I don't know why I'm trying to cause a rift in the band. You really are. Hello and welcome to WNC Original Music Episode 124, The Flowers with Flowers Gathered episode. That's Shakespeare.
Very happy to have on the show this week, Honey Magpie, which is an indie folk band from Eastern North Carolina, but they are playing an upcoming show at Isis Music Hall in West Asheville. Honey Magpie consists of Rachel Hurwitz, Mandy Meers, and Pippa Hoover, and they have a recent album out called Midnight Morning. I really encourage you to find and listen to. You can find links to Honey Magpie's music and the show notes, as well as a link to get tickets for the Isis show, or you can just go to icisashville.com.
They were nice enough to send me a few tracks to play for you in between the interview from their most recent album, and you're going to hear that now. Here is Honey Magpie. So Midnight Morning, that started out as a song I, Rachel, wrote, but I liked the tune and I came up with the tune first, which I often do. And then I tried to write lyrics and the lyrics were just really bad.
And then, so I was like, okay, I have to start over. And then I wrote new lyrics and they were also bad. And then I was like, you know what, maybe the song isn't meant to be. But Pippa liked the tune and she decided to give lyrics a try.
So that's what she did. And she wrote great lyrics. And I think basically she wrote lyrics that were, like that's what the song was meant to be. So that's how Midnight Morning came to be.
I feel like it was over the course of maybe a couple of years. It was several years. Yeah, because when we were first starting to write the song, it was when we did that band retreat. It was actually, was it Was I Clock Mountain or Boone?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yes.
So Rachel had come up with the tune at some point before that band retreat and was playing and we were all kind of talking about like what should the song be about. And that was the time when I was like, this sounds like a driving song. I don't know why, but it just makes me think of like being in a car. And then a couple of years went by and like all of the different lyric iterations happened.
And I was like, I'm just going to try to make it into a driving song. And it's working out. Yeah. And I feel like, I mean, it is a driving song.
But it's like, it's also about so much more than that. It's like about being in a band and following your dreams, doing tours. Yeah. I like how the first line is indeed into the car.
We make our way now. Yeah. And what was interesting was I actually used a lot of lyrics from the, I guess the first draft that Rachel wrote lyric wise, like a lot of the- It's a lot of the rhyme schemes I kept the same and even like certain words, but I just changed most of the content and it still worked. So I don't know.
It was an interesting experience. And I think it was like, it was good for us and something that we want to do more of, but kind of struggle with, because we tend to write our songs fairly separately and then just kind of be like, here it is. And then we do it. Exactly.
When we've tried to co-write more, it's, I don't know, it just like doesn't work out usually. So it was nice that it did with this song. For sure. Any chance I can hear some of the bad lyrics?
Oh, you know what? I don't even, I think I've blocked them out of my memory. But it is interesting how like there are certain words that Pippa kept, which I think like one of them was like fairytale. And I guess I don't know the other ones.
But like I do, I feel like I just wanted to have certain words in the song, but then I wasn't making good lyrics out of the words. You're lyrics weren't serving the words you had chosen the song. Yeah. Yeah.
I like that technique though of just choosing these words have to be in here and then write the story around it. Right. Yeah. Good writers block technique maybe.
That's true. Yeah. Sometimes it helps to have like limits on what you should write about. Yeah.
And Mandy, you joined the band later. But when you heard this song, I'm sure the first thing you thought was, it's good thing these lyrics are better than what it could have been. No, I didn't realize until I played it with them a few times that it was co-written. And I love it because yeah, usually you can really tell when it's like a Rachel song or a Pippa song and this is like a little of both.
It's like a Rachel sound with like some Pippa edge in the lyrics a little bit. I like it. Pippage. Pippage.
I'm writing it down. Don't steal it. You can have it. Mandy, what makes a, if you can tell the difference in Rachel and a Pippa song, what makes that differentiation there?
You're asking me to like evaluate my band. I'm like, yes. No, I think this is a gotcha style interview. Yeah.
Okay. I'm totally feeling it. Okay. No, Rachel's stuff is like more like folky and like nice and I don't know.
No, sorry. They're like catchy and they're folky and like they stay in my head forever. And then Pippa songs are also folky, not as nice, but like fun. Pippa does really fun things with lyrics that I enjoy.
