KC Soundcheck is KCUR's spotlight for Kansas City musicians on the rise, as heard on Up To Date. Who should we interview next? Send us a text at 816-601-4777.
Makayla Scott has been making music for more than a decade. But these days, tapping into authenticity is key.
"I feel like for a long time, as I was just practicing and learning how to be a songwriter, I felt that I had to fit into a certain mold or a certain box just based on what projects I was working in at the time, or, I don't know, what I really liked at the time," she told KCUR's Up To Date.
With honeybee, the Kansas City band that Scott leads as singer and songwriter, she's let that go. On "saturn return," the group's latest EP that released in March, raw and confessional lyrics sound straight from journal entries.
"The more that I've leaned into just saying what I want to say and feeling what I need to feel, I feel that the better the music has gotten," Scott said.
That sense of honesty extends beyond honeybee's lyrics. Guitarist Michael Schley says it's allowed him, bassist Al Gliesman and drummer Luke Ford to explore it in their own instrumentation.
"The confessional style, you might think if you walk into a rehearsal, it could be very confining, like you don't have a lot of options," Schley said. "But I think we've all felt like we have kind of the freedom to, in a way, have our own confessionals around that, from the colors we choose from the palette."
- Makayla Scott, honeybee
- Michael Schley, honeybee
