We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Honest Lee Soul. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Honest Lee below.

Honest Lee, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

As a band, one of the most common questions we get asked is “what kind of music do you play?” It’s a fair question. As a society we’re used to placing things in categories or boxes to shape our understanding. However, as creatives, we don’t like to limit ourselves as strictly one thing or another. We create freely. That’s not to say that what we create never has clear direction, but for instance, if we want to write a blues song, we’ll write a blues song; if we want to write a funk song, or a rock song, or a ballad, we’ll do that too. We’re not limited to one particular style or genre. We had trouble answering that question early on because we wanted to express the point that we’re not limited. But now when people ask us what type of music we play, we’ll say funk and soul because it is the foundation of our sound, but if they get a chance to hear us, and especially if they experience a show, they can discover for themselves that we’re more than that.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

The band was formed in 2017 by Rahsaan “Wordslave” Eldridge (vocals/percussion) and Cullen DeChant (guitar/vocals). We were both musicians in other groups at the time but met through mutual friends. The initial plan wasn’t necessarily to form a group, but there were a couple one off performances that lead to us exchanging more ideas. We both are constantly writing and we started spinning ideas off one another. Those ideas grew into songs. Those songs grew into a recording project which grew into gigs as a duo. Then we started expanding the sound by adding pieces. We added, bass and drums. Eventually we added keys, additional vocals, and horns when we can get them. We’re always looking for ways to expand our sound, not just by adding pieces to the music, but challenging ourselves musically when it comes to songwriting and performance.

On the business, there’s a lot that goes on that people don’t see. Running a band is running a business. It’s not just showing up on stage and jamming out. There’s a lot of conversation, reading contracts, meetings, establishing and maintaining relationships. and problem solving that goes into getting a cohesive unit to the stage, or having recorded music to present to people, and merch at the shows. There’s a lot of coordination that happens to make it all work. It takes a team of trustworthy and reliable individuals to make it all work.

At the end of the day, we love music. We understand how it touches people’s lives because it does that for us. So at each stage of the process, from the formation of an idea, to the forming of a song, to the performances on stage, to the conversations we have with people after the show, we want to honor the craft and the art, and acknowledge the impact it has on all of us. We don’t take that for granted.

Ultimately, we want to continue to grow, artistically, and from a business side. Part of that means challenging the status quo. How can we write a better song? How can we get better paying gigs? What can we do differently with merch or the website (honestleesoul.com)? How do we get more engagement on social media (IG @honestleesoul), etc.? We’re proud of the growth up to this point, and look forward to evolving even further. We hope people see and feel that evolution, and grow with us.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the things we’ve found necessary to unlearn is the idea that everything has to happen “right now”. There’s a sense of urgency in our society. Everything has to be quick. We need it right away, whatever that “it” may be. That approach doesn’t necessarily work in the creative process. We believe things of substance take time and attention to develop. There were times when we operated from a place of scarcity. We felt like we had to take as many gigs as we could get, or every song we started writing had to land on the next project. We had a bit of a “strike while the iron is hot” mentality. If not careful, that approach can lead to burnout, and there were times when we felt our energy on the verge of depletion as a result of that approach. We’ve learned that trusting the process ultimately serves the collective sound and operation of the unit.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The amount of time and energy it takes to maintain a band is often grossly underestimated. Things that non creatives don’t always take into consideration are the hours spent outside of actually being onstage that get put in. There are meetings, contracts, travel time, load in/set up, soundcheck, sell the merch, skake hands and kiss babies, breakdown, load out, writing sessions, rehearsals, developing design concepts for artwork and merch, recording, etc. What hasn’t been mentioned yet is actually playing the gig. Most of these are separate jobs within themselves but until a band reaches a certain level, you are all of these things. All of these things are YOUR responsibility to take care of. And of course things don’t always go smoothly, so there also a level of problem solving and putting out fires to be accounted for as well.

This all comes with the territory, so it’s not a complaint, but an illustration of the fact that this is a job, and sometimes non creatives don’t realize that. In any other job, you expect to be fairly compensated for the time and work you put in. The more education and tenure you have in a particular field, usually the better the compensation. However, for whatever reason, this isn’t a concept that seems to be applied to artists and creatives. Far too often it’s looked at as “hey you’re only playing for an hour so this two hundred bucks should do”, and all of the work that it takes for that hour or two of performing is overlooked.

So for non creatives, be them venue owners, promoters, or supporters, we’d hope that they take all of these things into consideration when booking bands or coming to shows. Pay your artists appropriately. If you’re running a festival, make sure there’s water at the stage for the band, and coverage from the heat or the rain. If you’re a supporter of a band, buy a ticket and bring a friend. If you’re a friend of someone in the band and you plan to come to a show, plan ahead. Go to their website or social media, or call the venue for details, because they can’t always answer the phone, or text you back, particularly on the day of a show. They’re probably putting out a fire, lol!

We’ve been fortunate to build some great relationships with venues and promoters, and we have awesome supporters of our music. We just hope the work that all creatives put in is appropriately recognized and rewarded.

Contact Info:

• Website: honestleesoul.com
• Instagram: @honestleesoul
• Facebook: facebook.com/honestleesoul
• Youtube: Honest Lee Soul
• Other: linktr.ee/honestleesoul

Image Credits
Briscoe Savoy Stefan Heuer Steve Satzberg