It’s not every day that you meet two men who have each other’s names tattooed. It’s not every day that you come across a group like Deadmall. Gabe Gill and Honeyfitz comprise the inseparable Western-Mass-crooner-duo that brings true emotional honesty to an underground littered with cries of “Nobody gets me,” and “Fuck my mom.” Deadmall pushes the boundaries of vulnerability surrounding manhood, friendships, and emo rap by turning their deepest insecurities into bangers. They blend the plasticity of autotune with the organic nature of folk instrumentation to bring us their debut album, Bunny Rabbit.
In November of 2018, Deadmall released their first EP, Deadmall 1. Each song is dangerously catchy and infinitely replay-able. Honeyfitz’s worn voice compliments Gabe Gill’s bright delivery over trap drums and guitar loops. They’ve been making music separately for six years, but on their first group effort, they gel effortlessly. Honeyfitz’s solo work is rustic, with acoustic drums and wandering guitar leads. Gabe Gill’s solo work is sticky, bouncy, and poppy.
Rothstein, a Deadmall collaborator, said the two are similar to Elliott Smith and Justin Bieber. In our interview, Honeyfitz agreed but added, “We’re both both of them.” Gabe Gill clarified, “Like if Justin Bieber and Elliott Smith were to start a band and make music everyday, Deadmall is what that would grow into.” The two tend to finish each other’s sentences.
When Gabe speaks, he’s honest. If he isn’t sure what to say, he’ll pause and check in with himself. Honeyfitz speaks like a sprinkler; spurting his truths intermittently with enthusiasm and efficiency.
In 2015, Honeyfitz founded Not Here records. Every Gabe Gill, Honeyfitz, and Deadmall release has dropped under that label. Bunny Rabbit is the seventh release on Not Here. On Honeyfitz’s left arm, he has “Not Here” tattooed, and on his right, he has a tooth. He used to carry his wisdom teeth in his coat pocket, but he lost them one day, so he got one tatted. Gabe Gill has an eject button on his collarbone, “Everything U Think is True” across his chest, and “Mall” on his lip. Honeyfitz has “Dead.”
Instead of taking a break after the release of Bunny Rabbit, Deadmall is kicking things into gear. Their second EP, Deadmall 2, is completely done and set to drop in late February or early March; they’re in the mixing stages of a second full-length album; and Honeyfitz just finished his new LP, I Don’t Need Tennis Lessons, I Need a Therapist. The IDNTLINAT singles will drop in May.
In a muggy Boston coffeeshop, on the first snow day of the year, I met up with Deadmall to learn about their inseparable friendship, infectious new album, and hopeful vision for a better Western Mass.
Underground Underdogs: How did you two meet?
Gabe Gill: When I was in 9th grade, I was making beats, so my friend introduced me to Elihu (Honeyfitz), because he was making music too. I remember finding his music interesting, but confusing. I didn’t understand it. We were always the only two kids going really hard with our personal pursuits, so we linked up and I ended up designing some of his merch. In fall of 2017, we became friends for real. We were both in school at the time, not really liking it, and just trying to figure out the next step. Then came Deadmall.
You each sound really different from one another. How do you go about fusing your styles, and how do you view Deadmall in relation to your solo music?
Honeyfitz: Both of our solo stuff is about looking back, the past, and memory, whereas Deadmall is much more immediate.
Gabe Gill: For example, on “Sedatives” I say, “When I reminisce I want it not to be sedatives.” It’s about trying to be in the moment, trying to keep up with things. Deadmall is definitely more of a journal.
Honeyfitz: That’s why it feels right that we sit on songs for so long.
Gabe Gill: Because if we put those things out, at least one person would be like ‘Why did you say those things about me?’ It’s good to let things simmer.
Honeyfitz: But that’s the stuff that’s important! Those are the nerve endings that I want to keep prodding at, the stuff that has the potential to make stuff messy. That’s what’s really interesting.
The first time I heard “Sedatives,” I found it really abrasive. Now, I listen to it every day. Who do you think your music is for and what type of people don’t get it?
