Rebel rebel
“The greatest rebellion is happiness”
Black Honey lead singer, Izzy B Phillips, fronts the All We Are launch campaign. We wanted to create an homage to sincerity, to graft, and hard work – to show Izzy as her truest self - as well as inviting her to voice her view on the world we live in - from beauty standards and mental health to the reason she writes her songs (and the messaging behind them).
Black Honey are the true definition of creating art on a shoestring, spinning gold from straw. The Brighton based band emerged in 2014, with only a phone number and some great songs to their name. They invested everything they earned back into the band and 5 years later, their music videos and merchandise are so perfectly curated that it’s hard to believe they’re still technically unsigned.
Slowly working their way to the centre of cultural attention, their unique sound has earnt them legions of fans and has totally disrupted the concept of genre. Part punk, part indie with a sprinkling of nostalgia, their music is just as at home in a sweaty underground club as it is being played down the runway at the Cavali show.
When all we are was created, we knew we wanted to work with people who embodied our ethos of telling stories, celebrating individuality and chasing joy - and whose artistic values aligned with ours.
A Debbie Harry for the digital age with a DGAF attitude, Black Honey’s badass lead singer Izzy B Phillips burst into our consciousness, proving to be just the muse we were looking for. Unique, creative and outspoken, both her style and her music are impossible to define - and even harder to ignore - making her the perfect all we are babe to launch the collection.
“I have a fire in my bones and so much to give, so much to say - I’ve felt like for my whole life I’ve been underestimated” Izzy says, with a confidence that makes it hard to imagine anyone could ever underestimate her. “I just crave something sincere - all of the nonsense and the noise of the internet is just suddenly silenced with music”
For Izzy, music is definitely not just a vocation (she once told NME she’s actually worried about the prospect of the band making money from their success), or even a passion, but a vehicle for connecting with other people. “Music is one of those experiences where you can input your feelings into someone else’s body” she muses. “Art you can look at on a wall, but with music you hear something and you can literally inject an emotion into someone's heart and their soul.” For Black Honey, the process of songwriting is all about taking real feelings and turning them into something beautiful, which is probably why their lyrics are so raw and relatable. This honesty is a conscious decision made by Izzy, “I think telling your personal story is a great way of really telling something from how you see the world - music is the only way that you can really communicate that.”
Izzy’s songwriting isn’t only about making people feel something, but also changing their perspective - especially when it comes to how women are seen and see themselves. “Having a positive message in music is really important because I think that as a woman we’re really underrepresented - you're either the thing that everyone lusts after or you’re, like, heartbroken - there’s a pretty monochromatic colour to what you can be and can’t be”. With her peroxide hair and statement red lips, Izzy is more technicolour than black and white, so it’s no surprise that she’s trying to diversify the perception of women through her music. “Being a modern woman and finding your new self is more exciting to me than the standard love song” she says “I’ve also got this phrase that I always use, that I'd rather be a villain than a victim. I love the idea of being this caricature villain, who doesn't really get hurt by things and having love stories but taking the perspective of not being a victim.”
One of the songs that totally encapsulates this optimistic, unapologetic journey of self discovery is ‘Hello Today’, a song Izzy wrote at home, on her guitar ‘probably in my pants’. “Hello today is a really positive one, it was the first time I felt like I was putting a middle finger up to everything in the past” she says. “It’s gone with all of my past troubles, gone with all of the negativity that I have for myself, for relationships and for different people, and hello to tomorrow and hello today - living for the now and just moving onward in a really fearless way - in your biggest, baddest black boots!” Izzy was inspired to write the track not only to celebrate her newfound optimism, but also due to a frustration with the two dimensional way in which modern music deals with complex emotions. “For me to be like ‘Here’s a positive message and by the way I’ve been through some stuff’- it felt like I hadn’t really heard that in a song before.”
Individuality is another key theme of Black Honey’s music and outlook. “I’ve always felt like an outsider” Izzy explains. “People that love what we do love that we celebrate that you can be a weirdo, you can be whoever you want to be, you can be a total outsider.. it’s punk - this is an all inclusive commentary.”
Izzy’s drive to celebrate all things unique transcends past simply her music. In a sea of Kardashian clones and Facetuned gals, her style pushes boundaries and defies convention - she once turned up to London Fashion Week looking extra AF in a stylised McDonalds uniform. “Beauty is really interesting thing because we conformed for so many years to societal expectations and now everything’s changing it feels so exciting.” For Izzy, self-acceptance is synonymous with rock and roll, and owning your own body and look is the modern day version of throwing a TV out of a hotel window. “The greatest rebellion is happiness - all you have to do now to stand out is to have your natural body and everyone is like ‘look at them wow, they're doing their own thing’ and as someone that’s probably dysfunctional and messy and completely wild, I'm still beautiful.”