Digging Deep #6: Honeydew Moon
... ain't that the loveliest sunset you ever saw?
I used to think that honeydew was the problem child – the runt of the fruit litter. Seeing as I had only had honeydew in the context of a fruit salad (fruit salads suck anyway), this makes sense. In a fruit salad, chopped, old honeydew oozes its watery flavor and corrupts the other fruits. But this is not the honeydew’s fault! Maybe we can blame The Wiggles for it.
My mind was changed in August of 2015, when I was working on a farm. I had woken up around 5am to do farm shit (feeding Big Poppa, the enormous pig, scattering grain in the chicken coop, fixing the fencing around the vegetable garden), and around lunch time, Tom, the owner of the farm, asked me if I wanted some melon. I came inside and gorged myself on the most beautiful, juicy, crunchy, summer honeydew you could imagine. Juice dripping down my chin, I vowed never to disparage the good name of honeydew again.
And here we are! Today, “Honeydew Moon” is out in the world, all 2 minutes and 49 seconds of its deliciousness delivered right to your ears. Here’s the story of it all:
Some Context
In late August of 2023, Grace and I took a trip to France. We spent a few days in Paris, which is cool and all, but the real gem is the south. Provence, baby! After Paris, we stayed in Nice for three days and then Aix-en Provence for another three. I studied abroad in Aix-en-Provence for a semester in college – it may be the best little city in the world.
We made full use of the plethora (I was an English major) of farmer’s markets during our trip, bringing the food we got to courtyards, gardens, and, most importantly, beaches. Grace likes a good piece of fruit. Now that I’m a grown ass adult, so do I.
One night, we had dinner next to the water in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a small town in the French Riviera. I think the restaurant was called La Mère Germaine – super good seafood. As we ate, the sun set, and behold: the moon rose! A crescent moon, just like a nice slice of melon.
Writing the Song
About a week after that trip, I was back in Los Angeles, doing a session with my friend Garrett Nash (gnash – awesome artist/songwriter/producer). The album writing process was in full swing, and I had already decided on the title: Eating & Drinking & Being in Love. Don’t worry, there will be much more written about the album process later on. We talked about my trip to France, we talked about the future, we talked about life and love and food and drink. I think he actually had the title “Honeydew Moon” written down already, which aligned perfectly with everything else.
I had been listening to a lot of Big Thief at the time (I usually am) and it’s always been interesting to me how they blend a fingerpicked acoustic guitar with the band. I think my gut reaction a lot of the time is to strum an acoustic guitar when there are drums in the equation. Not this time!
I started with a guitar part reminiscent of Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run the Game,” and from there mumbled out a rough melody.
verse noodling - 9.12.2023
We went for a nice yodeling kind of chorus – essentially a two line chorus hanging on the “honeydew moon” line. I was thinking about that lovely dinner Grace and I had in Villefranche, and the deep, inky blue sky pierced by the moon. Innnnnnnky blue, baby.
chorus noodling - 9.12.2023
With such a short chorus, we knew we wanted a bridge of some kind. It ended up becoming more of a one-time pre chorus, similar to what happens in Counting Crows’ “Accidentally in Love.” (It’s the part where they go “these lines of lightning mean we’re never alone NEVER ALONE NO NO” and then the song gets so hype). Here are a few minutes of us trying to figure out what the heck to say!
bridge noodling - 9.12.2023
Here’s the demo from that first day – not too far off from what the song became, which is cool. If you’re gonna get demo-itis, then why not stick with what you got?
demo from 9.12.2023
Oh whoops! I’m forgetting one thing. After listening to the demo, I realized the song was only 2 minutes and 4 seconds long. I don’t know about you, but I think songs have gotten too short in this day and age. Of course, it’s the opposite of movies – movies have gotten WAY too long – but as a lil folk singer, I cannot abide a short song. How did ya get everything ya wanted to say in there?
Recording the Song
Like all the other songs on the album (coming out September 20th!), we recorded basically everything in a four day stretch in November in NYC. Jack Kleinick, my eternal boy, produced the album (with me co-producing, but that’s splitting hairs). We split our studio time between Grand Street Recording and the former location of the historic Hit Factory. Joe Ulmer, my dude, knocked out the drums on the first day – we wanted them to sound a bit sloppy, laid back, full of fills and other lovely pitter patters. I added in a shaker (one of my specialties) and something called “goat toes.” That’s exactly what it sounds like – it’s a bunch of goat toes tied together, and when you toss ‘em up and catch ‘em, they sound real nice and crunchy. Here are a few clips from that day:
goat toes at Grand Street Recording
shaker at Grand Street Recording
cool screen thing idk what it is, Grand Street Recording
We decided to add some xylophone to the end of the song, which you can hear faintly in the recording. Here’s that!
The vocals were all recorded at the Hit Factory – I tried to keep it loose, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone singing and standing as stiff as I am in this video:
Of course, we had my buddy Andre Vasconcelos toss some tasteful distorted electric guitar in there too, which really brought the song alive.
All in all, I’m really happy with how this one turned out. It’s kind of the perfect mix of my folk fingerpicking style and the more rock-y, live sound we aimed for.
Reading Comprehension Questions
What is T. Kandel’s favorite French city, a city he calls “the best little city in the world”?
Do you like fruit salad? Why or why not?
Are you enjoying the new direction T. Kandel’s music is headed?
the stiff singing video will always make me laugh