Honest Mechanik weave together a collaborative spark on debut album
The debut LP from Susan Cattaneo and Paul Hansen is set for release July 16
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New single ‘Love Alone’ arrives Friday, June 25
MEDFORD, MASS. [July 16, 2021] -- When a mechanic looks under the hood of a car, they see a puzzle, of sorts -- gears and tubes and wires and belts and cylinders, all the indispensable pieces that come together to make the vehicle run smoothly. A look under the hood of Boston indie-pop duo Honest Mechanik yields the same type of interconnected wonder: a casual and collaborative songwriting process, dual lead vocals, and layered compositions that cradle introspective lyricisms and tender reflections of the world around us. No singular piece is the driving force; instead, it’s the combined elements and talents of Boston music veterans Susan Cattaneo and Paul Hansen that allows Honest Mechanik to dance freely amongst genres, crafting songs with a heartbeat that trace across the aisles of folk, indie, Americana, and electronic-pop.
On Friday, July 16, the duo releases its debut album, a self-titled LP of 10 tracks that weaves together the groove of the Velvet Underground with the vocal intimacy of Belle And Sebastian. Honest Mechanik -- named as such because “they’re very rare and you’d travel a great distance to find one,” as the band likes to say -- found instant chemistry after its two principal members, joined by Marco Giovino on drums, sought to collaborate just beyond the reaches of their respective scenes: Cattaneo amongst the songwriter worlds of Americana, country, and folk; Hansen via his background in synth-pop and indie rock. They’ve released three warm and engaging singles so far in 2021 -- “Movie”, “Outsider”, and “Translate” -- and a fourth, titled “Love Alone,” arrives June 25, to set an elevated harmonic tone leading up to the album release.
“I think the stylistic vision of Honest Mechanik is quirky, literate, and fun,” says Cattaneo. “Paul and I started writing these songs pre-pandemic, but the album was recorded for the most part during the quarantine period. We come from different musical lands. We each have different songs that are part of our foundation. When you listen to our solo work, you hear those elements clearly. What makes Honest Mechanik special is this blending of both of our styles into something at once familiar but also new.”
Adds Hansen: “We are bringing two different lifetimes together. For me, this feels like a second life. And it did seem somewhat easy to make, probably because we are juicy -- meaning we have a lot of life experience to bring to our little table. Susan has a strong musical family and learned vocal harmonies at the dinner table. And I have zero art or music anywhere in my family. So it feels like she brings some tradition with her, and I bring more of an abstract, fly by the seat of your pants, kind of thing. And I think those experiences informed our previous projects.”
Cattaneo describes the Honest Mechanik songwriting process with two simple words: Relaxed and easy. There’s a give-and-take at play between the two seasoned musicians, but where Honest Mechanik is allowed to thrive is the trust one puts in the other. It’s a collaboration in the truest sense, and the seeds of each song are allowed room to breathe and to grow; it’s evident in the final product, where the listener can feel the process nestled neatly in the margins and spaciousness of the songs.
“Paul usually comes in with a song seed, and after much conversation about what it means to both of us, we develop it from there,” says Cattaneo. “As the song progresses, I’m usually thinking about harmony and how we can trade off lines to build the song sonically. As a songwriter, I think our lyrics and melodies are more open-ended. It’s as much about capturing a feel as it is about what we’re saying. It’s this relaxed nature of Honest Mechanik that I believe makes the project so special and unique.”
And there’s no greater appeal than within the songs themselves. They’re transportive compositions, taking nuggets from our daily life and affixing them to songs that question but rarely confront. From feeling left out of the cool crowd with the guitar-pop bounce of “Outsider” to the tender reflections of parenthood on the synth-and-percussion fueled “Translate” to the sweeping wide-eyed wanderlust of “In Between,” Honest Mechanik’s songs are snapshots of where we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going, all buoyed by a breezy, vibrant swing that can be best described as aural earworms.
“I think once we decided what each song was about, we were good at focusing in,” Hansen confirms. “And I have to give credit to Susan, she has such a strong lyrical-minded approach. Which I’m sure helped the songs from drifting away. Left to my own devices, I can sometimes float away and never return. So Susan would often grab my foot just before I drifted out of the airlock of our little spaceship.”
