Sariah and Taylor Find Their Pot of Honey Gold

Honey Gold is what happens when live music, visual art, meditation, technology, and a willingness to leap into the unknown collide.

In this 105th episode of No Hair All Heart, Mookie sits down with Sariah and Taylor, the creative force behind Honey Gold, an immersive audiovisual experience that combines original music, projection mapping, visual storytelling, and intentional design to create something increasingly rare in modern life: a space to slow down.

The conversation explores the origins of Honey Gold, from Sariah's years in California's experimental art and rave scenes to Taylor's decades-long journey as a multi-instrumentalist and performer. Together, they discuss how a small local performance evolved into shows at Louisiana's historic Old State Capitol, a unique presentation at Audium in San Francisco, and an ambitious plan to create a full-dome planetarium experience that could eventually reach audiences around the world.

Along the way, they discuss the realities of building an independent creative project from scratch, balancing a romantic relationship with an artistic partnership, surviving career disruptions, navigating technology's growing influence on art, and why authentic human experiences matter more than ever in an increasingly digital world.

Their free-flowing conversation covers creativity, risk-taking, collaboration, and the strange way life sometimes rewards people who stop waiting for permission and simply start building. Whether you're an artist, entrepreneur, musician, dreamer, or someone trying to create something meaningful in a noisy world, Honey Gold's story offers a refreshing reminder that some of the most interesting things happen when people are willing to make it up as they go, while staying true to a vision that's close to the heart. 

Honey Gold's upcoming performances include immersive events in Baton Rouge and San Francisco, with larger plans already taking shape for planetariums, virtual reality, and beyond.

The Guests

Honey Gold is produced and creatively led by Sariah Sizemore and Taylor Matherne, with visual direction by Wes Kennison of Version 47. The project is shaped through close collaboration across music, imagery, and environment, with each element developed intentionally as part of a unified experience. Sariah and Taylor lead the creative vision for Honey Gold, composing the original music and curating the visual content that informs the tone, pacing, and emotional arc of the experience.

Their Website

https://www.honeygoldexperience.com/'

More Resources

Honey Gold at Louisiana's Old State Capitol

Honey Gold at Audium

Donate 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honey_gold_experience

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:02

The no hair, all the heart podcast. I'm your host, still with no hair. The ones with all the hearts today are Soraya and Taylor. Welcome aboard the podcast. You guys are the creative dynamos behind Honey Gold. And as I understand it, you guys are multimedia artists, and you've got a lot going on under the hood in addition to events that are coming up in Louisiana, in California. Can you give our listeners and viewers a little preview of the goodies that you have in the works and what you got going on in terms of your creativity and your multimedia approach?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

We have an event for the local crowd. Another immersive audio visual journey where we're gonna have projection mapping on the stained glass and accentuating around it, and we'll be there in the legislative chambers, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

In the house chamber.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

The house chamber, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah. Yeah. So the Louisiana Azul State Capitol is a beautiful historical building. It looks kind of like a mix between a church and a castle for those who haven't ever seen it before. I know this is going to go out to viewers in different places. And um it's it's beautiful. It was built in the late 1800s and it has really high cathedral ceilings and big stained glass window. And um we're excited to do our thing in this space because we've been playing around with what it's like to adapt our immersive audiovisual show for unique and historical places, and so this is um just a really special honor to be able to offer the experience in that venue.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Sounds like a great place for a rave.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, yeah. I I don't think that they would allow that, but it's a nice idea.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

And and your your art is a little bit similar in that you got some multimedia things going on. So you do projection visuals, you've got live performance.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Can you tell us a really a little bit about your approach? What exactly is Honey Gold?