Gabe Gill: I think Deadmall is for people who listen to a lot of different genres and grew up listening to music rooted in folksy textures, narrative, and soul, but they also like pop music. For “Sedatives,” I tried to make a Playboi Carti type drum beat and then had Honeyfitz loop guitar over it. The song has that element of being a little bit abrasive, but catchy too. It’s got that droning, fast BPM but the outro on it sounds almost like Lorde.
Honeyfitz, it says on your website, “Honeyfitz is a realistic fiction band.” What does that mean?
Honeyfitz: I’m telling stories that are rooted in reality, but aren’t necessarily always about me. That’s a thing I think about a lot: the relationship between the artist as a person and the artist as what they’re presenting. The songs are about a feeling that’s really honest to me, but the situation that surrounds that feeling doesn’t have to be 100% real.
Where did the Honeyfitz name come from?
Honeyfitz: Honeyfitz was John F. Kennedy’s maternal grandfather. He was a sort of a mobster. It was also the name of JFK’s boat. I first heard it at a museum when I was like 13 or 14.
Gabe Gill: You know what’s really funny? The only other person I make music with, Rothstein, got his name from a mobster too. Now we’re all making music about heartbreak.
Let’s talk about your new album, Bunny Rabbit. What was happening in your lives when you wrote and recorded it, and what does the title mean to you?
Gabe Gill: That period was a mental rock bottom for me. I was feeling bad about the music I had been making, bad about going to school when I really didn’t want to be there, and bad about the state of relationships and friendships I had. When Deadmall started, it felt like sort of a regeneration. I told myself, “I’m very good at [making music] and I am going to stop pretending like it isn’t the only thing I should be doing. When I left school, Deadmall became this really important thing to me. When I think of bunny rabbits, I think of Easter and imagery of new life and regeneration. It feels very tender, sweet, and sort of innocent.
Honeyfitz: Also, ‘Bunny Rabbit’ is funny because they’re two words that mean the same thing, but you say them together. It’s funny that you say the same thing twice.
The “River” remix came out back in December on your polaroid.wav EP, which you captioned “two non-album songs.” What made you guys decide to put the original “River” on Bunny Rabbit?
Gabe Gill: The remix actually came first. I bought that beat from pnkblnkt, sent it to Honeyfitz, he wrote the majority of the song, then he sent it to Poska for a verse, then I added a bridge. It just kind of happened that there were two alternate versions. We didn’t want to have someone else’s beat on our album, so we remade the whole beat, set that version aside for Bunny Rabbit, and released the remix.
At the moment, “Prom Nite” is my favorite song on Bunny Rabbit. It’s enveloping and catchy, but sort of sour, too. What was your actual prom night like?
Honeyfitz: I never went to prom, I dropped out of high school.
Gabe Gill: My prom was fine, I guess.
Why do you think Promcore is appealing to people?
Gabe Gill: I think people like the idea of being a teenager but none of us really liked the reality of being a teenager. A lot of my music is nostalgic for bad times. On Prom Nite, it’s not a great thing that’s being described there. It’s a romanticized toxicity.
Honeyfitz: The feeling of prom night is a feeling of excitement. We’ve got a crazy video for that song, it doesn’t look anything like our other videos. It’ll come out sometime in the next two months.
When most people think of Western Mass, they think of certain artists who have had their reputation been tainted by sexual assault allegations. How do you separate yourselves from other artists in Western Mass?
Gabe Gill: People from Western Mass know. The people who know know, and the people who don’t know will soon figure it out. Being from Massachusetts is not a gimmick from us or even central to our entire appeal, as it has been for some other people.
Honeyfitz: We’re definitely not branding ourselves as the voice of Western Mass, but the DNA of Western Mass is definitely in our music and videos. Also, we’re making much better music than those people and at some point we’ll eclipse them. I feel some responsibility to provide another name to put in people’s mouths when they think about Western Mass.
Gabe Gill: There was a time when I was being really weak about it, and being kind of like ‘Well, I’ve heard these things, but this is sort of a community that I could be a part of.’ I was never friends with them, but I was being relatively passive and complacent in a lot of that shit that was happening in the scene. Elihu snapped me out of that. We’re representing that area in an honest and loving way. I love to see kids who are in high school now in Pioneer Valley hit me up about Deadmall. At the end of the day, people who suck can only have dominance if there’s no alternate people to represent.
Listen to Bunny Rabbit below