TRACK-BY-TRACK: HONESTAV TAKE US THROUGH 'SWEET AMERICAN BOY'

Sweet American Boy is out now!

Image: Austin Simkins “Salty”.

Viral alternative singer-songwriter, honestav has unveiled his sophomore album, Sweet American Boy. To celebrate the release, he's taking us through the collection of songs track-by-track...

Having hit our shores earlier this year with mgk on his Lost Americana Tour, honestav will return to Australia next year for a string of headline shows as part of his Sweet American Boy Tour. Kicking off in Perth on January 16, the run of shows will continue on to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, before travelling to Auckland, New Zealand. Tickets are on sale now.

JACOB’S SONG

Jacob's Song is the first song on my album - a kind of rendition of Adam's Song from Blink 182. I love Jacob's Song, it might be my favorite. It’s about growing up in a broken and violent home, and relying and leaning on your family and your cousins to make you feel normal, and leaning on music to make you feel like everything's okay. This was my version of growing up in a split home when I was a kid. My mom was addicted to drugs and whenever my dad would have a hard time kind of controlling it all, we would go to my aunt's house. My cousin Jacob is the youngest boy at my aunt Casey's house. He’s the guy that we were always looking out for; our little bro. 

The second verse is about my dad kind of just leaving me in this spot, feeling like I'm just scratching and kicking and clawing to get out of this hole. We went through my brother killing himself together, and so it felt like we were in that hole together. And then he decided to kind of clock out and do what he did and die himself. So I just felt like, how the fuck could you leave me here crashing on my own? Whenever I'm at my lowest, my friends and my girlfriend and my family are all like at the sword, I'm leaning on them, and I'm calling them. I know a lot of the time when you're leaning on somebody so heavily it kind of feels like a burden. Jacob’s Song is my take on family struggle and suicide, and just kind of being left here by yourself to figure it out and pick up all the pieces. 

CRASH FIRST

Crash First wasn't a record that we sat down and said, “oh, we want it to sound like this”. It was just a real-life human experience between Kells (mgk) and I. I'm a kid coming from Missouri, 800 people in my hometown. I'm walking into this A-list celebrity's mansion, and we wrote that song sitting on the floor, crying together. When the beat switches we were having a real-life moment together, talking about things that really affect us as humans. We were tired of feeling like that, and so instead of just making another song that was hype we thought why don't we just live in this moment of this experience we're having together and just do a beat switch and just start feeling better. And that's exactly how the record went. Crash First is the only record that I've ever made where it was just pure emotion the whole time.. I mean, you can hear it.

CAN’T LET GO

Can't Let Go is basically a track that I made about being in a toxic relationship. It’s about loving and not wanting to let go of your partner, even though you know that the things you guys are doing to each other might not be beneficial for the both of you. This is one of those records on the album where I was really straightforward with the lyrics, and I just said it exactly how I feel it - “I can't let go of you, even though I want to”. When you love somebody, it's hard to see the harm that you might be doing to somebody, or maybe that they're doing to you. It's easy to overlook the bad things that are happening because of your love for that person. 

EREWHON

Erewhon is an easy one to explain. I was in LA working, I was in the studio working on the album, and my friend Hayden lives in LA, and he had hit me up, and he's like, "Hey, bro, my friend's got a studio downstairs, and they're having this big party upstairs. Come through the studio, work down here, and just bump elbows with people.” I basically spent the whole night in the studio downstairs but as I was leaving I walked through the house and just said hi and quickly realised - I don't fit in here, I don't belong here, and I don't want to be the guy that feels really cool, because I'm here. So I just went home two days later. 

I was going through, like, I don't want to say writer's block, but I was really kind of struggling to express myself. We started building that Erewhon beat and it tells its own story. I felt like I was out of place, you know, while I was at that spot, and I also called it Erewhon, because Erewhon is a store only in LA. They sell like $30 smoothies or something. It's where all rich people go to feel like they're all cool. The food is really good, though. I'm not hating. I named it Erewhon because of the LA scene. Everybody thinking whatever they're doing is like the cool thing to do, and they belong, and you don't. 

COBAIN

Cobain is basically a song that I made about struggling between being a regular human being and being on the road doing drugs, or just hanging out late. It shows the dichotomy of coming up and becoming this person that you always wanted to be, and then becoming a rock star like you've always dreamed of being and explaining the other side of that, the human being side, the side that you don't see. I made Cobain about struggling to let the party in and being by myself in my room, continuing to party by myself whenever the party's already over and everybody went home. You see somebody being a rock star, and you think, “oh, that's a rock star”, but you never think about the actual addiction or the trouble that's causing them, or grief they're feeling the next day about staying out all night. My whole life I’ve been obsessed with Kurt Cobain. I always thought it was so strange that he was miserable even though he was fulfilling his dreams. He had an addiction to drugs, he had a toxic relationship, and these are the things you never think of. 