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Well, I think Soraya can start with where it began uh for her years ago.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, Honey Gold is it's an interesting project because it brings together all of the things that I've been dabbling with throughout my like adult life, like through early, early, early 20s all the way up until now. And then, you know, meeting Taylor and having similar interests, um, and then you know, adding him to the mix, it really helped me realize a vision that I've had for a long time. And so the background is really in um like experimental video and audio art, like in my early 20s in the rave scene in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Um got really into like the the the new budding immersive audio visual and laptop music and and video scene. And so um that was a big part of my life for a while, and then eventually got into working at the technology companies in the Bay Area, Avid, MAudio, Native Instruments, these these technology companies. And through that, I started to burn out. And that's what led me to uh the meditation and coaching and breath work and healing work stuff that I got involved with. So Honey Gold is a combination of of those things. It's a meditative musical journey that takes the the I guess the intention that I've always had of creating spaces for people to wake up and feel better, um, along with love for technology and video. And then with Taylor involved, he brings his uh musicianship, which is quite expansive. He plays multiple instruments and is just really amazing at figuring out technology really quick on the fly. We've been doing that for this, these upcoming shows. We're having to learn some new software and gear to make them happen in the way that we need to. So so it brings together musicianship and intentionality for creating spaces and music and video, and really the intention is love.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Right. And and for the music, it is just me at the moment um doing most of the instrumentation. So to do that all live, it's been all looped live. Um and we've been getting into playing with some new software, like Ableton, for instance, is new for me. Uh, but she's uh veteran at at that one. And uh it's a new medium for playing music for me that has been fun to explore. Uh with uh what I've always done. I I'm a bass player primarily, but I started on cello and I play guitar and drums and didgeridoo, and I like making experimental noise as well, but uh haven't had as many opportunities to really go for it the way that I've always wanted to. And it was it was a really uh serendipitous matchup that we we both had an element we could bring to this project, and adding in like the visual side of it just made it more immersive and something greater than we even originally planned.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Oh yeah, yeah. I mean this started the the the by the way, I want to give a shout out to our incredible visual team. So the the visual art is not um just us, we're not doing everything the two of us. We need we need a team and we need to expand our team to help to be able to really fully realize the vision as we move forward. So we have a creative director, Taylor Stoma, and uh a new a visual artist, Ryan Golden, who are supporting uh the experience with their talents and video creation and video art and mapping and all that good stuff. So um they have really made this help, they're they're helping this project evolve in a good way.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

I'll put links below in the description. You've got some samples on your website as well as kind of teasers.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

And what I saw and liked about it is it it really has a focus on calmness and meditation and and and chilling out. So we've we've experienced multimedia and live performance art together going all the way back. I mean, Grateful Dead. Uh I have a friend who invited me to a fish show in New York a few years ago, and that kind of blew my mind. So you've got live music, you've got audio visual, you've got this blender pastiche of all this stuff going on. But I get your take as being unique in terms of your focus and your intentionality for bringing that sense of calm and meditation. Do I read that right? That you're really out there to calm people, heal them. We're oversaturated now with media, and everyone's on their phone doom scrolling 24-7.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we live in a very divisive world right now. It's really intense and overwhelming. And I think a lot of folks just don't even have the tools or ability to under like to understand what's happening and process how it's affecting our nervous systems. And you know, music and art and spaces of creativity are a great way to bring people of all different backgrounds together under one roof in one place to uh connect through their humanity, their human experience. And that's really our intention with Honey Gold is to create a neutral space that everywhere anyone can come and feel good and uh reset and renew themselves and renew their nervous system through um the music and and the visuals and just the experience as a whole. And I also just want to say, like, we're we're not healing anybody, like it's it's really about holding a space for people to heal themselves and you know, let go of all the noise and the overwhelm and and all the stuff that's in the field that they deal with every day, and remember just the basics of you know, innocence and childlike wonder and love and connection, and that there's a lot that we can get to renew ourselves through remembering that those are like our birthright.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

I think everyone needs that kind of sound. And in watching your little teasers, I got that feeling of gillaxing, music is meditative, the visuals are not overwhelming, it's not like a kinetic EDM show with the laser blasts and all that stuff, yeah. It's quite the opposite of that, and I also noticed certain themes or stories when you were putting it together. How did you structure it? And how did you coordinate the music with the visuals? And what was your intent in terms of the payettes that that instructed?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

