sound unique to them. Their influences range from punk and death metal to Lil Peep, My Chemical Romance, Modern Baseball and classical pieces like Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. All this combined makes them to a band with lyrics that seem to rip you open and make you release emotions that you have been carrying within you for ages. They are cathartic.
“We are Honestly the Worst. You’ve been warned.”
All quotes are translated from German into English
photo credit Kaya Wolfinger
written by Anna
copy edited by Heather Awen