Mister Heavenly's Honus Honus Talks 'Out of Love' LP and 'Weird Supergroup Label'

Since word got out that Mister Heavenly, a band comprised of Man Man's Honus Honus, Islands' Nick Thorburn and Modest Mouse's Joe Plummer, would be heading into the studio to put their stomping rock to wax, music fans have been on tender hooks.

(Film fans, however, can unhook themselves since sometime-member Michael Cera, who has played bass with Mister Heavenly at a few gigs, is not on the album. As Honus, aka Ryan Kattner, told Spinner at SXSW, "We thought it would be fun to have him on the road but it's been kind of a distraction. I hate the girls screaming 'Michael.'")

But next month finally sees the release of their debut 'Out of Love' (single 'Pineapple Girl' was just our featured Free MP3 of the Day) and Honus seems just as excited as the rest of us.

"The record is killer," the singer/keyboardist tells Spinner. "It's just a good rock record; it's a nice balance of me and Nick's voices and all three of our aesthetics. It sounds like if we're all driving our own cars and we crashed, and we have to make songs in the scene of the accident."

So how is Honus ramping up for the first release from his supergroup? Well, firstly, by rebuffing the term altogether.

"The supergroup label -- that's a weird one," he says. "I feel like with Man Man and Islands we've been carving out our niche for so many years and I still feel like people don't know who the hell we are. I feel like bringing Joe into the mix, with the caliber of bands he's played with [including the Shins], that might be the 'super' aspect.

"Also, we're not really handling it like a side-project, it's just a band, for us."

Watch Mister Heavenly Perform in Portland
Though 'Out of Love' doesn't drop for another few weeks, Honus still has a packed out schedule. There are shows to play with Man Man in support of their new release, 'Life Fantastic' ("Man Man is obviously my baby, and that's why that record had to come out first"), not to mention, music videos to storyboard.

"There's a Mister Heavenly video in the works and one for Man Man," says Honus. "We're going to try to get them both out by the end of the summer."

"We like attacking videos the same way that we attack writing songs," he adds. "'Cause I think music videos are pretty stupid, I mean they can be, so if you can approach it from another perspective, it's a lot more fun."

And is there a high-water mark Honus and co. are shooting for when it comes to their videos?

"'Thriller' is pretty killer, clearly," says Honus, albeit warning not to expect anything nearly as slick.