Amanda Anne Platt has seen some changes in recent years. From new band names, to the presence of more opportunities in the music world and even with the start of her new journey as a mom in September, Platt’s life has been one of steady change. But one thing will always remain the same—her love for music and the human connections that it brings with it. Platt is currently on tour with her band, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, and the group will keep traveling to states in the South before heading out of the country to the United Kingdom. Playing along with Platt are Matt Smith on pedal steel and Stratocaster, Rick Cooper on bass and Evan Martin on keys and Telecaster. Growing up watching her brother play in a band, Platt always wanted to play along and be “one of the boys.” Not only has she achieved that childhood dream, but Platt is now the voice and the front woman of Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters.
Before Amanda Anne Platt and The Honeycutters make their tour stop at Knoxville’s Open Chord on Nov. 16, Platt was able to talk to Open Chord about her stories as a musician from the beginning until now.
“We believe in what we’re doing and we’re excited to be doing it. We’re looking forward to being in Knoxville,” Platt said.
How did music enter your life?
My dad and my brother are both musicians and my mom is a music appreciator, so I heard a lot of music growing up and I don’t know, I guess I became more active in it when I was 18 or 19 and actually learned to play an instrument and that’s when I started writing songs. Growing up, my dad tried to teach me guitar a few times and I wanted to be musical but didn’t really have a way in. And then when I started writing songs, I found sort of my contribution and my way of being musical.
Was there a point after you finally let music in that you decided it was something you wanted to pursue more full time?
Yes and no. I never believed that I could do it full time and then I’ve been doing it full time for 5 years now and was like, “Oh look, I’m actually doing this.” So yeah, I think I certainly wanted to be able to give more time to it and not have to do other things pretty early on, but I just didn’t realize that that was actually an option.
Asheville isn’t always high up on the radar as being a city with a lot of musical opportunities, but it’s quickly growing into a music city. What has it been like living there and what opportunities have come from it?
It’s been great. I moved to Asheville when I was twenty, and I moved here to actually study with a guitar builder and learn how to be a luthier. I was writing songs and performing and kinda when I moved here, I just started meeting people and going to open mics and I started The Honeycutters pretty much right away. It was such a receptive community cause it’s smaller than some of the other well known music cities, so I think it’s easier to kinda have your voice heard here. And you know, it’s an interesting place in comparison to places like Nashville and Austin, which are other cities where people certainly go to experience the music scene, because it’s small enough here where people come here to experience music and it’s just more accessible to sort of hear a lot of local music. So that was just a really great environment and I think in the 13 years I’ve lived here, it’s gotten bigger and so it might be a little bit harder to get your voice heard as soon as you move here, but at the time when I moved here, it felt very small still so it just felt like it was a really accessible scene.
The band started in 2007 and the original name was actually “The Bees Knees,” a name inspired by a local Asheville tow truck company. How did you transition from that name over to “The Honeycutters?”
Well, it was pretty easy. I mean, we did it because there were a few other bands called “The Bees Knees” and that was sort of when bands had to be on MySpace, Platt said laughing. And so we wanted a name that was just gonna bring us up (when looking on the internet) and didn’t want people to have to sort through bands (to find us). We decided to change the name in 2008, so it’s not like we had a huge presence or anything to change. We had some local fans we had to update, but it was a pretty easy transition.
In 2017, your band saw another name change when the band went from “The Honeycutters” to “Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters.” The name change came when you felt more comfortable having that spotlight role. How has that change been, having your name more at the forefront?
It’s been good. It’s kinda been just what I hoped it would be in that just over the years, we’ve had some changes in band members and it’s very natural and that will happen. I’ve always been the songwriter and the voice and so when we decided to do that, it was a very natural thing of “Ok. What you can always expect from the Honeycutters is Amanda Anne Platt.” So when we first started the band, I was more apprehensive of being a front woman. I just wanted to be one of the band and I always kind of grew up in my older brother’s shadow wanting to hang out with the boys in the band, so that was kind of where I started from. I feel like I’m less a front woman and more just me as a singer/songwriter now and I have a band. I have The Honeycutters and they’re awesome and I love playing music with them, but it just gives me a little bit more autonomy.
