For more than a decade, Black Honey have been conjuring vivid cinematic universes alongside across their three albums, scoring top 10s, playing shows with IDLES, Liam Gallagher and The Libertines and relentlessly touring. The new album Soak is a very different proposition to behind 2023’s A Fistful of Peaches, let alone 2021’s Written and Directed or the band’s self-titled debut of 2018. Two years sober and enjoying a thriving career as a tattoo artist, front person Izzy Phillips is still a force of nature but has found healthier outlets for her boundless energy.

Needless to say, it’s not been easy, but the band are reaping the benefits now, enjoying deeper levels of self-acceptance as a byproduct of all their emotional labour. On the album Phillips says, “Soak is me processing a decade of touring and creating music and art as an addict. It’s me picking at the layers of messy, romantic, confusing, woozy, beautiful and fucked up things. Who I thought I was, who I was supposed to be and who looks back at me now are all so different but I’m kind of here for it.”