Bridge: Hey Jared! Thanks so much for sitting down with us today. Let’s start off the interview by taking it back a few years…when did your love of music begin?
PHM: It’s my pleasure, thanks for having me! Yes — the start of my love for music — I was born in the 80’s, and my Mom rocked a minivan for quite some time, having 4 kids and all. There are some songs that would catch my heart, blasting on FM radio, as we drove around to various activities. I distinctly remember hearing Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and I thought it sounded so cool. My Mom also taught at the local high school, and would always be up on the fresh, new stuff…so a lot of hair metal haha.
I think it wasn’t until I heard the raw power of Bill Withers that I knew I wanted to play guitar/piano and sing.
Bridge: What does the music-making process look like for you?
PHM: A lot of fits and starts. I try to block out some time every day, even if it’s just 10-20 minutes to do some object writing. Most of the time though, I will be out for a morning run and hum or sing a melody into my phone between heavy breathes. Then when I get home, I will grab the acoustic guitar or sit at the piano and try to find the notes and chords. I try to keep a running list of songs I’m working on in my Sessions app so I can keep it all organized. I’ll listen back to what I’ve got and see if there’s something there. As it’s been said before, the best writers are re-writers.
Bridge: Do you have any themes or motifs that show up frequently in your songwriting?
PHM: ‘Home’ is a theme that surrounds a lot of my songwriting. I’ve now made the NYC area my home for the last half of my life, but I think I’m always reaching back into my memory bank and writing about the formative years I spent growing up in South Dakota.
Bridge: What’s the scariest part of releasing music for you?
PHM: The age-old: “is anyone going to listen or even care that I’m releasing music.” It’s crazy how much time and energy is spent trying to make something meaningful through words and melody and all the other things that go into a release. I think it’s why I tried to kind of trick myself into taking on a huge project with my recent music marathon release for ‘Running Up The Hillside.’ Running a marathon and raising money were all great ways to distract myself from the actual act of the song release. And it was for a good cause, so that definitely made it feel not so ego-driven as releases oftentimes feel for me.
Bridge: What are some challenges you’ve faced so far as you enter the music industry? How did you overcome them?
PHM: As of now, I feel the challenge of “ageism.” I’m not a spring chicken anymore, but I feel I have so much to offer through my life experiences that someone might be able to relate to. That fact alone, makes me want to keep going by sharing my stories and music.
Bridge: Tell us about your most recent single ‘Running Up The Hillside’!
PHM: Yea! It was a really fun and ambitious release. As I mentioned before, I ran the equivalent of a marathon over a 5-day span leading up to the song’s release. I raised over $1000 for the nonprofit, Hungry for Music and I was able to do it with the help of my street team The Honey Moaners and other amazing, generous supporters!
The whole idea was to tie it into the theme that my music journey is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. There’s a really rad recap video of the whole process you can check out at the link here: Pink Honey Moan’s Music Marathon Song Release for Running Up The Hillside.
Bridge: That is incredible! And we hear you have a new lyric and music video coming up for the single, what can we expect to see and how did the concept for it come about?
PHM: I’m so excited for you to see the lyric and music videos! The lyric video is my homage to being a 90’s kid and loving rollerblading with my friends. I took some footage from one of my favorite movies growing up, Airborne, and enlisted a video-editing whiz buddy (Darren Lipari) to do his magic with it. You’ll have to check it out to see! The official music video will be released shortly after the lyric video. For that, I was able to collaborate with a super-talented friend of mine (Alex McKelvey) and we made a really weird and interesting concept for the video based on BFF’s from high school and how their lives look nowadays.
Thanks for chatting today Jared! Where can we follow you online?
PHM: It was my pleasure! Thanks so much for having me. Please find the whole honeypot at the link here: https://linktr.ee/pinkhoneymoan
