Biography
Honest Iago (pronounced “ee-ah-go”) formed in San Diego in the dark Southern Californian winter months of 2005. All of the members had been playing in other bands and wanted to try something new. The name comes from the villain in Othello, although the bird in Aladdin is a perfectly good source to cite as well.
The band maintained a rotating membership so that no two shows would be the same. They also began playing with visual artists who would create works live onstage. After quite a few years of this, when it came time to record a record, they solidified the musical line-up to Matt Fradkin, Nick Norton, Craig Vermeyen, and Hunter Knight. Their debut CD Straight On ‘Til Morning was released in September 2009.
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Honest Iago has always had members spread out across long distances. The original bassist, Scott Toepfer, moved to Boston to pursue photography and maintained a role with the band as a visual artist while there. Craig spent a good amount of time in Paris, and emailed tracks back and forth to continue working on music. Nick also went to Europe for graduate school, and did most of his work on Straight on ‘Til Morning from abroad and on trips home.
2009 saw all of the members return to Southern California. Since the release of the record the band has been playing shows in earnest, writing new material, and generally doing what bands do.
In 2010 Honest Iago released their first video, for the song “All Prophets in Their Houses.” Then Hunter moved to Edinburgh and Scott came back to playing bass. Another record is on the way.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.