Honey Revenge on Coming Full Circle with the Summer School Tour

The last two summers, Honey Revenge was but one of the mere names on a lineup still finding its footing. A year later, they’re headlining it.

Devin Papadol, frontwoman of the pop-rock outfit, sat down with WMSC ahead of the group’s return to the Summer School Tour where they’ll be joined by Chase Petra, Winona Fighter, South Arcade, and Games We Play. It’s a homecoming of sorts, with Chase Petra playing one of Honey Revenge’s very first shows in someone’s backyard, and Papadol has spent years building internet friendships with several of this year’s lineup before ever sharing a stage with them.

“I really think we’ve collected all the Twitter bands like Infinity Stones,” she joked. “After this, we’ll be just bout complete with our collection.”

But beneath that excitement is something a bit more bittersweet. This run marks the final tour under the band’s breakout era, Retrovision. The record that, by accident, turned Honey Revenge from a brand-new band into a full-time job. With a new album out in September, Summer School isn’t just a tour. It’s one last final goodbye while welcoming in a new beginning.

We talked about all of it: the lineup, the legacy of Retrovision, what’s coming next, and why Papadol still considers herself a fangirl first.

ASH: You played as an opener for Scene Queen and The Home Team on Summer School 2024. How does it feel coming back as a headliner this year?

DEVIN: It’s so exciting. I think it’s really cool to be a part of the history of a tour like this — to say we were an opener the first year when it was still getting sorted, and now that it’s a more established festival, we get to come back as headliners and do it with so many friends for a second time.

ASH: The tour has such a diverse lineup. What’s the most exciting part about sharing the stage with artists like Chase Petra and Winona Fighter?

DEVIN: Chase Petra are our very first friends in the scene — they played the first ever Honey Revenge show when we were a two-person band in someone’s backyard. Winona Fighter is awesome because we’ve been internet friends for so long, never actually met. It’s gonna be a full circle moment. I really think we’ve collected all the Twitter bands like Infinity Stones. After this, we’ll just about be complete with our collection.

ASH: Is there anything specific that makes Summer School different from a typical headlining tour?

DEVIN: It’s way more community-based. There’s no VIP program, so we still get to go out and meet people without an additional charge. It also has that Warped Tour effect — a lot of people come for one specific band and end up discovering new ones in the process. It’s really cool to watch people in real time discover someone they’re going to carry with them.

ASH: If every band on the lineup was a class, where do you think Honey Revenge fits?

DEVIN: I feel like we’re the choir students of the tour. We’re a little bit more choreographed — there’s that deep-seated part of me that was in show choir in high school, the sparkly dresses, hitting my mark. Donny and I really like to stand out and look like a group in that way, so I think we bring the show choir to Summer School.

ASH: Since you’re headlining, your set is longer this time. How are you approaching the setlist?

DEVIN: We’re still figuring it out. We’re rolling out a new record this year, and we’ve already put out three new tracks for it. We’re really trying to find a mixture between showcasing these new songs and this new era, while simultaneously closing the chapter on Retrovision. This will be the last proper tour we do under the Retrovision era, and that’s bittersweet — we owe everything to this era. It became our full-time job. Summer School will definitely be a culmination of the end of Retrovision and the beginning of our next era as Honey Revenge.

ASH: How has Retrovision blowing up felt for you, looking back?

DEVIN: I’m a fangirl truly and deeply in my identity. I don’t think I realized from a fan perspective how crazy it is for a first album to become a big debut — some bands don’t blow up until their second or third. We were just very fortunate it had the impact it did. Our biggest song, “Airhead,” doesn’t even have a music video, because we sure as heck didn’t think that was gonna be the song that would take us far. No one could have predicted what was gonna happen.

ASH: How has your relationship with your fans changed as the band has grown from DIY backyard shows?

DEVIN: I wanna say it hasn’t. If anything, it’s only gotten better and more deep — we have our Patreon now, our Discord, our street team. We have people all over the world that are part of that community. All of my favorite bands were my favorite bands because they connected with their fans. That just made me want to do that with my own project, because why should we be so out of reach? The whole point is connection.

ASH: This lineup is headed by almost all feminine artists. How do you feel about that representation?

DEVIN: We’re very blatantly ourselves — a band of queer people and strong women, and that’s important for me to have around me at all times. We’re very fortunate that it just didn’t even cross my mind most of the time, because that’s just the standard for how we like to tour. It just fosters an environment for our fans to feel their most comfortable and authentic selves.

ASH: Any pre-show rituals?

DEVIN: We do something called “the club” — it’s our bass player’s thing. We play a lot of early 2000s club songs and just dance and get hyped. And we have a chant we do right before we go on to really lock in. When we don’t do the chant, it’s not always the best show.