Pippa does really fun things with lyrics that I enjoy. Positive things. I was afraid just for a second, I was like, oh, what if she says, pippa songs aren't very good at doing this and Rachel's songs, this part sucks. You know, that sort of thing.
So that would be awkward. I love both of them. The first time I heard, yeah, the first time I heard ugly ducking, I was like, yes. It's a good one.
No, we're not talking about that tonight. Sorry. Sorry. Oh, that's true.
We're not even though it is a favorite. I like that name. Yeah. What do you like about ugly duckling?
I mean, I love the name of it. Oh, she's sassy. Yeah. This is an interesting one because I wrote this and I had it up like on my personal soundcloud.
And I wasn't really considering pitching it to the band just because I don't know if you heard our first album, Honey Magpie. You know, it was very sweet and very like happy and not dark at all. And I just, I don't know. I thought that sweet tooth was maybe not the right feel for the band.
But our violinist at the time found it on my soundcloud and thought we should do it. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I like the song and I wanted it to have three part harmonies anyway. And so we started doing it and ended up liking it and harmonies were awesome. Harmony's are really fun.
Yeah. So yeah, that's kind of how it came to the band. I like the kind of message of that. It's kind of its own genre, maybe like what you might call it, like an advice song.
I don't know if that is a known song, but like a murder ballad, but this is kind of like, you know, like maybe a 70s singer songwriter, you know, if someone talking to someone else. And you know, in this case, it's a mother and a daughter, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that's interesting. What was the inspiration for that topic of that song? Yeah, that's such a such a big question. I think there were like, there are a lot of things.
One of the main things was I had always wanted to write a song with a barrel organ in it. And I even had like early on, I had the beginnings of some sort of more explicitly Russian literature inspired a song that had a barrel organ in it, but it just like wasn't very good. And but yeah, that's where the image really came from for me because I was a Russian major. I read a lot of Dostoevsky and there's just barrel organs in a lot of his novels and stories.
And I thought it was an interesting symbol of just a situation that is just sort of a perpetual grind. And the same tune over and over again, not getting anywhere. And so I thought that was a good fit for being in a bad relationship where you were forced to do all the domestic labor for very little reward. And that's kind of where the song came from, I guess.
Yeah, I love that the barrel organ symbol. And I like how it's like, yeah, it's like representative of this grind, but it's like, you're the one, like someone is grinding upon you, you know, like, so yeah, I just think it's such a perfect symbol for the meaning behind the song. Oh, thanks. Yeah.
The message of it, I don't want to say it doesn't fit, but it doesn't align automatically with like the music of it. You hear it and it's one of those songs where you hear it and you're just listening kind of passively. You're like, oh, this is a nice, you know, relax song. And then you're like, wait a minute, what did you just say?
Oh, that's interesting because one Mandy's mom first heard this song. I was about to say that. No, so we did a live stream and my mom watched and we did Sweet Two that I called her afterwards like, hey, did you watch the whole thing? She goes, that one song was scary.
I was like, I was like, I was like, to some people, it sounds scary. And also maybe we just had the organ turned up a little too hot. Maybe. Maybe so.
Yeah, like it adds to the spooky sound. It's really hard to get the organ levels right on that song because you want it to be in there to just like add a little creep factor. But if you, if you turn it up just like a hair too much, it becomes haunted carnival. Yes, it does.
You want Twin Peaks, not Freddy Krueger. Yeah. We have to go back to one of our early private gigs where we were asked to perform at an event at this, this Montessori school. And it was maybe two days before the event was set to begin.
We got this email from them and they were like, do you think you guys could play some upbeat jams? And at this point, it was still pretty early in our career. We only had the Honey Mac Pie album out, which is a very chill album, not really any upbeat jams are there per se. I mean, you could say radio was an upbeat jam.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's about it though. But that was about it.
Just like looking at the email, like, did they listen to us from the book? Do they know what we sound like? And you know, we did our best at the gig. But after that, we were just like, man, but we need more upbeat jams.
