☆Q&A: Hondees☆

Hondees on Chaos, Creativity, and Trusting the Process

All photos taken and edited by: Martha Moreno (@piscespov)

Hondees is an artist you need to have on your radar. His music is authentic, immersive, and effortlessly cool—blurring the lines between genre and emotion in a way that feels completely his own. Every track he creates is packed with energy and a DIY spirit that makes his sound feel both nostalgic and brand new at the same time.

Coming out of Aspen Hill, Maryland, Hondees has been crafting his world through music, art, and visuals, all with an uncompromising vision. His 2023 album, Find Peace Do It Twice, introduced listeners to his signature storytelling—unfiltered, deeply personal, and full of chaotic beauty. His latest single, WHEN SIIORA LEFT, continues to prove that he’s an artist who doesn’t just make music—he builds entire experiences.

After our conversation, I got a sneak peek of his upcoming album, and trust me when I say… It's amazing. His sound is evolving in the most exciting way, and it’s only a matter of time before more people catch on. Hondees isn’t just an artist to watch—he’s an artist who’s going to grow, and fast.

We talked about everything—his creative process, his skateboarding roots, the vision behind his music, and what’s next for him. Scroll down for the full interview and get to know Hondees before the rest of the world does!

Ale: To start, could you introduce yourself—your name and where you’re from?

Hondees: I’m Hondees. I’m from Aspen Hill, Maryland. I make music, art, graphic design—whatever comes with that. Everything you’ve seen or heard is just me and my boys making stuff out of Maryland and having fun. It used to be like, “We gotta make it,” and then at some point, we were like, “Fuck it, let’s just make cool shit and see where we end up.”.

Ale: How has your background influenced your music?

Hondees: I got a big background in skateboarding. That culture is in everything I do—my music, visuals, the way I look at the world. Back when I was like 12, 13, 14, we were just running around, skipping school, jumping on trains, doing bad shit. That attitude is still in me. You can hear it in the music, see it in the visuals. It’s chaos, but I like trying to make something out of it.

I’m also Salvadoran, so growing up, I was this little Latino kid skating with all these crazy-ass white kids. A lot of my homies were Latino too, but when I look back, it’s just wild to think about.

Ale: That sounds like a fun upbringing!

Hondees: Yeah, it was crazy dude. I got my first camera when I was like 11, so my whole teen years are filmed. Me and my friends skating, talking shit, prank calling people, whatever. I have a secret YouTube channel with all of it. 

Ale: Do you play any instruments?

Hondees: Nah, I don’t play shit. I just got a good ear. I didn’t go to school for music, I don’t know theory, none of that. I just feel it out. My homies play guitar, and I manipulate the sounds. The song you like? That’s just me tweaking it. Everything after that is live guitars from my best friends Drew and Ron.

Ale: Your album title, Find Peace Do It Twice, what does it mean to you?

Hondees: I don’t really think that far with my titles. Find Peace Do It Twice was just a mantra I had for myself. It wasn’t some big concept, just something I’d tell myself—like, “When you think you’ve found peace, keep trying to find it again.”.

I remember watching this Apple Music documentary on Skepta when he was about to win the Mercury Prize and perform at Wembley. They asked him what Konnichiwa meant to him, and he said it was an album he’d always go back to. I feel the same way about Find Peace Do It Twice. It’s just something I’ll always return to.

I had that phrase sitting in my notes for a long time, and when I made all these songs in the winter before the album dropped, I didn’t have a name. But when it came time to put everything together, that just felt right. The album isn’t some deep, structured theme—it’s just a collection of songs. There are tracks about my parents, breakups—I love writing about love and heartbreak. A lot of my music revolves around that, but I never try to force a concept. I just make music and have fun.

Ale: I love that. So you’re not a theme person, like you go with whatever feels right.

Hondees: Yeah I’ve never been a theme guy when it comes to albums. Maybe I should be, I don’t know. I just love giving things random names. Like, for my next album, one of the songs is called Sweet Potato—just ‘cause. And it’s a sick song, too. But that’s how I like to do things. The deeper I get into this, the more I realize that when you first start out, you want everything to be perfect.

