In 2019 the DJ mix series I have been curating for over a decade was about to reach its 300th entry. Our first upload was via Blogger in May of 2008 and was often the vehicle for live recordings from our raucous weekly Honey Soundsystem party that lasted 5.5 years. At the time of inception, we were one of the only regular DJ mix series that focused on women and queer artists. At times it was a struggle to get people to submit mixes given how untrendy it was to be a DJ. Creating a mixtape for many pre-internet age DJs was a super personal experience. Before digital mix making, the stakes were higher to land something in one take.
Honey Potcast Reaches 300
But, looking back on 300 mixes I was able to retrace many trends and was reminded of some communities and sounds that had come and gone. A couple of years ago something clicked for the HNYPOT series and my submissions were plentyful, enough to release a new one every week. It went from begging and harassing artists sometime for years to turn in a submission into turning people down. Suddenly there were so many regular mix series and mixes going live each day that publications started to write reviews of mixes and doing monthly best of mix round-ups. The landscape was completely green, lush and possibly even overgrown.
The HNYPOT had credibility. We had an audience purely based on the mix series itself, listeners whom, although the information about its origins was just a click away, were blissfully unaware of what history was there. I stripped away any extraneous promo text or unnecessary identity to the greater whole of the HNYPOT. I tried to simply enhance its autonomy. I invited DJs and scene-makers I loved to curate 3-4 mixes in a row for the series, handed over the keys to our expensive ride so to speak. Some mixes blew up and artists came up to me on dance floors and confided in me that their HNYPOT got them through the doors.
So, nostalgia took a hold at this number 300 and I pulled some mixes out of the archive that had only previously been available on Blogger and uploaded them to Soundcloud.
A re-platforming ceremony - a digital ritual for the 2000s.
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LINK TO THE HNY POTCAST
A re-platforming ceremony - a digital ritual for the 2000s.
︎︎︎
LINK TO THE HNY POTCAST
HustlePR needed a rebrand. Six months into working for the company, the founder (Fallon MacWilliams) and I set out to give the firm a makeover. After a few rounds with a pro designer, Fallon was not happy with the logo results. We went back to the drawing board and I started pumping out the graphics myself. She loved what came of it and chose to run with my designs.
These days the secrets come out on social media. That was just the case with finding and commissioning Dylan Tushar to create a photo zine to accompany the Moonchild EP on Honey Soundsystem Records by Vin Sol. Dylan had been coming to our parties for years but was a modest guy when it came to his talents as a graphics and photo artist. But his Instagram kept dropping heat... so I asked him to spend some time with Vin to try and capture his world in a black & white printed zine. 50 copies were sold at the record release and the digital record comes with a beautiful scan of the hardcopy.
