Following a 10 year hiatus from the public eye, The Honeyz have reformed as part of The Big Reunion, which began airing on ITV2 back in January this year and has recently returned
Following a 10 year hiatus from the public eye, The Honeyz have reformed as part of The Big Reunion, which began airing on ITV2 back in January this year and has recently returned with an additional mini-series The Big Reunion: On Tour.
I got the chance to catch up with The Honeyz member Mariama Goodman to find out how things have changed since she last performed with the group 10 years ago, and what The Honeyz have in store for us in the future.
Hi Mariama—so the first thing I want to ask is, looking back at the history of your group, with so many highs-and-lows and so many different combinations of band members – how do you feel about the whole Big Reunion experience right now?
Well obviously as you touched on there we do have that history of inter-changeable members and the first time we all met up again as a group was awkward on several levels. I didn’t know Heavenli, which was awkward in itself, and I replaced her so that was always going to be a little uncomfortable.
And of course Celena and Heavenli had a much bigger history which was interesting to see how they resolved that, but as with anything in life we are all older & wiser now so the things that got on our nerves back then actually seem kind of trivial. We all deal with things differently now and communicate with each other very differently. All in all I’d say it’s been a fantastic experience for us all.
When you all heard about The Big Reunion and you started to actually entertain it as a possibility – how did your family react to the news that you might reunite as a group?
My mum has always been my number 1 supporter no matter what and overall she was really excited for me. I think for a lot of us, but especially our band, we always felt that there was definitely a degree of unfinished business, and either due to a number of different factors we never got the chance to fully realise our potential as a group.
This time around however we were all grateful to get that second chance and my mum was the first person to say that it was a great opportunity. She was worried that it would be stressful but at the same time she thought the same as me which was we would get the chance to finish on a high note.
How are you coping with juggling your home life with the renewed commitments of being in a band again?
Well I’m a qualified midwife and have a daughter, and I’m not going to lie, it is exhausting at times! However I really cannot complain because I love being a midwife and having this on top makes me count my blessings. I am so grateful for all of it!
It is difficult to juggle, but Heavenli has four kids and lives in the Algarve and Celena has two kids of her own so it does take a huge amount of organising to get us all in one place sometimes.
Sounds like a “military operation” level of organisation…
It is! Our manager has a much more difficult task of it compared to 10 years ago.
What was it like performing on stage for the first time back in February of this year?
It was amazing! The way we come on stage is to crouch underneath these things until the music starts, and as I was crouching down I was literally shaking uncontrollably – completely terrified. For us it wasn’t just the first time we had performed in 10 years, it was the first time we had actually ever song together, as this line-up, in front of an audience.
As soon as we came up though, the crowd went mad and we saw how much they wanted for us to do well, all of the nerves just fell away and I made a mental note to just enjoy every second of it. I always struggle to describe how it feels to have 5,000 people wishing for you to well, but it is something that makes all of the hard work so worthwhile.
We’ve heard the new single “Price You Pay” which your fans were blown away by – what can we expect from The Honeyz in the future, and are you working on any new material?
Well with “Price You Pay” it was a case of just getting into the studio and seeing what we could come out with, and we didn’t want to do something just because we were on TV. We wanted to produce something that we really liked and so when we heard “Price You Pay” back we were so excited.
I am always so nervous about anything creative and normally I am so reluctant to show anyone the songs in case they don’t like then, but in this case I was really excited about letting them hear it.
We are going back into the studio tomorrow and we have almost done a whole album. We’re working with a couple of producers, and the style has definitely changed a bit, but there is also plenty of what you would expect from The Honeyz as well.
What other artists are you listening to at the moment?
I don’t know why it has taken me so long but I have just got Ed Sheeran’s album ‘+’, and I was blown away. What I love about him is that he has such a mixture of different genres on his record; the instrumental guitar, and then the rap and soul…I just love it. Also Labrinth and Dizzee Rascal, I think they’re great!
The Honeyz will be touring again with The Big Reunion in December, and you can see them on ITV2 this Thursday 19th September at 9 pm.
Will you watch their ITV2 programme or see them on tour? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
