‘I want to be the catalyst that I didn’t have’: Interview with musician Honeychild Coleman

FEM had the privilege of speaking with artist Honeychild Coleman in Spring 2026 to discuss her role in creating a more intersectional atmosphere in punk, her ongoing creative projects and her experience navigating the exclusivity of the music industry.

Honeychild Coleman describes herself as a “punk, indie and electronic musical artist” based in Brooklyn, New York, who likes to “blend activism and social issues” into her art. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Coleman said she grew up in a musical household and only started to think about pursuing music as a career in her early 20s. Living in Berkeley in the ‘90s, Coleman began singing with coworkers, Tambourine and LisaBell, at a secondhand vintage store called Wasteland.

Coleman began as a backup singer and lead singer for various bands, and said performing wasn’t intimidating because it felt casual in party settings. She explained that singing became scary once she started taking voice classes at Laney College in Oakland. Compared to the distracted, fun experience of performing at parties, Coleman said, “Suddenly, it’s bright, it’s daytime, everyone can see me.” Between laughs, she added, “But every time it would get to the point in the semester where it was my time to solo in class, I just wouldn’t go back. So, I did this for two years or three semesters, where I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m not going back.’” Coleman studied classical voice the first two times, and for the third decided to shift and take a pop and jazz vocals class. She said that her teacher was a prominent figure in building Coleman’s confidence and developing mental strategies for overcoming fear, concluding, “I really got my stability from that course.”

Coleman described leaving Kentucky for New York, pointing to all the barriers her family faced as the only Black family in their neighborhood. She decided to immerse herself in a fresh environment and move to New York, where she found new autonomy, access and freedom. She shared her thoughts on the value of feeling self-conscious in a new environment, explaining, “You can try something new, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. There’s not an audience judging you because it didn’t work out or because, ‘How dare you do that?’ Like, ‘Who do you think you are?’” She continued, “You’re not going to find someone who loves everything that you love, but to find people you can have those dialogues with is super important.”

Coleman described how, after finishing her vocal classes, she began busking in the New York subways and said that the combination of busking “five days a week during rush hour” helped diminish her stage fright. While busking, Coleman met Rich Salmon, who invited her to come to his house to have a jam session. Describing her first encounter there with future Sista Grrrl Simi Stone, Coleman said, “She heard us and came downstairs with her violin and jumped in right away … I was like, ‘Oh, here’s this Black woman playing punk rock violin. Whoa, this is why I came back to New York. Like, it does exist!’”

The Sista Grrrls created a space for themselves in a time when other punk movements — like Riot Grrrl —were exclusionary and unrepresentative. The Sista Grrrls emphasized intersectional values during a time when white feminism permeated the music scene. 

“So, meeting them all one by one and everybody being so different, yet being their authentic selves, was also very reaffirming to me because, you know, there’s no monolith way to be a woman, to be punk, to be black, to be femme or not. And for all of us to accept each other was also pretty powerful … There was no gatekeeping in our community. And the gatekeeping is what kept me out of being in the punk scene … I never went to CBGB’s because I felt like, ‘Oh, it’s a lot of skinheads. I don’t belong. I don’t feel safe there going alone.’”

Honeychild said it was the idea of another future Sista Grrrl, Tamar Kali, to throw the Sista Grrrl riots, adding , “We’d heard about Riot Grrrl, but we were a bit older, and it wasn’t really our world … We knew that we wanted to do something and make a statement about the fact that four Black women were leading our own rock bands and could put together nights and make it like a mini festival.” Sista Grrrl also acted as a way to promote and book Black women musicians during a time when the music industry was incredibly restrictive.

“But when I talked to people about making that kind of music, they couldn’t quite visualize me doing it, which I felt like, well, is it because I’m Black? Is it because I’m a woman? Like, people just weren’t receptive … I knew that I could find someone who was, and maybe that person would be in New York,” Coleman said. 

Coleman said when she was in New York, labels began signing her musician friends but not her. “They loved what I was doing. … [They] just didn’t know how to market [me],” Coleman said. She was signed abroad during her time spent in Italy and England during the ‘90s and described a vast difference in marketability, labels and touring abroad compared to the constraints she faced in the United States. 

In 2019, Coleman’s band, The 1865, signed to Mass Appeal Records to release their debut album, “Don’t Tread on We!” Coleman said this was her first experience being signed in the United States, pointing out the discrepancies that arise from being on a major record label. “It’s such a strange position to be in because you do have a lot of freedom,” she said, “but you also just feel like, ‘Why is there this glass ceiling on creativity when there are fans, you know?’ … It can be discouraging if you think the only way to be successful is to be on a major label and do things that mainstream artists do. But if you look beyond that, there’s a rich world out there still. And for that, I’m super grateful.”

Coleman explored social justice in her music in the ‘90s and continues this theme in her music today with her band, The 1865. Coleman said The 1865 emerged in a unique way, sharing that she and her late writing partner, Sacha, wanted to create a “black punk blues-based band” on the “lo-fi side.” The band emerged after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. “It’s so crazy to look back now and think like, oh, things couldn’t possibly get worse than the far right talking about bringing slavery back, but here we are,” Coleman said. She explained that Sacha wanted to “write about freedom” and “what happened when we got free.” Coleman added that she focused on making sure their songs didn’t “sound like a story that can’t be happening right now.”

One of these narratives centers Margaret Garner, a woman who escaped enslavement in 1856, in The 1865’s song “Peggy.” Coleman explained, “Immediately, I was like, ‘Oh, this is something that could have happened to any of my ancestors that escaped.’ So I really got deep into her story because it was in a woman’s voice. And even though, yes, she’s the victim, she also kind of took her power in a really macabre way.” To reflect the power and dissonance of the song’s narrative, Coleman said she sought to create a Sonic Youth-influenced “wall of sound” with various guitar effects. “I was speaking her story in a voice, like a conversation about what happened to her. And then I just kind of ran with that, with the way we approached all the rest of the songs for the album. And to be able to talk about these harsh realities in an artistic way while also really getting into the music felt really empowering,” Coleman added.

Coleman is actively engaged in many projects — such as the band Bachslider — and said she is “really grateful to have multiple outlets,” where “there’s no lack of ways to express myself.” She emphasized the importance of creative expression and the role of community building in the process. Getting involved in the local community built her confidence to do things on her own, explore musical interests and pass on her knowledge to others. Coleman added that she once gave a lecture at Columbia where she gave a woman in the audience the motivation to start a band; the woman contacted her years later to express the impact Honeychild had on her.

In the city that sparked feelings of autonomy, freedom and passion, Coleman is still pursuing various artistic endeavors in New York and encourages others to do so as well. “I always feel like I want to be the catalyst that I didn’t have. Like, I think if someone came up to me when I was in high school and said, ‘You can be in a band,.’ I would have listened, but no one told me that, you know?” Coleman said.

You can be in a band, you can be an artist and you can see Honeychild Coleman at the dates listed below.

• June 20 Honeychild & Biz (The 1865), Rebelmatic. Juneteenth Show – Tompkins Square Park NEW YORK CITY
• July 17 Honeychild & Biz (The 1865), Dinowalrus, PUSH! Sleepwalk BROOKLYN NY
• Aug 15 Honeychild & Biz (The 1865), Trees Band Rippers ROCKAWAY BEACH, NYC