The Honey Ants is John Grimsey and Scott Mathieson.
The name encompasses other musicians but the songwriters and force of the band has always been Scott and John. They both write the songs whilst John performs with the band.
The two met at school, aged fifteen, and have been writing together ever since. Most songs they pen are folk-rock-pop, with the emphasis on folk-pop.
They cite their main influences (in chronological order) as Bread, Flaky Pastry, The Hollies, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Mamas And The Papas, The Zombies, Jeff Lynne and The Lovin' Spoonful.
Having played for other musicians (including bass for Sufjan Stevens and a Glastonbury performance on guitar for Samantha Marais), John formed The Honey Ants band in 2009 to focus on songs written by him and Scott over the years. Things got off to a good start and in the same year, the BBC used a home recording of their song The Trouble With You in the TV show 'Off the Hook'.
In 2010, after playing some gigs and rehearsing quite a bit, John aided by James Grinnell on bass and Chris McKie on drums, went into a studio to record their debut EP, Release the ants!.
In 2011, the EP and an accompanying video were let loose. A seven-piece band was put together for a special show in March at the beautiful Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush, London. Shortly after Tom Robinson played I Can't Escape a few times on his BBC Introducing show. In the summer of 2011 the track Mister Sunlight was used in the Channel 4 series 'Sirens'.
John and Scott are now working on the next release.