How are the relationships with band members Evan Martin, Matt Smith, and Rick Cooper?
It’s always fun having a group of people that you travel with. The four of us, we’ve been doing this together a long time now, so it’s just kind of a very natural rhythm that we fall into and we’ve known each other long enough that we all have our pet peeves and we all have our moments, but we get along really well. Nobody’s perfect but you find people that are imperfect in ways that work with you. It’s just like any relationship. It’s a good dynamic.
From your first 2009 album in “Irene” to now, have you seen your songwriting change at all? Has it become any easier of a process?
I would actually say it’s maybe become a little bit more difficult. I think that the biggest difference in songwriting that I’ve seen is that when I wrote the songs that went on Irene, the first few years I was writing songs, I didn’t think anyone was listening. And nobody was listening. I think it will always be easier to write with your own self in mind than to write and be like, “Oh, this is gonna be on the radio and the people that have our last four albums will be listening to this.” So, I think I went through a phase where that was really in my way for awhile and now I feel less self conscious about it. People are either gonna like it or they’re not. I also feel like I’ve gotten a bit more introspective and tend to write songs that are more about life experiences that I’ve actually had whereas I feel like I used to write more fantasized songs.
“Live at the Grey Eagle” was the most recent release for you all. Could you talk more about it?
We recorded that about a year ago. We knew we wanted to do a live album and The Grey Eagle was a venue we knew that we loved, and we planned the set list based on songs that we knew our fans liked wanted to maybe hear live versions of and put a few new things on there. We had 5 studio albums before that and it was at the time Josh (Milligan) was leaving the band, so it felt like a good time to do a retrospective of how the band had founded for the past 5 or 6 years.
When writing your 2017 album of “Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters,” it was an album where you wrote more about your own life experiences and the experiences of those around you. When you’re writing, are there feelings that you want listeners to feel with you and connect with?
I think that when I listen to music, music that I really love and connect with, is usually music that’s somehow cathartic for me and helps me to feel something that I’m maybe avoiding feeling or struggling through on my own. I think when I write, that’s usually why I write too. I would hope that maybe people listening to my songs would have a similar experience of getting feelings out. I’ve had a lot of people tell me, “Well oh, this song got me through this period of my life” or “This song, I really relate to this song because of this thing that happened to me” and that means a lot to me to hear because above all, I feel music in general is about human connection and just offering different ways of experiencing and feeling things that we all go through. I know I’m not alone as an artist in the fact that I make art and music to make sense of things happening in my life and I think the role of artists in society can be helping people to make sense of the world. It can be very uniting. I’d hope people who listen to my songs can feel connected to other humans.
Are there any songs that you’ve written that stick out to you as maybe being more special?
Some are more silly and fun and some are more serious. Looking back at the last album, the song “The Road” was to me, a goodbye song and the goodbye you always wish you could say to people. I didn’t write that specifically for the album and it’s actually an older song. It was a way for me to make sense of a goodbye that was going on in my life.
Do you have any memories that stick out to you as you were growing and finding yourself as a musician?
I think one really cool one was I got to sit down and co-write with Guy Clark at one point before he passed, and it was a neat experience to find myself sitting across the table from him. Even though we didn’t necessarily talk business, it was neat to soak up some of his experience and be in the presence of somebody who I admired and had such an impressive career.
What’s next after the tour? Are there any new songs in the works?
I’ve got a lot of new songs and I’ve got a lot of old songs I still haven’t recorded, so we’re looking at making an album hopefully early next year and having it out later next year.
What advice would you give to musicians stepping into the shoes you were once in and starting out their journey as a musician?
I’d say just to do what you love to do. Don’t get caught up in the industry or what you think is gonna sell records or what’s gonna be a hit because I don’t think there are any guarantees, and if you do it for that reason then you’re gonna make yourself crazy. I love writing songs and playing for people and connecting with an audience. That’s why I do it.
Amanda Anne Platt And The Honeycutters will be hitting the Open Chord stage in Knoxville, Tennessee on November 16th. Get your tickets right here!
