Summer's coming.
Hey! It felt like May would never end.
But it finally did, and it's June now! Happy pride month! I made a playlist of LGBT+ artists and themed songs in honor of it, which you can check out here. It's also, unrelatedly, our 1-year anniversary later this month, on the 28th.
I'm very proud of how far along this publication has come, and how far along I've personally come in growth & maturity. Wild Honey is an extension of myself, and with all of the changes you've seen aesthetically and in our actual content, I've changed too, maybe even more than this magazine has. When I started writing for Buzzkill magazine in February 2020, I did it solely because I was so excited about the music that I loved and wanted to express those feelings, and for no other reason. It was a very personal and naïve thing that I was doing. I believe I lost that a little bit along the way, I believe I've lost the excitement & magic I once felt for all of this. Maybe it's just the pandemic and no shows getting to me. I'm trying hard to get it back, though.
About Wild Honey...I don't care about follower counts or post views, I made this magazine because I wanted a place of my own to write about all the music I loved with no limits, and for anyone who wanted to do the same to join me. I urge my team members to write honestly and personally, I tell them that the focus is on you, on how you feel about a particular song, album, or whatever else. It's not - "You are speaking on behalf of Wild Honey's entire team or anyone's fanbase," it's "You are speaking on behalf of you. You come first, this is about you." It's probably breaking some rules of journalism that I'm not aware of, but I don't care. I care about people having a place to say what they truly feel, about them thinking for themselves and nobody else, about forming your own opinions and not simply going with everyone else's thoughts. Wild Honey's stitched together with the ethos of DIY, doing-it-yourself, and thinking for yourself. I believe that if anything has stayed the same since the launch of this magazine, that those ethos have stayed true.
Going back to my personal growth, I once was this very angry, assertive person, someone who thought she was empathetic and open-minded, but found herself to be the opposite. I wasn't good at not building up a wall between me and everyone else, even between me and the people that I love. I do things myself, I think for myself, but sometimes, I need help from my friends, and that help I rarely reach out for, and if I do get help, I don't easily accept it. I only listened to myself, and thought I was always right. This has all shown in my writing here, and in the past months, I've worked hard on changing all of that. I listen to others, I admit that I know nothing, I ask for help and accept it. I try to move with love, peace, and forgiveness. Let trivial matters roll off my shoulders, put myself first, and not dwell on negativity. I definitely still have a long way to go, but one hard fact about the music industry is that it runs on friendship & trust. It runs on networking: on knowing other people and letting them know you. I'm not easy with either, but I'm learning how to be.
I definitely won't get further in this industry like I want to without letting myself open up to people, without trusting others. It's really no way to live, anyway, as no person is an island. Every musician, every band that you like has a team of people behind them (a team of which can sometimes simply be supportive friends & family). Music is about creating community, it is about opening up how you feel for others' enjoyment, to send a message that you're not alone, an expression of the self, and more. Regardless of how you define music, it's meant to be shared and experienced together. Much like this magazine, we all have our own opinions, but the fact that we're sharing them all together makes it a magazine, makes it special. I didn't want to open a music blog for a reason, it didn't feel right being the only one writing about music I liked. I don't enjoy being alone at all.
As I said in my last letter, Wild Honey's still about the "ruminative, not reactive" content. Of moving with only love and not contempt, to not create division unintentionally. I've got some exciting things planned, one that will kick off possibly mid-summer, and another that you'll see at the very end of summer. Both are different from anything we've done before, and I'm quite thrilled about both. I didn't expect anyone to care about this publication, it's like what I said before, I get so in my head and I think I'm an island, that nothing I do could ever be of any importance to anyone else, but that's not how the world works, and it's a lesson I've definitely learned with creating this magazine. This magazine, all I've been through with it, good & bad, has taught me so many lessons on not only music journalism, but about life itself. I've learned and experienced so much, and this is just the start for me. I can't wait to learn and experience so much more...especially touring, touring with a band & interviewing Greta Van Fleet are my two goals with all of this.
Wild Honey has grown so much over the past year, it's hard for me to properly wrap my head around it. I spend so much time thinking about Wild Honey and working on it every single day. I thank everyone who's supported me with Wild Honey. I thank all of the people who let me run with this idea and have stayed to see it become what it is now, have stayed with me as I became the person that I am now, with Wild Honey & me compared to ourselves one year ago. Everyone who helped me, offered me advice, let me interview them or feature them, liked or shared a post, bought merch, sent me their music, every person who has interacted with me and this magazine in some way has all had an affect on me, and so thank you, thank you, thank you.
I wouldn't recognize the person I am now one year ago, nor would I think that this magazine was actually mine. But it is, and like myself, it has a long way to go. The journey with Wild Honey is just beginning, and it's all happening.
Stay loud and stay groovy.
with love,
Cherri Cheetah.
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