Interview with Good Weather For an Airstrike

Written by Noor Kadiwala

Good Weather For an Airstrike is an ambient/drone project by Tom Honey. He is a young musician from Winchester, UK. His music being released on very reputed ambient record labels in the scene such as Hibernate Recordings, Rural Colours and Sonic Reverie. Not just that. Tom also has a couple of side projects and a label which mostly offers free downloads. We thought it would be interesting to interview Tom.

So here it goes:

1. Introduce yourself.

Ans. I’m Tom Honey from Winchester, UK. And I’m the man behind Good Weather for an Airstrike.

2. Are you a full time musician? Is this music enough to earn you everyday bread and butter?

Ans. I have a day job, music is primarily a hobby… But one day I wouldn’t mind it being my full time job in one way or another.

3. Tell us more about Good Weather For An Airstrike and why you tend to make music in general?

Ans. Well GWFaA began back in 2009, I started the project because I suffer from tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears) and found listening to drone/ambient music helped me drift off to sleep a lot easier, I stuck a couple of demos up on myspace not really thinking anyone would hear it, but I got a really positive response, and it all went on from there really! I don’t think that there are many other musicians out there who would take it as a compliment when people say their music puts them to sleep…

4. GWFaA released music on lots of reputed labels in the scene such as Rural Colours, Sonic Reverie etc and recently, you were asked by futuresequence to do a mix. How do you feel about that?

Ans. Great! Chris of Sonic Reverie really got things started for me when he asked me to release “Signals” on Sonic Reverie back in 2010, they’d already put out a few really nice releases, so I wasn’t going to turn down that opportunity… Which led onto Jonathan of Rural Colours/Hibernate Recordings contacting me to do a 3″ CD release, in the form of “A Winter” at the beginning of this year, I think that sold out within about 2 days or something a bit crazy. Somewhere in the middle I was also asked to put out a single through Bad Panda Records which was an honour to do, they’ve put singles out for some fantastic artists… The American Dollar, Worriedaboutsatan, The Echelon Effect just to name a few!
As for the Futuresequence mix that came about quite recently, I’ve been talking to Michael via email about their compilation album which I contributed a track to and he asked me to do a mix too, there are some really great mixes on their website from a whole array of different artists.

5. How do you create music for GWFaA? Are there any analog instruments used or digital synths?

Ans. More so digital really, but that’s not to say analog hasn’t been used in the past however.

6. Will you consider (or have you played) playing live as GWFaA?

Ans. I’ve been offered numerous gigs since I’ve started, but for one reason or another I’ve not been able to play them. I think whenever I do get round to playing live I’d rather have a band behind me rather than sit behind a laptop, I can just see it going horribly wrong mid-set with the windows error noise just repeating itself constantly haha…

7. Is GWFaA your main focus as a project? What side projects do you have?

Ans. It is, yeah. I’ve had a couple of side projects over the years too (Sleepless Dreams being one of them). But I’m currently in the process of writing the second album for “Damn Robot!”, which is a project I started with my brother Rob (Inachus) last year. I love working with my brother on music, but he is one of those incredibly annoying people who can pick up any instrument and play it straight away!! We’re hoping to get that finished around spring 2012 if all goes to plan, it’s already sounding quite a bit different to our first release, and it’s likely to have a lot more vocals in. The debut mainly had a trip-hop feel to it, the new one is already sounding a lot more post-rock… As you’ll find out soon on the upcoming “More hope for Japan” album due out soon!

8. What are future plans and upcoming releases with GWFaA?

Ans. I’ve got a new album coming out through the excellent Hibernate Recordings called “Underneath the Stars”, I think we’re looking at a late 2011/early 2012 release date at this stage. It’s all recorded now, and has been mastered by Rudi Arapahoe who did a brilliant job on it, comfortably the happiest and most proud I’ve been with any release yet. We’re just waiting to get it pressed onto CD at the moment. Jonathan of Hibernate has been fantastic about the album, really positive about it all.
Definitely check out some of the releases on the label too if you get a chance!
9. You also seem to run a nice little record label called Hawk Moon Records. Tell us the story behind it.

Ans. As a label Hawk Moon started around summer 2010, my brother (inachus) had just finished recording an EP and wanted a label to put it out so I said i’d do it for him. Since then we’ve had releases by “…And The Earth Swarmed With Them”, “Oathless”, “Arboretus”, and I’ve put out my own GWfaA release and the Damn Robot! debut too, and at the end of this month we’re releasing the second EP by Umber which i’m really excited about, Alex debut “Morning’s Pass” was awesome.