Interview with HONNE by Freya Bennett
HONNE has captured hearts worldwide with their signature blend of soulful beats and deeply introspective lyrics. As they launch their new album OUCH, they dive deeper than ever into personal storytelling, exploring themes of family, growth, and vulnerability. We were lucky enough to chat with James Hatcher of HONNE as he reflects on the challenges of staying authentic amidst industry pressures, the joy of collaborations, and how parenthood has reshaped their creative process. With an unwavering commitment to honesty, HONNE continues to craft music that resonates on a deeply human level, connecting with fans who see their own stories mirrored in the songs.
HONNE has always been known for their deeply personal and heartfelt music. How do you ensure that your creative process remains authentic and true to your experiences and values?
Hey Ramona, thank you for your questions today 🙂 Remaining authentic is really important to us and I don’t think we’ve always been able to achieve it with our past music (if I’m completely honest with myself) so with the new record OUCH we really wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again. OUCH for us is just about as personal as it gets. All the songs have a meaning behind them relating to a moment or experience that’s happened in Andy’s life over the last two years or even longer ago. Some of these experiences Andy would say were the toughest he’s ever faced and I think writing about things that are true to us and will mean something to us for years to come are all part of remaining authentic.
The themes of family and personal growth are prominent in your new album OUCH. How have your personal experiences and changes in your lives influenced the music and message of this album?
Massively. The whole album follows Andy’s journey into parenthood and the joys and low times that came along with that. Writing about our personal experiences is what makes HONNE – HONNE. What always surprises me though is that we write lyrics and music that is so personal to us, yet it still manages to connect and be relatable to so many people around the world almost like they are going through the same things, which feels so comforting to me knowing that other people might feel the way we do.
Your new single, Say That You Will Wait For Me, features rising artist Liang Lawrence. What do you look for in collaborations?
Yes! It does. Liang is so great isn’t she!? For us it’s mostly about the voice of the artist. Liang’s voice is like butter. So smooth and gorgeous. So from that side of things, working with Liang was a no brainer. But it’s also quite a lot about personality too. We actually met Liang to see if she’d be interested in supporting us on tour. It turned out she is a wonderful person and we instantly hit it off with her. A couple of weeks later, she was singing on our track and the rest was history.
Your music often explores themes of longing and connection. How do you navigate the balance between vulnerability and strength in your songwriting?
I just love it when I write a sad song that has a bit of an uplifting moment in it or vice versa a happy song that has a bit of a darker twist. For me it makes songwriting interesting and also a bit of a challenge and stops our music from either becoming way too sad and miserable or on the flip side way too sickly sweet.
In light of Ramona Magazine’s focus on fostering creativity and community, how do you cultivate a supportive and collaborative environment within your team and with your fans?
I think we’re people pleasers at heart. We really like people to be happy. We always try to be supportive in any way we can and if something doesn’t feel right then we address it head on. We feel very proud of the community and culture we create within our team. It’s not always perfect but we try very hard to make sure everyone is happy whilst we are on tour as we are one big family after all. It’s the same with our fans. If a fan has a bad experience at a show, or they get sent and unsigned vinyl when they ordered a signed one, we’ll reply to them personally and sort it out. It’s time consuming haha but it’s well worth it, plus we love our fans.
The music industry can sometimes focus on commercial success over artistic integrity. How do you stay true to your artistic vision while navigating the pressures of the industry?
It’s a bit of a balance and we are in a lucky position to be able to be a bit picky and choosy when it comes to commercial opportunities that come our way. Sounds a bit mad, but trusting your gut is normally quite a good gauge of whether something feels right or wrong. Sometimes we stick to the principle of “does it sound like it could be fun?” – like it might be a brand opportunity that we have no connection to but it sounds like it could be fun so lets give it a go. And then there’s the test of trying to think how you’d feel about it if were in the future looking back.
How do you navigate the challenge of balancing your artistic career with the demands of parenthood, and how does this duality influence your songwriting?
When you become a parent I soon learnt that something had to give. Haha. For me as a musician, I’ve just had to become better at managing my time. Decisions need to be made quicker and touring made perhaps a little more succinct. I don’t think it’s affected our writing apart from taking a little longer to get to the end goal, but we’ve never churned out music and always liked to take a more thorough approach.
