Artist Spotlight

Honk Magazine Exclusive Interview With NatStar

The music scene has been in existence for a very long time. It started in the form of a different style and has evolved. There is a wide range of music in this generation and each comes with its own diverse style. Demand might be referred to as the driving force for these styles but this could not be completely true. Personalities behind these sounds, who have motives to impact lives through dishing out their songs, cannot be left behind in this credit. A bright one among the personalities is NatStar. Who is NatStar? Sounds unfamiliar? How does he intend to make an impact with music? Read more to find out about the rare and talented musician.

Let’s start off by introducing yourself, you know the basics like name, age, and where you’re from. As much or little as you’re comfortable sharing.

I’m NatStar, a hip-hop artist currently in LA but originally from Winston-Salem, NC

Talk me through your creative process.

I usually get the beats I like together and try to create a musical flow with what I like. Then I’ll pick the first one I wanna start with and go from there. As I’m writing and recording I’m also laying sounds down on top of the beat. Once it’s completed I mix and master it and it’s done.

How do you solve productivity/scheduling problems and reduce overwhelming situations?

I’m still working on that myself TBH lol!

What’s the best advice you ever received concerning music?

Do what feels natural to you. Be as creative as you feel.

What is still your biggest challenge?

Discipline. Focus. It’s my everyday challenge to improve

What would you have done differently if you knew then what you know now?

I would’ve been way more focused on my craft earlier and would’ve dedicated my life on it

If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?

Drake or Ty Dolla Sign

What are you focusing your time on now?

Music. That’s it

How do you currently feel about the state of Hip-hop in general?

It’s continuing to peak year after year. It’s on top

What keeps you going when things get tough in the music industry?

My love for music. I do this because I love it not for the money. So when shit gets tough I just go back to why I do it in the first place.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram, Twitter, Youtube all: natsocold

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Artist Spotlight

“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama

Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.

This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.

“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.

Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.

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Artist Spotlight

“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival

“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.

“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.

Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.

“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.

Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina

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