We were lucky to catch up with John Hohnhorst recently and have shared our conversation below.
John, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
Overall, I am truly so unbelievably honored, blessed, and privileged to be able to wake up and pursue my wild dreams. I actually have had this conversation a few times with many different walks of life. Those who haven’t found their passions, those who have, and all those between. Though yes, this path can be really challenging sometimes, I really am happy to be able to struggle for this when I have to and fall deeper in love with the process along the way. The happiness I feel when achieving my goals, and achieving things I didn’t even know was possible, is unmatchable. I do sometimes ponder and discuss the beauty and magic of finding this path. If I didn’t get hurt playing college football, would I have ever went to my first electronic concert? If I didn’t find my love for music production, would I have ended up in Colorado? If I didn’t choose this path, I wouldn’t even be answering this question right now! That is truly the beauty of this life to me. This choice to continue this path of uncertainty and chance is a rollercoaster but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Now, do I have flare ups of doubt and imposter syndrome? Of course. It can get a hold of me sometimes but I always remind myself, “you dreamt of being where you are right now. Why would you stop now?”
John, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is John Hohnhorst but my project is called Black Wolf Sound. I come from Twin Falls, Idaho with a rather simple upbringing but many hard lessons through out it. These struggles lead me to pursue a degree in Psychology as I am truly captivated by human development and just this wild thing we call the human experience. As I was in school, I played college football but that lead to many injuries, as I am really not the biggest person. Which then lead to me branching out and finding new passions and hobbies as this was my identity for so long. This took me to my first electronic show, which I will admit I was skeptical. Safe to say, I feel deeply in love. The first time I sat down to produce, it was 10am. When I finally floated back down to reality, we were approaching 10pm that night. I knew I had found what I am meant to do for the rest of my life. This was about 6 years ago now and ever since then I have been diving farther into writing lyrics to rap/sing, guitar, and piano. All these combined through the years have developed into something I like to call Cinematic, Hip Hop, Bass music. I think this is something that sets me a part fro everyone else. I really enjoy tracks that can help people contemplate and feel. I also am very vulnerable with my lyricism and very intentional with my sound design to hopefully inspire others to dive deeper into their journey. My music is a reflection of my experience. Some of my inspirations through the years have been Flume, Hans Zimmer, Inzo, Amon Tobin, FKJ, Mac Miller, Kendrick Lamar, Chopin, and Clozee. Something I am very proud of accomplishment wise is the now annual trip/festival, Panamanium, that I am helping make happen In Bocas Del Toro, Panama with my good friends/ownesr Jason Fish and Galan. I don’t know how else to describe it but truly magical and genuinely unique. The third weekend of October we will be returning back to the beautiful Aqua Lounge for our second annual year. The smiles and journey that happened provoked so much happiness inside me and I can not wait to see what we do this year. Feel fee to reach out if you’d like to join this year as we will have limited space to keep this festival unique and intimate. I am also just truly proud of the community we are building in what we call the Wolf Den. I am so blessed for the people around me that believe in me, push me, and keep this mission alive! Huge shout out to the Wolf Pack! I love you with all my heart!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, it is the process of finding the creation of a song, putting it together, and seeing it reach people. It is truly such a gift to be a vessel of creation. It is something that is hard to put into words but it’s something we all experience when we hear that song that just does it for us. Being able to be that person for someone is truly a feeling that is unmatchable. Being able to connect through sound with another human on a spiritual level is magic. The creation is magic. I feel like I get to wake up and play with magic a lot of the time. Of course, you get your writers block and the magic feels fleeting but that separation just makes it even more magical when you get to exist in it. I guess the most rewarding part is getting to experience the magic of sound, expression, creation, and connection.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
From the very beginning of finding this passion for music, I have had a vision to create movies, go on tour, and perform the movie scores live. One of my first art dreams was to make movies. I actually probably would have been a movie maker if I followed a different path. I really want to combine these two dreams and travel the world to tell my story, others stories, and any stories I can to bring awareness to mental health and other topics I feel need to be discussed. Getting to have a full visual story behind me while I perform these movie like tracks, is the ultimate vision and I will not stop until I have done so. I am actually creating my first 3 track EP that will have a story based flow from track to track. A sort. of mini movie to show what I can do and would like to develop. So in a way, I am getting close to my goal/dreams coming true! I am hoping this project will help me take a step farther up to find the resources to make this happen. No matter what happens with this one, I am just super excited to make something I can be proud of for myself.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/black_wolf_sound?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackwolfsound23
- Twitter: https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FBWSound23&token=bdf4b9-1-1690310448533
- Other: https://www.flowcode.com/page/blackwolfsound?fbclid=PAAaZL1ftZs7lWOP9_Bj7NDBUZ0lCLL1u0cdhMN3f_d8FGSNZv7RFIBn1EYTM_aem_AaxPALWEewZL-wgrTudvgXeadPk9jSJnsg8oXHPY39qcZ6oTPZSjJGD-ANut2Z9MOu4
Image Credits
Casey Raser Aj Hawkins