We wanted to to tell a story through the visuals as well as the music that you know can both be enjoyed, you know, but they go together essentially. Um, and it it wasn't a part of the initial idea for the project, so it it came almost out of like creative necessity. We had the opportunity to incorporate it for our first performance.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Um, and we realized we didn't just want to have the EDM visuals, we wanted something with more intentionality, something with a story that would help guide what the music was saying. So as far as the journey goes, uh we structure it around starting off with that like chaotic sense of what people are usually walking into the room, maybe feeling a little bit of from their day or their lives, and trying to ease people out of that into a more relaxed state, uh, get them back in touch with themselves, their inner child uh is a real uh central part of it.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

And and finding like that calm, loving, rejuvenating light within, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

And it is within you.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah. And the visuals that, you know, we originally were gonna do this in a yoga studio here. And then that organization presented us to the local arts council, and they have a black box theater, and suddenly it became a way bigger of a deal than us just in a yoga studio singing some songs. And I thought, well, let's play around with this idea of doing some visual art. And we we had um uh we have a friend that does video mapping, and I was like, hey, you want to do this? Here's my ideas, and um, he's like, Yeah, he got busy on some other projects, and then suddenly we were kind of in the seat, like finding sourcing content from the internet archive. I don't know if anybody knows this, but you can get all kinds of cool visual stuff from the internet archive, and just had a whole session, sat on this couch with our laptops, looking through tons and tons of videos, and then looking through our own videos of like places that we visited that make us feel good, that tell a story of how we care for ourselves and what we love. And I ended up learning Premiere, I swear, in like two weeks, and created a lot of the visual collages that you see as the backdrop to the like trippy overlay stuff, which is what our visual artist was doing. But the collages really came from us like connecting with videos that helped tell the story and you know, showed places that we really care about. And, you know, I'm not some editing wizard, but but the heart was there and the intention was there. And so it feels good that you actually noticed that there's a story that's being told. You're the first person that's been like, oh yeah, I noticed you're you're telling a story with these visuals.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

I think the subtlety is is good and smooth. You don't want a two by four between the eyes, you know, with uh with a point of view or some ideology. It's more like taking people on a on a journey.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

And it's got a trance-like atmosphere to it. Yeah. So it it brings the brain waves down, it draws focus, and it is it is chillaxing. And I and it sounds like that's really your intent to do that.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

And and it's intended to be that way for anybody, like those who might not be seeking this type of stuff out, you know, from the get-go. You know, there's people far more into the meditative, uh, you know, chillaxing side of things than others, and we want it to be uh accessible to anyone, and uh they get out of it what they're uh you know going in trying to get out of it. So you can enjoy it in a lot of different ways.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah, some people might come for the relaxation of it, some might come for the trippy visuals of it, you know, and get something they didn't expect, or maybe they don't know what to expect. But coming and enjoying some nice music and visual art that gives you the space to kind of come to your own conclusions and feel your own feelings versus going into like maybe like one of my breathwork sessions where you're being guided to breathe and let go, and like that's a lot for some people. They're like, Well, I don't know about that, but they can come direct, yeah, they can come and just relax and have their own experience with the music and the visual art.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Tell tell us a little bit about your first trial. You mentioned kind of like a beta launch of this. You guys did did one already. Did you get learning learnings from that and apply it to this one? How did that go? What were some of the reactions?

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah. Uh the reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, uh, especially from people who found themselves there either by, you know, suggested by someone they know or or for whatever reason they, you know, we've had people like I had no idea what this was and just decided to come and they were blown away. Uh, and that's always really nice because the people that go there to get the experience that is like kind of intended, you know, I love that they have a good time too. I just want the people that might happen upon it to just have as good of a time. And it's been great. Uh, each performance has been say better than the last.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Like you asked about like the lessons learned, and you know, one thing that I I can share that's like a little vulnerable, maybe from our side of things, is that going through the process of creating Honey Gold and experience for people to heal and relax and you know and feel better, we get put through our own experience of healing every time, every show that we're preparing for, we're having to like confront our inner child and our vulnerabilities and insecurities and feelings and feel them and let them go and remain in a positive place. So that's been a really interesting um kind of experience of of us. I don't know, it's like the it's like a fra like a what do they call it? Um a fractal. It's like the experience is kind of folding in on itself and regenerating, and we're a part of that, and we're going through the journey as well. So that's been wonderful and challenging, and like all the things that something like that might be.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

