Timing, they say, is everything. And for Jon and Lucy Hart, the popular Suffolk-based singer-songwriter duo, that was certainly true the night they turned up as solo artists at an open mic night at the Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich, leaving with seeds sown for a future career together.
“To be honest I just fell in love with Lucy’s voice as soon as I heard it," says Jon. "I was immediately struck by the quality of it. I remember going up to her afterwards and saying in a very cheesy fashion, ‘Your voice is like honey to my ears’, but we soon became good friends and we were playing at the same open mics but each playing with different bands at the time.”
Says Lucy: “He was also setting up gigs and he would book me as a support, giving me work which was lovely, and we played at The Apex in Bury – that was an early gig supporting Turin Brakes.” But not long after meeting, Jon jetted off to a new life in Australia. He organised a farewell gig at the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket. "Jon asked if he could join me on one of my songs and that was the first time we had actually sung on stage together - and then he was gone.”
Jon’s Australian adventure didn’t last long. He was on the plane home when he phoned Lucy, informing her of his return and suggesting they meet up. So, Honey and the Bear was born in 2014 and, quietly, friendship turned into romance. “Our friendship became the perfect place to foster a loving relationship," says Jon, "and we gradually realised that we needed to be together all the time.
They were married at the church in Benhall in 2018, which they love and play at the annual fundraiser. At last year's event they debuted a couple of new songs which will hopefully be on the next album. Now Jon and Lucy are living with their daughter, Gracie, in a beautiful Suffolk farm cottage, which they recently bought from Lucy’s grandparents. Jon explains the house sits on land that Lucy’s family has farmed for generations and they feel very much part of the community.
In fact, as you talk to Jon and Lucy, you realise how important heritage is to them. Their music, and the stories they tell, are rooted not only in the landscape, but also in Suffolk’s history and folklore. Jon is a keen sailor and tales of the sea and our rivers are key elements of their distinctive sound. They incorporate half-forgotten Suffolk words into their album titles. Their debut disc is Made in the Aker (Aker is a term for a turbulent current), and their most recent album, released in April 2021, gloried in the name Journey Through The Roke, an East Anglian term for the mist and fog that rises off marshland and water meadows in the evening.
Lucy has always loved music. “I was in the Harmony Girls Choir and we toured a lot. I performed in Prague, Paris, Germany right across Europe. I started singing in that choir when I was 13, but I didn’t start writing music until I was in my 20s. I taught myself guitar at university, but funnily enough I wouldn’t call myself a musician, I still think of myself as a singer – that’s where my strengths lay.”
For Jon, the most important element is Lucy’s voice - it was the first thing that grabbed his attention in a crowded Steamboat Tavern on that magical night in 2012. But since they have been together Lucy has found her playing abilities have grown considerably and her desire to learn new instruments has also increased.
“My first instrument was drums, funnily enough, which I started playing at school, then I moved onto classical violin, again at school. I suppose my instrument collection has grown since I’ve known Jon because he always says, what do you want for Christmas? Do you want another instrument? Jon introduced me to the double bass which is great.
“I haven’t picked up a violin since I was 19 and I would love to start again because having listened to what Toby (Shaer) can do (on our albums and live gigs) makes me green with envy. I have always gravitated towards stringed instruments. I have always loved the guitar and taught myself in my university digs. Then I was introduced to the ukulele through a song performed by Noah and the Whale way back when.
"I started with the mandolin because that was a Christmas present from my brother and I heard a song by Paul McCartney which featured a mandolin and I thought that was a really good sound. I would love to have time to practise more with the mandolin but in-between looking after a young baby, gigging and doing my graphic design work during the day I have no time to practise anymore.”
A quick flick through the Honey and the Bear album credits reveals that Lucy also plays banjo and the bazouki – not bad for someone who considers herself to be a singer.
John is a self-taught instrumentalist. "My mother was a semi-professional singer, but I came very much from an instrument background, so I think of myself as a musician first and singer second, and we fit together very well because I believe in Lucy’s voice as the golden instrument.
“Then, it’s the way that the song allows the voice to shine. We met as two singer-songwriters but we come at composing from two different, but complementary, angles.” Honey and the Bear’s songs reveal a lot about their interests. “Something will come to me when I’ve been out walking or I’ve woken up with a tune buzzing around in my head," says Jon, "and you realise that it's just something that has manifested itself from somewhere and you have to just quickly get it down.
“We write a certain amount together – the words tend to come from either of us but Lucy is very good at simplifying my songs, getting rid of unnecessary words." The couple write at different speeds, says Lucy. “Jon is quite slow, whereas I like to have all my lyrics completed in one session. I just want to get it done but Jon is more oh, I can come to this another time.”
The pair are always on the lookout for local stories and historic characters to be immortalised in song. “Our music and both our albums are embedded in the spirit of Suffolk," says Jon. "One of our most popular songs, live, is The Flowline which is inspired by the Garrett Works in Leiston." Other songs go back to the lost city of Dunwich and interesting characters appear such as legendary Margaret Catchpole who, after a bad romance, and encounters with smugglers and revenue men, was deported to Australia for horse stealing.
The story of Suffolk woman Violet Jessop, a passenger on three ocean liners which sank – the Olympic, the Titanic and the Britannic – who managed to survive each one, has been turned into a song called The Hungry Sea. Jon is working on a new song about the life and times of The Hadleigh gang, a band of smugglers living away from the coast who stashed imported contraband around Sizewell, Orford and Dunwich.
“They have an interesting story to tell because they operated across the county and, of course, one fateful night they came up against the excise men," says Jon. They fought them off, enhancing their reputation as tough guys. "The revenuers return with even more men and they cart off the ring-leader for trial, but they ruled the roost for quite a while.” The song is destined for the planned third album with others that will be given their first performances at regular live gigs.
“Songs are really only ever complete once they have been sung," says Jon. "You need that connection with an audience to fully understand how a song works, how the song is structured and how you can let it breathe. We try and play in venues where it encourages communication between us and the audience. We love working in places where the audience feels they are part of the experience rather watching from the outside.”
The past year has been one of recovery for Honey and the Bear, of reconnecting with their growing audience both locally and nationally. Jon says things are not yet back to ‘normal’ - the live music industry is still trying to fill gaps in crews, staging facilities and support services after lockdown decimated the industry, but things are better than they were.
During the pandemic, Honey and the Bear were quick to embrace the opportunities of live streaming, setting up a weekly Sunday web broadcast from their front room. It encouraged them to write plenty of new material which soon found its way onto their most recent album.
While they didn’t know how many people would tune in or what the format would be, it grew quite quickly. "Over the 50 weeks we ran it, the community started talking to one another about everything and anything, from music to kayaking," says Jon. "It was great because, as we scrolled through the conversations afterwards, we found we got to know our audience, what they liked, what they were interested in, what music they preferred, what they wanted to hear more of. It was being part of a real, inclusive community.”
So what of the future? The day jobs continue. Lucy is a graphic designer and Jon is a sound engineer. But for Honey and the Bear there’s more writing, more recording, more gigs and that hotly anticipated third album – perhaps with Gracie on backing vocals? She’s got the confidence and the musical genes.
See/hear Honey and the Bear
For more details of Honey and the Bear’s albums and live performances, plus live streaming, go to their website honeyandthebear.co.uk
February 25 - Debenham Community Centre, with Toby Shaer and Evan Carson
April 28 - John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, with Toby Shaer and Evan Carson
