NH Honeyfitz is a one man indie-pop outfit based out of Hadley, MA, a good two hours west of Boston. The area has a better music scene than you might imagine thanks to its close proximity to several colleges in neighboring Amherst, MA. Honeyfitz cut their teeth in the DIY scene playing in a number of different types of bands before having a coming to Jesus moment on tour with a screamo band where he and the members of the band were jockeying over aux cord supremacy. Where the screamo boys were bent on playing heavy music in between legs of the tour Honeyfitz was transfixed on Kacey Musgraves new album, and realized that the sounds he wanted to listen to were really the ones he also wanted to create. This lead him to shift his efforts from indie rock to more pop-centric music.
Honeyfitz’s delivery can be considered rap in the same way that a Lil Peep or a Bladee get looped into the genre, but while the drum machine beats and autotuned vocals are present he clearly takes more influence from Passion Pit than Eminem. Over these four breezy tracks Honeyfitz reflects on his life in Hadley growing up, with the tape serving as a closing of the chapter that is his childhood as he moves into whatever adulthood is in our modern age. The song titles are all references to places he passed almost every day in his adolescence, with Liquors 44 sharing its name with the liquor store on Northampton Road and Paradise Pond sharing the name with the body of water that Smith College sits on. On Paradise Pond he talks about smoking behind the college when it wasn’t in session and taking a dip in the pond when nobody was there to tell him not to, then reflecting on several other small but ultimately life altering experiences that brought him back to that same body of water. It packs more of an emotional punch than the quiet singing and production might lead you to expect, as the “Kanye at the end of Runaway vocoder screeching” that comes up throughout the track makes more thematic sense once you inspect what he’s actually talking about.
The four tracks make for a very pleasant listen and each would feel at home in any number of Spotify lo-fi pop playlists that seem to be all the rage these days, though Honeyfitz is true to his roots as the tracks still feel like they’d fit perfectly in the context of the DIY scene he came from. While Honeyfitz is a far way sonically from his screamo friends he has as much emotional depth in his songwriting as any scramz band. Like much great pop music these tunes have a cheery exterior with a tender sadness sitting at the core that makes for a light but very rewarding listen. We are excited to see where adulthood brings NH Honeyfitz and for the stories that he’ll continue to tell as he branches out of Hadley.
Check the tape out on Soundcloud and Spotify, and give our man a follow on twitter and insta .Also check out the music video for North Maple below!!