“I feel like there was something about our collective and separate musical worlds that enabled us to come together now to create this sound,” Cattaneo admits. “From a track standpoint, writing for this album was really easy, because we didn’t have any expectations about starting a band when we started! It grew organically. There are a few themes that come back into our songs on a regular basis: the idea of art and its value in the world, family and kids, what it means to be part of a music scene, what it means to be a human on this earth. Paul and I are pretty different, but as working musicians, we share many of these experiences and that informs the songs we wrote for this album.”
They all add up to one compelling package. And like the sonic components that helped shape the album -- the vocals, the guitars, the drums, the synths, the lyrics and the lives of those behind them -- they all have their due place to enhance Honest Mechanik’s vision and voice.
Preview the debut Honest Mechanik album here. Contact michael@publisist.co (press) and david@powderfingerpromo.com for more information.
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Honest Mechanik is:
Susan Cattaneo - Vox and Writing
Paul Hansen - Guitar, Synths, Vox, and Writing
With Marco Giovino on Drums and Percussion
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Honest Mechanik 2021 press photo:
Photo Credit: Dino Cattaneo
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Honest Mechanik 2021 bio:
We are Honest Mechanik, an indie-pop duo born in the wilds of Medford, MA. Yeah, that’s right. We’re a Medford Super Group. We’re also Susan Cattaneo and Paul Hansen, two singer songwriters who have joined collective and creative forces to create a new sound that feels at once, both familiar and unique. Featuring quirky lyrics and ear-worm melodies that highlight our dual lead vocals and close harmonies, Honest Mechanik has the vibe of The Velvet Underground paired with the intimacy of Belle and Sebastian.
Three years ago, Paul came over to Susan’s house to see if we could write a song together. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that such a beautiful thing would come out of this first meeting. One song led to another and then another and suddenly, we realized we had a full-blown album of 10 songs. “Are we a band?” Paul asked Susan. “Hell, yeah,” Susan replied. And so, Honest Mechanik was born
We’re both seasoned musicians with solo careers on both the local and national music scene. Paul, the tall one, considers himself “song obsessed” and has been the lead singer and creative force behind the popular band The Grownup Noise, an indie-pop group that has garnered rave reviews and over the years , has performed in numerous sold-out shows including seven national tours. Susan, the other tall one, has won or been a finalist in all the prestigious songwriting festivals around the country and tours as a solo artist and also with The Big Loud Band. When she’s not performing, she’s had a 20-year career as a songwriting professor at Berklee College of Music. She’s also a “go-to” songwriter for others, having crafted songs for both national and local artists (Mark Erelli, Dennis Brennan, Dinty, Child, Jenee Halstead).
The songs of Honest Mechanik came together around our voices and over the distinctive sound of Paul’s Godin Archtop semi-acoustic. When we went into the studio, Susan brought in Marco Giovino (Band of Joy) to add some amazingly deep groove to the tunes. Recorded over the past year with Dan Cardinal at Dimension Sound Studios (Darlingside, Mark Erelli, Lula Wiles, Air Traffic Controller), Honest Mechanik’s self-titled debut album is a testament to what happens when two new friends hang out and make music together.
Our last recording session together was the week that the world shut down, so most of this project has had to happen remotely. It has been wonderful to work on these songs during the pandemic, because we feel so much joy when we perform them. We consider ourselves lucky to make music at all, and to be able to bring this album out in these times feels like a wonderful happenstance.
And why Honest Mechanik? We chose the name because “they’re very rare and you’d travel a great distance to find one.”
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Honest Mechanik in the press:
“[‘Translate’] is a harmonic, indie laden paradise coupled with upbeat melodies transposed throughout... it’s an incredibly warm, inviting track that is worthy of a test spin." _Music Box Pete
“Indie-pop from Boston with a slightly funky but jangly Fender sounding guitar and voice... Intelligent lyrics, harmonies and grooving drums help to make this enjoyable.” _Blood Makes Noise
“[One of] 48 ways to start your week off better than mine.” _Tinnitist
“Emerging indie.” _Trine.Music
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Honest Mechanik has been heard on and featured in:
Boston Emissions with Anngelle Wood, Bay State Rock, Original Music Showcase on Mark Skin Radio, BumbleBee Radio, Almost Famous on 95.9 FM WATD, Parcheesi Redux, Once Virtual Venue, Home Cooking Share, Tinnitist, and other websites, digital platforms, and radio stations and shows.
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Media Contact:
michael@publisist.co (press)
and
david@powderfingerpromo.com (radio).
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