Honest Iago (pronounced “yah-go”) formed in San Diego in 2005. The band maintained a rotating membership of musicians and visual artists to ensure no two experiences would be the same. The lineup solidified to the quartet of Matt Fradkin, Nick Norton, Craig Vermeyen, and Hunter Knight to release an absurdly ambitious 47-minute debut, Straight On ‘Til Morning, in 2009. Writing about the record, AMP Magazine called Honest Iago an “indie-punk/prog-punk/art-punk/whatever you want to call it musical powder keg waiting to blow,” and “something you won’t find anywhere else.”

To follow up Straight On ‘Til Morning, the members went exploring and began collecting ideas for a second record. With the four of them living apart at various times in Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Edinburgh, New York, San Diego, Paris, Oakland, and the middle of nowhere, songs began to take shape through bedroom recordings and email chains of tracks and lyrics.

Ahead of proper recording, Matt and Nick spent time on Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho hashing out the band’s collected ideas. Soon after, the band holed up in a cabin outside of Joshua Tree to finish writing the second album, 29 Palms.

A Glorious Field For Sawmills, the first studio track Honest Iago released since 2009, and the first single off of 29 Palms, recorded and produced by Nick Tipp (The Black Keys, Frightened Rabbit, HEALTH), premiered in October on All Things Go, and was followed in spring with more singles ahead of a July 27 record release. With members now spanning the entire west coast of the US, much more music, travels, and tales are on the way.