Wild Honey, at the most basic level, is a rock magazine.
Hello!
As I said in my last letter, we've gone through a rebranding. We're Wild Honey Magazine now and have a bright, 70s aesthetic. I'm quite proud of it.
I've moved to Colorado from New York early April, so I'm running things two hours behind than usual. It's been nice here. The thing about Colorado, it's a lot of open sky, and as a New Yorker, everyone's noticeably friendlier, so both of that is very nice...Though I will miss New York wherever I go. I've been reading a lot & writing even more, and trying to take each day slow, trying to not take any moment, thing, or person for granted.
Another new addition to the magazine - our Instagram feed posts have a slightly new format, something that focuses more on the topic of the post and less what the writer themselves says...so you'd simply have to go to our website if you're interested in it.
About writing...I've added "ruminative, not reactive," to our social media bios. I got "ruminative" from the introduction of The Essential Ellen Willis, a collection of her work. Ellen Willis was a writer — a political essayist, a journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. She wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine, for which she is famously known for her essay on Bob Dylan, and right before that in 1967, she had a rock magazine named Cheetah that only lasted for one year. I read the collection a few weeks ago. She's an extraordinary writer, very vibrantly, intelligently, and passionately spoken.
"Ruminative" means, by definition, "expressing or involving deep thought." That's always been one of my intentions with Wild Honey, but I believe it hasn't come across as very obvious. I feel as though every month I am trying to explain what Wild Honey is and it's intentions, and it shouldn't need such explanations, especially when next month is the 1st anniversary of it, it should all be established by now. Wild Honey, at the most basic level, is a rock magazine. I got into music journalism because I was inspired by the film Almost Famous, the fictional-but-biographical story of Cameron Crowe's start of becoming a renowned writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, and the inspiration I get from that film paints all over everything Wild Honey has ever been.
But — we're not your typical rock magazine and I'll explain why that is so, but first I need to tell you a bit about how I came to that conclusion.
In the past three months, I've been trying to change myself, trying to grow as a person, as a young person in this world, especially in the one of music journalism. I don't believe I've been the best kind of person, and I know that because I've had many long talks with close friends and with acquaintances. I have been looking at myself in retrospect, and have been reading a copious amount of self-improvement/self-help/wisdom books. I came to the conclusion that I've been very blind to the person I was. I believed too much in who I thought I was, in who I expressed to others, but I wasn't the most self-aware of the person I expressed outwardly...and it didn't match up to what I believed in, didn't match up to what was inside me.
I'd gone against myself and the people around me, gone against what I loved, what I believe in, what I put into this magazine. I believed myself to be a person who was warm, kind, giving, open-minded, selfless, and empathetic, but I wasn't. Or, at least, I did not have those traits at the level I thought myself to have. I found myself to be cold, mean, arrogant, not very giving, close-minded, selfish, and angry. I found myself to be a person who built walls between herself and the entire world, even between who and what she loved.
And none of that was okay with me.
A friend from BANDEDPR's team, one that I'm also apart of, said something that really resonated with me - "No man (woman, non-binary person, etc) is an island. We do not go through life alone. We simply can’t. The human experience is one that is meant to be shared. This includes the love and the pain and the heart aches and everything that comes with being a human being that perceives existence," and she's right. It can apply to life, all aspects of it, such as music. Music is meant to be shared, I love rock music so much and I am not the only one who does. That's why I made this magazine, and that's why, a few years ago when I was 17, I decided what I would do with my life would be to work in radio — "supporting artists, helping out, keeping the music alive," an ethos I thought I had put into this magazine, but unfortunately earlier this year I ended up losing it a bit, along with myself.
I've made progress on changing my personality, have changed my perception of life and of other people, have made progress on fixing my flaws and failings, and on treating everyone better, including myself. I have listened to others words, really listened, and put their advice & opinions into action after careful consideration. Essentially, I've begun to try to bring peace to myself and to this magazine. I want the pieces on here to be ruminative, not reactive, not causing any kind of controversy or hurt at all, in ourselves (the writers) or other people (the readers). I want the pieces to dig & think deeper, to read as unique, personal, special pieces of music journalism, but not ones that incite anger in any reader. We, as singular human beings, can't control others emotions, only the self can control one's emotions, but, we can very well be conscious of how our emotions, our words, and our actions might make others feel. We have an unspoken duty to treat everyone with respect and kindness.
I believe that because music is meant to be shared, and therefore, we all exist in a community with each other, regardless of genre, regardless of any label. The last thing I want to do is inadvertently cause more division, especially in these current heavily polarized times. We are all connected, everything is, sentient beings or not, and no person is an island, especially not me. When I write on Wild Honey, about anything at all, there's a bigger picture I have to keep in mind, there's love which I owe to myself and everyone else to express, rather than disdain over trivial matters.
That's what Wild Honey is - a rock magazine with ruminative, not reactive, reviews, playlists, interviews, and more. A place of peace and unity, not anger and division. I can't go back and change how I or this magazine was in its brief past, but I can do better in the present moment and in the future that will follow this moment.
So, we're not your typical rock magazine. We don't simply publish press releases word for word, and we don't intend to post negative pieces. We do what we do out of passion and genuine love. Wild Honey is an outlet for anyone to write about the rock music they're passionate about, and that's it. We're all with the band and loving every second of it.
Lastly, I read Ben Fong-Torres' book, Not Fade Away a few weeks ago. It's a brief collection of his work in music journalism. Ben Fong-Torres is a rock journalist, author, and broadcaster, best known for his work with Rolling Stone Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. He was a writer and editor for Rolling Stone Magazine from the very early beginnings of the publication. The introduction to the book is a letter from friend and coworker at Rolling Stone Magazine, Cameron Crowe. At the very end of the letter, he recites a bit of advice Ben Fong-Torres gave him when he was just starting out in music journalism, and it's honestly some of the best advice I've heard. It changed how I viewed music journalism, and I only wish someone would have said the same words to me last year when I first got into it, so I'm going to repeat Ben's words and pass them to all of you. I hope it will land on the right ears, and I'm sure Ben and Cameron wouldn't mind it: "Be informative, but also be personal. Write as if you were writing a letter to a friend."
Here's my top ten favorite tracks from April, not in any specific order, like always:
1) Long Enough - Zach Person
2) FAMILY VAN - cleopatrick
3) Built By Nations - Greta Van Fleet
4) The Wire - Dirty Honey
5) Wake Up - LOBSTERBOMB
6) Lavatory Li - Paul McCartney, Josh Homme
7) Mermaid - Lizzie and The Makers
8) Crawling Kingsnake - The Black Keys
9) Cut & Run - Lifehouse
10) hollow - deepsix
Stay safe and stay loud.
with love,
Cherri Cheetah.
p.s. We have merch now for Wild Honey Magazine - a sticker, a t-shirt, and a mug, you can purchase it here. ♡
Comments