And this was upbeat jams with a Z, by the way, just so we're clear. And so like we all kind of were like, okay, we'll try to write some upbeat jams. And then we just like kept writing sad songs. In fact, I think they got even sadder at that point.
Oh, they did. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's like when you wrote circles.
Oh my gosh, like my sad is song. Yeah. And eventually I was able to come up with an upbeat jam and it was the garden. And the song was inspired by J.C.
Ralston Arboretum in Raleigh, which I had gone to for the first time maybe like a year before I wrote the song. And I just thought it was like the prettiest garden ever. And I had a really good time. And I went there with my boyfriend.
So it was like really romantic. So I wrote this like romantic garden song that was also an opinion. And that's how it came to be. Very fun.
Because it's also just like about being excited about flowers and running around and you know, I like how it kind of has almost a, I guess it's the first, it kind of feels almost like a rap break. Yeah. The rhythm of the words. Would you guys do me a favor and just sometimes just rap that part?
Oh, it just wants and record it. Well, we'll see what we can do. Oh boy. You know, if it works, if it serves the song, of course.
That's all you. Yeah. I will say like I do tend to write probably more lyrically densely than the average songwriter, which comes off kind of rap-y. Yeah.
But oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That's probably what it's here. But yeah, I see what I'm talking about, right? It has like a rhythm to it.
Yeah. Just want to make sure I'm not crazy. No, yeah. That's a jam.
So it is. Maybe we'll get a guest artist. A feat. A feat.
A feat period. Yeah. More from Honey Magpie, just a few moments. I want to remind you that you can find them at honeymagpie.com.
Also we'll have links to their Facebook and Instagram and their music sites and the show notes, but you can find all that at honeymagpie.com. Also want to remind you, they will be at Isis Music Hall. That show is June 24th, 2021, and it is a long concert. You can get tickets for that show at Isisashville.com if you get them before June 24th, 2021.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. That's WNC Original Music. Just search that or wherever you're listening to it right now, you might be able to find it there hopefully. It would almost be weird if you couldn't.
Also, you can get it on your smart speaker just by saying like Alexa, play WNC Original Music. That's it. That's all it takes. Oh, and corrections this week from last week's episode with Matt and Danny from the old features.
The Straw Hat riots did take place in the 1920s, but they had nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. So they were both right. This is Nick Gunnery and you're listening to WNC Original Music Podcast. Tell me about just how you guys start playing music.
Cool. Yeah. Well, I guess it all started with when I moved from New York City to Chapel, well actually to Carvera, North Carolina, and obviously I wanted to start a band. So I put a post on Craigslist and Pippa was among the first people to respond to the Craigslist post.
That's how we started the band. All right. Yeah. Yeah.
When I answered the ad, I had my own solo thing going on and I was working with a guitarist and drummer and I was kind of just looking for a side project. And instead it just ended up being the main project because I don't know. I just liked what was going on here. Like everyone had more drive, I would say, and like wanted to be successful and just like being able to do harmonies.
That's like one of my favorite things and that wasn't really happening with what I was working with with my solo project at the time. And so it was really nice to have that for sure. How long have you guys been playing music? So that was in 2014.
So since then, yeah, I joined in 2014. I joined in November. So yeah, I wasn't like the founding member, but I was an early member and the only early member who still survives today. It's still in the band, you mean?
Yes. Yes. Everyone to my knowledge is still alive, but not everyone is still in my mind. Okay.
Now this is not a crime podcast. So solving the Honey Magpie murders on Netflix. Mandy, you are the most recent person to join the band after all the murders. Yes.
Yeah. When did I join? It was right before COVID, I think. Yeah.
The winter before COVID? Yeah, it was like end of 2019, maybe. I think so. Okay.
So like you're going to have. Yeah. Yeah. Or 10 years, it's hard to say.
Yeah. But we've known about Mandy for a long time. Like she came to some of our early shows and we played a show with her and her band at the time. I was reaching towards so anxious just to get there.
Now it seems the years are slipping through my hands like the smallest grains of sand looking back. I should have acted on my dreams. But now I'm here and I try to make her love think sometimes I'm my own, but sometimes I hold emotions, take me like a river to the past where every interaction has a pulse. So yeah, so smallest grains of sand, it's another one of those sad songs.
