Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Smith.
Catherine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up, I always loved to sing. My parents first discovered that I really had an inclination for it at my Dad’s birthday party when I was really small. They had a karaoke machine for the party, and I pretty much took it over to sing every song from “The Lion King.” My parents noticed how much I loved it and put me in voice lessons right away.
I would write little songs growing up, but got really serious about songwriting in high school when I started playing guitar. I would stay up late into the night practicing and writing songs about who knows what dramatic thing (it was high school after all). My school had a poetry night that I kind of commandeered and turned into an open mic of sorts.
I applied to the school for music and ended up choosing USC’s Popular Music program. It was there that I got really serious about working with a band and making my vision a reality. After graduating, I worked a lot on continuing to write songs and build out exactly what I wanted the project to be.
Honeycraft is the culmination of all that dreaming and planning. I recorded the first EP with Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Peter Bjorn and John), and the four songs that are out now are just the beginning. New music is coming so, so, soon and I can’t wait to share it.
Has it been a smooth road?
Anyone that’s started a project from the ground up without struggles is either an alien or a liar. As with any creative work, doubt is a constant companion and the biggest struggle. Everyone always told me growing up that rejection was just a part of the music industry and I had to have thick skin. I’ve always been pretty tough, so I thought that would just come naturally to me. Of course, it turned out to be not so easy.
Any kind of music or art is so vulnerable and honest. Sharing it really is like sharing your inner world. To have something so personal picked apart, analyzed and criticized is incredibly difficult. The biggest struggle for me in building my career has been maintaining my belief in myself and my style through some pretty rough feedback.
Ultimately, you have to realize that everyone has different taste and isn’t gonna see/hear the things you do. And that’s no reason to give up on what you feel truly called to create. It’s easy to criticize, especially when you have no skin in the game.
It takes character and courage to follow your intuition and be authentic. The art that truly makes an impact is always authentic and unique. It can be tempting to sell out and follow a formula that’s had success in the past, but I’ve always wanted to create something enduring and special.
Regurgitating trends may have a short-term payoff but fails to make an artistic statement, and that’s what matters the most to me. And that means running into a lot of people that just don’t get it. So, I like to say to myself that they’re just confused about my awesomeness!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Honeycraft story. Tell us more about the business.
Honeycraft is a dreamworld. A gauzy, ethereal orb floating around in a haunted house somewhere. I like to be flexible with what styles I am drawing inspiration from, but my signature is a real sense of magic.
My biggest priority with creating music is affirming a sense of wonder and poetry, especially among some of the harsher realities of life. I love to take on heavy subject matter and place it in a dreamy soundscape.
I think the artist’s responsibility is to share their inner world vividly so that people can connect more at a soul level. My inner world is fantastical, shimmery, and a bit macabre. I want to share that with every song I create.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It’s really interesting that now most artists are releasing music on a single-to-single basis rather than by albums. I actually see this as a good thing because it takes some of the pressure off individual songs. The best thing a creator can do is keep creating.
This kind of release format encourages a steady stream of content. Andy Warhol said: “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if they love or hate it, whether it’s good or bad. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
I really think this new format enables more relaxed creation by musicians. It used to be you spent so long making an album in a vacuum. By the time it got to the fans, the songwriting and recording process was so far in the past. It’s cool that now fans are getting updates way more often and the artists can see how they’re responding.
Contact Info:
- Website: honeycraftmusic.com
- Instagram: honeycraftmusic
- Facebook: honeycraftmusic
- Twitter: honeycraftmusic
Image Credit:
Mendoza Weiss, Dana Trippe, Derrick K. Lee
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