BELIEVE

Believe was a record that I made with Take A Day Trip, some of my friends. It’s about being in a relationship, and finally feeling like maybe I am worth something, maybe I can do it right, because of the love of this person.

WASTED

Basically, I basically wrote Wasted about just having a relationship in your life, not boyfriend, girlfriend necessarily. But any relationship in your life where you feel like, dang, I'm doing a lot more for you than you're doing for me. And I don't hate you, I love you, but you know, all signs are pointing towards maybe I should hate you. 

HOW I GOT MY NAME

When I wrote How I Got My Name, I was fresh into the industry. I was kind of just getting my feet wet, and I felt like everybody was trying to push me to be a certain artist or to sound a certain way. It's kind of a mockery song of like, okay, if that's what you think I am, that's what I am. But at the same time I'm being honest in the song and I'm being real, and that's how I got my name. 

STORM IN THIS HOUSE

Storm In This House was a record I wrote about growing up with an alcoholic parent and how that affects you as a kid in that house. It’s about how that affected me as a man, and how I adapted some of those bad habits that my dad had too, and yeah, man, it's just basically about alcoholism and how alcohol just tears up families.

KNOW BETTER

Know Better is one of the more important records to me on the album. A lot of people, the  first song they heard of mine is ‘I'd Rather Overdose’, and when I was going through the things I was going through, when I wrote ‘I'd Rather Overdose’ I actually wrote the hook of ‘Know Better’. It's a song that almost went on my first album, hara-kiri but it just didn't make the cut. The verses at the time, they didn't mean as much as they do to me now. But it's just a timeless thing, you know. It’s about struggling to see your worth, people saying that they love you and that they got you, and then you're in your lowest moment, and you're not feeling that love. It’s about self-struggle. The second verse goes, “too insecure, too overwhelmed, to get the best out of myself, too many drinks, two empty beds, too many thoughts weighing on my chest, and the music helps, but it ain't the best, and I done seen too many deaths, too many bills all on my desk. This is a fake life on the internet”. That verse, especially, I think that's my favorite verse on the album. It just encapsules how I feel, man. It's like this, this moment is happening, and I'm insecure, and I'm overwhelmed. There's no other way to say it, and I repeat that over and over again in the record, and it means a lot to me, dude.

FKN HATE YOU

I co-wrote FKN Hate You with JaYy Wick in the studio. For me it's where I'm talking about myself in that record, like all the things that I'm struggling with. “I hate you, I can't change you, no matter what I do, I still can't save you”. I'm talking about myself. I don't know what JaYy Wick was thinking, I think maybe he was talking about a woman, but that was just kind of like a battle of self-worth. 

LOW LIFE

I wrote Low Life about feeling like my own insecurities and my own problems are just unsavable, and that they’re dragging everybody else down, and there's nothing anybody could do to save what's going on in my head. “I don't think your love can save me on a low life”, kind of explains itself, right? I mean, whenever you're struggling with things personally, a lot of the time people want to help you, or they want to say things. And it’s like, this is a personal thing, there's nothing you can say or do that will change what's going on in my head, you know. 

FADE INTO YOU

Fade Into You is about having an attachment to somebody. For me, it’s my girlfriend. Like, you don't want to leave, and you want to be around them all the time, and the personal battle of that. It's basically me just being like, I don't want to leave you while I'm here, and I don't know if you could save me. I don't know if this is good, I don't know if this is bad, but I don't want to go. I don't want to leave. I want to fade into you. 

BAD GUY

Bad Guy is basically a record about growing up as a heathen. Growing up the kid that accidentally breaks the plate, you know what I'm saying, the kid that's getting in trouble, the man that's getting in trouble. It's kind of a realisation that if that's what you think I am, then that's what I am. 

NEED CHANGE SOON

Need Change Soon is one of those therapy songs where I'm writing that for myself because I'm going through things. I’m going through addiction and struggle, and this new lifestyle, and this new job. It's basically about how nothing good comes out of living like that - living in addiction or living in struggle or hiding your feelings. And I think a lot of the time it's easier for me to stay inside in my bed and stay in the house, and that's what the whole record's about. It’s a really important one to me. 

ROLLING STONE

I wrote Rolling Stone about missing my girlfriend and living on the road, and feeling like my lifestyle isn't healthy for her. 

Sweet American Boy is out now.