But yeah, it's kind of about like growing up and transitioning out of young adulthood and looking back and feeling like, you know, why didn't I accomplish more? Like I feel like I should be at a different point in my life. So kind of like feelings of like failure, feelings of regret and just like being at a point where you feel like you're like racing against the clock and you're trying to make up for lost time. And like that in the context of following our dreams of doing music.
So yeah, that's pretty much what it's about. Yeah, it's pretty sad. It's always hard to introduce that one. Well, it has pretty relatable for most people though.
Yeah. Like you're thinking about that, but there's like, you know, there's like a lyric that you're still trying, you know, you're fighting or trying or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's hopeful.
Mandy, you have anything to add on that? I'm trying to get you in on every song. I know, I'm sorry. Yeah.
What do you feel like you, what are your main regrets in life? Oh, big question. So I think it's a big with a lot of musicians, especially sometimes a lot of the time women musicians, like I wasted so much of my early twenties being like scared. And then when I like finally started playing music out, I was like, oh, this is great.
And I wasted so much time, like not doing it. And so now I'm just going to be like 30 soon and I'm trying not to have like a crisis, but it is like frustrating and you want to yell at your young self. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, that's basically our story. Yeah. Sometimes it works out for the best to, you know, take a little time and learn your craft and then go out a little bit later and sometimes it helps to go out there at 16. You know, it's just everybody's different.
Nobody wants to hear my 20 year old song. Yeah. That is true. I did save myself for putting some things out there.
I thought you meant that that's true that nobody wants to hear Mandy's 20 year old song. Oh, no. Mandy wants to hear any of our of our old songs. I don't know.
I'm trying to cause a rift in the band. You really are. We've actually talked about like some kind of showcase of bad songs we wrote in our youth as like a fun show for the community comedy show to be fun. Who are some musicians you guys want people to listen to more?
Well, you know who just came into my mind is the moon and you who are based in Asheville. They're pretty awesome. So I think people should check them out. I don't know if they've had any like recent stuff come out, but they have a lot of recordings.
They're really good. I'm trying to think of an answer that's like not a dumb answer. Well, just like I would say that probably my favorite semi local singer songwriter who I like I think people should listen more to does not have any work out and I don't know when that's going to happen. So it's like weird to mention her because I'm setting people into the abyss to find nothing.
Let's see. I really like bandits on the run a lot. We played a show with them before they got bigger because they've done pretty well through the tiny dust contest, but they're trio with with cello and guitar and three vocalists and they all share songwriting like singing and songwriting duties. So it's kind of like similar to what we have going on and it's just nice to see a model like what we're doing working out because you know in a lot of bands it's like one front person everyone else supporting.
And I don't know it's and I like when there's three people in the band but like all of them and it's not just like oh not this person song again. When will they learn to just don't care or whatever. They're all they're all really good. Oh great.
So it's nice to see that model working out because it's kind of what we're going for here. Okay, locally. I really like Reese McHenry. Yes.
Great. She's got like a powerful voice and like a really good story. I just love her. I don't know.
My favorite musician of all time is Sophia and Stevens which makes me like ultimate hipster. Yeah, I love that guy. Older 20 year old. Yeah.
I love him though. This area has just like really good music. So. Okay.
One more time. Don't forget to listen to Honey Magpie go to their website. Honey Magpie.com but also coming up on the 24th of June 2021 in case you're listening to this in the future. They have a show at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, North Carolina and you can get tickets at Isis Asheville.com.
Really want to thank Pippa, Mandy and Rachel for being on the show. Just had a really good time talking to them and I really do encourage you to go and listen to all of their music and see them live when you can't wherever you are. One more time. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast WNC Original Music Wherever You Get Your Podcast.
So they will on all the podcast platforms and also follow the podcast on Instagram and Facebook and social media platforms throughout the world. For the closing song this week we're going to keep it in North Carolina. Nathan's Story is a singer-songwriter from Charlotte, My Home Town. He has been writing and touring for over a decade and has released three independent albums including most recently a moment before the break of Don released in 2019.
Check the links in the show notes for his music or go to NathanStoryMusic.com. Have a good week. Help is simple or asleep. It's the way and the hope is an old one.