Honey, You Are a Star: Greeley Nu-Funk Band The Burroughs Drops New Album at Meow Wolf

The members of The Burroughs are no strangers to taking chances. Saxophonist Brianna Harris and lead singer Johnny Burroughs, bandleaders and two-thirds of the band’s management team, know that running a nine-piece jazz/soul/funk outfit based in Greeley means they must constantly push their own limits. And that is exactly what the Burroughs did with their latest record, Honey Imastar, released June 2, and will continue to do with a release party at the iconic Meow Wolf on Friday, June 9.

The Burroughs’ second full-length studio album comprises a staggering twenty tracks, bursting with a steady stream of funkadelic homages and subtle nods to a bygone era of rock and roll. Rich in nuance, it is the band’s most interesting work, at least from an arrangement and production standpoint. Honey Imastar also had the support of the group's fans and community: To fund the record and relieve the financial burden of its upcoming tours, the Burroughs launched a Kickstarter that closed after hitting an incredible $21,500.

While Harris, Burroughs and drummer Mary Claxton would usually share the management duties, Burroughs has put his whole focus into the upcoming Meow Wolf concert. “I’ve been building the set list since last November and crafting it," he says. "Now we’re in the thick of learning these incredibly difficult songs."

And those plans wouldn't be canceled — not even after Burroughs underwent surgery because his femur had disconnected from his knee. “We’re shopping for a throne now,” he joked on the band’s Instagram account when announcing his surgery. “I might be seated, I might be chiller, I will be in recovery mode but at our Meow Wolf show I will be bringing as much energy as possible.”

Harris stepped into the role of handling booking and social media, well aware of the challenges of managing such a large band as well as staying relevant leading to the release. There is "more to do every day than is possible to do. Social media these days, it’s not, ‘We made a record and tell everyone about it.’ Now we are a content factory,” she says.

“It's helpful to have a big band in some aspects, because with the Kickstarter, we had nine people doing outreach,” Harris adds. “But other parts are a pretty big challenge. Booking is still a significant process. Even dealing with talent buys or touring acts looking for support — they take one look at the size of the group and are like, nope.”

Meanwhile, Honey Imastar took more than two years to create. The band's intention was to make a simple four-track EP to get the bandmates used to playing with each other again after the pandemic, but those plans suddenly took a sharp turn. “One day Mary and I were driving back from Fort Collins, and we were talking about the song “Honey Imastar,” and Mary almost flippantly said, ‘What if we made it a concept EP and it can just be about this character?’ And that just sent my mind spinning," Burroughs recalls. "I dug into my demos and wrote a bunch of new songs, and ended up with thirty to forty songs about who Honey Imastar was."

He took the songs to Claxton and Harris and floated the idea of building a story about an inter-dimensional being coming to Earth and learning about what it means to be human. The band dug into the demos, and the concept quickly began to expand.

The album was produced by Burroughs, Harris and bassist Brian Claxton. “It was the most collaborative album we’ve ever made,” says Burroughs. Once they narrowed down what songs would make the album, he began meeting with the other members in small groups to workshop the tracks and then brought those ideas back to the studio. Harris and trumpeter Alec Bell wrote horn arrangements, and because of the pandemic, each member had a decent enough home studio to contribute independently.

Once it was time to record at Mighty Fine Productions, the members had twenty tracks meticulously worked over by the band as a whole. The result explores the group's own sound as well as the traditions of funkadelic in interesting new ways, but at the same time, it steps dangerously into the over-technical. To the band's credit, each time the album seems to veer off course, something interesting and intentional happens, shaking loose expectations.

“It’s definitely a concept album in that we made it with the intention that someone could sit down, listen to it from start to end and have it feel cohesive and [like it] has a through line,” Harris explains.

“We believe in this project so much, we’re working our asses off to make it the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” adds Burroughs.
The Burroughs Honey Imastar Album-Release Party, 7 p.m. Friday, June 9, Meow Wolf, 1338 First Street. Tickets are $15.