But at some point, you’re just like, bruh, none of this matters—just be yourself and drop music. That’s where I’m at now. I just wrapped up my second album, and I’d tell you the name, but I literally woke up today unsure about it. I wanted to call it something random—like Silly or something dumb. But I’m already working on the next one after that, and that one’s called Flickr, and it’s sick so far. At the end of the day, that’s all I wanna do—just drop albums, drop videos, drop merch, pop-ups, all of it. I just want to keep putting stuff out into the world.

Ale: Your latest single, WHEN SIIORA LEFT, sounds personal. What’s the story behind that one?

Hondees: SiiOra ain’t even real. I made her up. I just wanted to appreciate somebody in a song, so I created that feeling. But yeah, a lot of my music is inspired by real life—relationships, friendships, shit I’ve been through. Sometimes I take different experiences and mix them into one song. Like, verse one might be about a girl I used to see, and verse two might be about a homie I lost in sixth grade. It’s all a timeline in my head.

Ale: How do you approach storytelling in your music?

Hondees: Sometimes it’s about me, sometimes it’s about my homies, and sometimes it’s just a made-up story. I just wanna create a soundtrack to emotions. Frank Ocean talked about that, and it stuck with me. The Beach Boys too—the way they wrote was crazy.

Ale: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Hondees: El Mal Querer by Rosalía changed a lot for me. Konnichiwa by Skepta was the blueprint for my production. Dean Blunt, Jai Paul, James Blake, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd. Logic’s Under Pressure too—that one was crazy, especially ‘cause his producer 6ix is from here.

Ale: If someone’s never heard your music, what song should they listen to first?

Hondees: Dearly Departed. It’s the one song on Find Peace Do It Twice that I didn’t even try on, and somehow it’s the most played.

Ale: That’s always how it goes. So what’s next for you?

Hondees: I’m working on two albums right now. The first one’s done, but I’m debating if 13 songs is too long. Gonna drop another single soon with a video, then another one, then do a pop-up to sell some merch. I gotta do a show too. Probably gonna drop two albums this year just to say I did. But we’ll see.

Ale: You mentioned “The Hondees Universe” before—if you had to describe it, what would it look like?

Hondees: Bro, I don’t even know yet. It’s just a bunch of cool shit. Anything I think is sick, I wanna bring into it—merch, music, visuals, all of it. I like silver teeth, I like weird design choices, I like shit that feels like it belongs in a museum but also in a skate shop. It’s all just building up on its own. One day, it’s gonna be a real thing, and people will be like, oh, so that’s what he meant.

Ale: You said you wanna start a clothing line someday too—what kind of stuff would you make?

Hondees: Yeah, way down the line. I’m not tryna just slap my name on a hoodie. I wanna make stuff that actually feels like clothing, you know? I want it to be its own thing, not just merch.

Ale: Do you design your own merch?

Hondees: Yeah, all of it. I just be on Illustrator messing around, making shit I’d wear. One shirt just says, I Love Hondees Lately ‘cause I think it’s funny. Another one says I Listen to Hondees in this cursive font. It’s all just jokes, but I care about it too.

Ale: I feel like when you talk, I’m seeing you visualize everything you’re telling me in your head. Is that how you process stuff?

Hondees: Yeah, exactly. When I was in therapy, my therapist was like, why don’t you ever look at me when you talk? And I was like, bruh, I gotta zoom out and think. Like I see things play out like a movie in my head.

Ale: My therapist told me the same thing [laughs]. Okay now for some quick get-to-know-me questions, is there a skill or hobby you’ve always wanted to learn?

Hondees: Photography, rock climbing, and camping. I wanna know how to survive in the wilderness, start a fire, all that.

Ale: What’s your go-to comfort food?

Hondees: Pupusas or Jollibee’s. That chicken sandwich? Life-changing.

Ale: If you could open for any artist, who would it be?

Hondees: Skepta. It doesn’t even make sense, but that’s my answer.

Ale: Favorite album of all time?

Hondees: Konnichiwa by Skepta. That one changed everything for me.

Ale: Dream collab?

Hondees: Banksy. I’d want him to do cover art or something crazy.

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Follow Hondees (@Hondees) on Instagram to keep up with his releases, check out his latest music video for the amazing track, "When Siiora Left", and listen to his recent single, "SWEET POTATO" here!

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Article by: Alejandra Moreno (@alejandrmor)

Featuring: Hondees (@Hondees)

Photos taken and edited by: Martha Moreno (@piscespov)