Insight Interview: Honeyruin

We caught up recently with Irish future garage producer Honeyruin to get his take on life and music. Check out what he had to say…

Tell us about yourself in a few words (who you are, where you’re from, what you do etc.).

My name is Andy, I come from Belfast Northern Ireland and I work as a mental health care assistant full time, I’m a part time depressive lol.

Can you describe your music for us.

I like to think my music has a different mood every time I release something, I’ve released 2 LP’s through Lush Music, who have been incredible with me (special shout to Brent Smith) he has always supported my visions of direction changes, when I made “Echo Mist” I made tracks in mind with where I was as a person, personal difficulties, feeling like I was tearing away from a secure fabric, when I made the Ashes EP and Kolopsia I was trying to really branch out, trying different things, experimenting with synths and chord progression, slightly moving away from future garage but still trying to keep those vibes within the realms of the listeners perspective.

With the new album coming out I feel that I’ve reverted back to my old style of music, wonky, emotive pads, broken beats, cryptic vocals, there’s one track on the new album that absolutely does not fit at all with the entire album, but that’s the point, kind of proving something to myself.

Any new music coming our way soon?

I have full LP coming out on The Games We Play at the end of July (all being well) it’s rather long, I think at this point I’m edging over 1 hour 30 mins so almost a double LP if you will.

Do you try and express something tangible through your music? A particular mood or feeling perhaps?

I love story telling in music, I’m absolutely addicted to it, every LP or EP has a real serious story behind it, one narrative bleeds into another and another and on and on, a perfect example for me is the downward spiral by Nine Inch Nails, it’s heavy, raw, something unrelated to the music I make but it’s the music I love to listen to, and that narrative is of a man who loses self control, who just fucks himself and it ends with suicide, to be so in tune with those personal feelings is an art form and a personal experience or rather different experience for each listener, again going to NIN, the last 3 EP’s narrate the state of America through the eyes of a disenfranchised individual who is trying to find his or her place in the world.

I’m always going to have a morbid undertone in my tunes, I’m morbid by nature and possibly by choice, I feel the best tracks come from heartache rather than happiness. If people want upbeat tunes, turn on the radio and listen to some main stations and fill yourself with those good vibes, if people are looking for those dark moments, those serious nights of being alone then in a very weird way I would hope my music can provide that feeling of understanding and slight glimmers of hope, but if it doesn’t work the way you want it to then it’s ok to feel that way too.

Do you think your music conveys who you are as a person? Does it capture your essence or your personality in some sense?

Absolutely, I’m a very strong believer in the way that if you produce music, you should have your heart and soul in everything, I don’t mean to take away from producers that make tunes to dance, sing, have fun or fuck to, just personally I enjoy making music that you might listen to after a heavy night, or after a break up or when you’re feeling down. I think the initial response to my tunes are very heavy, laden with bass and reverb and melancholy, but I love chopping vocals, making a story from different tracks and turning negatives to positives or positives to negatives. I don’t think people listen to vocals enough, it can alter perceptions so easily once you know the artist’s interpretation but If you make music then in my opinion, you want the listener to draw their own PERSONAL conclusion.

Has your music evolved, do you think? Do you have any musical goals?

Yes and no, I don’t know how many other artists in my genre are willing to admit but I’m still drawn by Burial and his use of crackles and ambience etc. I guess it comes from maturity where I’ll find my own little nook of paradise and people will enjoy music for what it is.

In my own opinion if I go on Reddit for example and people complain that a track sounds similar to Burial, the majority are so quick to dismiss it, regardless if the track sounds good or not, at the end of the day, most FG artists evolved from Burial, some like myself still cling to that old school sound he imitated, but who gives a shit y’know? If a song touches your heart in the right places then fuck what other people think.

Is there a particular track of yours which you are especially proud of?

I’m quite hard on myself, I always post stuff and then think maybe I posted too many tracks or I rushed this and that, but I’m most proud of faith/fate/destiny, and the Angel EP, you can’t understand how many times I rearranged each track to make it to a standard I could be comfortable with lol.

Can you imagine your life without music? If music were taken away, what would you have lost?

Not at all. Music is the essence of life, my life and soul, I’m addicted to sound, my whole entire life is bonded to music and has a bind that will never fade. Think of every single emotion that has ever existed, and I could straight up give you a song and a reason why it fits. Everyone thinks the only thing in life that’s inevitable is death and taxes, we’ll try music and feelings, and if you don’t like music then you are already dead.

What does future garage mean to you?

Future garage is just subculture man, we are the absolute in-between hard and soft. tracks for going
Out, tracks for going home, staying in, or being happy, being alone, being in love or being upset. Future garage is the genre for not knowing what you want or feel, and I fucking love that.

Thinking about other people’s music – is there a particular musician whose music resonates with you (maybe someone you’d describe as an ‘influence’)? How does that person’s music make you feel?

I might be biased here but Owsey has been. Huge inspiration to me, he is so well educated with music production, and I genuinely enjoy his music, we grew up together and unfortunately have endured the same hardships, but he is so consistent with his output and emotion and he’s just for a lack of a better term fucking awesome.

Is there a particular doctrine or philosophy you try to live by? Something that comforts you when you feel down, perhaps?

Theres a person very close to me that said something that’s always stuck with me which is “I can’t give you what you want.”

It stuck with me because I knew she was wrong, I knew that if I fought hard enough and went the distance then I could capture what I’ve been after my whole life, happiness and love. I’ve still got a way to go, but it changed my perspective on life because now I know that if you can persevere no matter what the situation, love will always see you through.

If you could say one thing to the people reading this, what would it be?

Going against most of the mainstream I would say this:

It’s ok to feel sad, it’s ok to feel upset, and lost and hopeless and desolate, tired, confused and just fucked, the thing is, no matter how endless the hurt or sadness feels, you need to remember that you are human enough to have these feelings, and if you have such negative connotations about yourself, or life, or whatever situation you find yourself in, then at one point you were positive enough to let it turn sour. And you have to hang on to that.

You are all worth so much, each and every person has so much to give, you all could bring so much love and happiness to many people in your lives if you just embrace it. Let me tell you all, it’s easier said than done, if any of you get to the point where you think suicide is the only option then just think about this for a minute:

Take 10 minutes and just think, sit and think about your mom, your dad, friends, girlfriend, boyfriend, brothers and sisters.

I can’t fucking stress enough how much you mean to every person you’ve met, there is no situation worth taking yourself out of the equation for.

Fuck the bullies and the name calling.

Fuck the racists and their hate speech.

Fuck abuse, fuck hits and kicks and emotional abuse and everything in between, and if you’ve read this far then you already know that your imprint in this life has made more lives better than you will ever know, just because of who the fuck you are.

I love you even when you think no one else does, fuckin throw me a message on Facebook if you’re too tired to go on, we can embrace it together because trust me, I won’t ever forget where I come from.

I love all of you, fans, non fans of just people reading this to pass time. Suicide is not a way out, because you don’t even know what you leave behind.

I genuinely love you all.

Thanks so much Andy!

Thank you too.

Honeyruin’s new album will be out later this month on The Games We Play.