Honor By August

“I do my best writing between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m.,” Michael Pearsall, lead vocalist for Honor by August explains to me recently over coffee in Arlington. “And once I get started, I just can’t stop.”

For Michael and the three other band members of the hit foursome that is Honor by August, sleep comes at a premium. The writing is one thing, but in the last year, the band has also released their first album “Drowning Out the Television,” performed in Los Angeles, Ohio, New York and D.C., and filmed a music video. You could say they’ve been busy.

And the band shows no sign of slowing down — they are heading back into the studio soon to record some of their new tracks and already have shows shaping up across the country for the rest of 2008.

While these days it’s hard to nail the guys down for an interview, the band had humble beginnings. Evan Field, lead guitarist, and vocalist Pearsall have been making music together since 2003, when they met at Georgetown University and formed an acoustic group. It wasn’t long before Honor by August—previously known as MP2 and Motive—started to grow. Drummer Brian Shanely joined in 2005, and lead bassist John Athayde came on board last year.

(Full disclosure: Athayde has done graphic design work for this publication).

As the band has grown, their music has evolved though. Today, they name Counting Crows and U2 as influences, and what results is a unique blend of strong songwriting, one-of-kind vocals and dynamic guitar sounds to what has been named “the best and brightest new songwriting talent” by Billboard Magazine.

“ We knew we wanted to be a rock band,” says Pearsall. “When I first started playing, I was doing acoustics singer and songwriter stuff. But once Evan started playing his electric guitar, we were able to incorporate that. Then when John joined, he brought this whole new electronic atmosphere to the sound. And it’s a mixture of influences we have—some similar, some not so similar.”

So far, so good. Honor by August has shared the stage with Peter Frampton, Hootie & the Blowfish, Pat McGee Band, Hanson and Bon Jovi, a concert which played to 20,000 screaming fans at the Verizon Center.

The band has stayed true to their roots though, aiming to preserve themselves as “timeless rock” and collaborating with each other on each song’s unique melody.

“ I always have an idea of what it will sound like but I always let the other guys do what they do first and usually it’s as good as or better than what I thought,” Pearsall says.

Athayde agrees: “It’s never, 'you cut my part out.' The biggest thing for me is that you have the audience connect with the song. If everyone is trying to showboat, you don’t get that.”

One of the other ways the band chooses to stay grounded is by taking mini-retreats to Mystic, Connecticut, where Field grew up, and playing music for an entire weekend.

“ We go up there and have all day and night to focus on nothing but new material, typing up old stuff and trying new stuff,” says Pearsall. “It doesn’t seem very glamorous but for us, it makes us feel good about being in this band. We come out of that feeling really confident about what we can do.”

Keep a look out for Honor by August’s next CD, which is expected to be released in early 2008, which the band hopes will help them sign a record label. “[This] year will be very interesting,” says Pearsall. For now, the guys are just having fun. When asked which was their favorite show so far, they say “Viper Room (in L.A.) is up there. Mystic. Those couple things have been huge moments for us. And Bon Jovi, of course.”

Catch Honor by August Feb. 2 at the IOTA Club & Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd.; Alrington; 703-522-8340) and visit their Web site at www.honorbyaugust.com or their MySpace page www.myspace.com/honorbyaugust.