It made me to the punch. I was gonna ask you how all this makes you feel being the performance artist, putting it together and then sharing it. So to your point, it's kind of like a fractal or it's meta in its own way that you guys are doing, doing, doing all the vibes, and the vibes are coming back at you, and then you feed it back to the audience.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Right, yeah. It's like all the stuff we've we work through in the process of writing these songs and practicing them and and figuring out the best way to perform them because uh well, we we started out from a place where we weren't gonna need as much of the technological side of things to aid it along, and it quickly grew in a in a way that to present it in the way that's necessary, you know, uh, I think we need to incorporate more technology to allow me to be able to make a whole bunch of music by myself at the moment, you know, without the aid of a whole symphony, which is kind of what we're trying to do basically. Uh and it's been a learning experience in that way a lot. Uh it's a lot of frustrations just trying to do this right.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, and then there's relationships. You know, we're in a romantic relationship, but now we have this creative partnership that's kind of like having a business together, which requires extra thoughtfulness and attention to the way that we communicate with each other and you know, compartmentalizing time for like music and work, and then you know, relationship time um has been a big growth edge for us. Uh so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

I've had various guests who are couples. So I've got a science fiction and fantasy writers podcast, I've got another writer's podcast, and uh a business podcast, and I've had various guests who are romantically involved, husband-wife, creative partnerships. I've uh spoken with identical twins who are co-writers. And um there's a cool dynamic. I'm an only child, so I'm always drawn to people who have tight partnerships in whatever format. And I can really appreciate that. I can appreciate both the opportunities that come out creatively where you complement each other and your skill sets.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

And I'm sure I'm sure it's challenging in its own way, too, where the different worlds are coming together business, art, everyday domestic living, right? It could get complicated.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

It can. And it's it's all a learning experience. And you know, we like I said, we have to go through it before we can even like present that opportunity for other people to kind of go through it on their own if they wish, you know, in a much different way.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah, it's coming from lived experience. I can say that. Right. You know, we didn't go to some sound healing class and take a course and decide that we were gonna do sound baths. I mean, really, the music is um it comes from lived experience, it comes from years of of of that self-healing, helping other people feel better and heal themselves, and then coming together and writing music together that is a part of our our self-evolution and healing as a couple and as a creative partnership. That's all that is in the show. So um, you know, so far it's been received really well and people can feel it, and that feels good, you know. Um, one of the interesting things that happened in the first show was uh uh on a just an intuitive whim, I decided to invite the folks from the Louisiana Arts and Science Center, uh, Irene Pennington Planetarium. I just got the idea. I was driving in my car and I was like, okay, well, let me look up the curator. And I invited her and she couldn't make it. And she sent one of her uh a lady that was on her team, and during the first show, there was this woman in the back just having a really positive, like she was just having a really Beautiful experience, I could tell, because most people were laying down and she didn't get there in time to get a lay-down spot. She was in a seat. And I remember thinking, like, wow, like she's just having such a wonderful time. And it turns out that she was there from the Irene Pennington Planetarium, and they invited us to adapt the show for their dome. And so we're like, whoa, like we don't know how to do that. But yeah, yes, you know, okay. Like, and so the other thing that we're doing is um that's evolved, right? So, so we are um we've we are in the process of raising money for the creation of a full dome immersive experience. And we've been lucky enough to be sponsored by the local uh arts council of Greater Baton Rouge. They're our fiscal sponsors, so we can take tax-deductible donations to create that film. And so we have these new challenges ahead of us where we're taking our live show and we're gonna adapt it for the dome, and we're offering that in October, October 3rd, and then simultaneously creating like a proprietary dome film that can be shown in dome theaters all over the United States, hopefully, and beyond.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Very cool. It's got this bespoke, improvisational, very peer-to-peer quality, right? Like on the one hand, you've got a vision, but on the other, you're just kind of winging it. Yes. A lot of it's based on just relationships and uh and and kind of building it as you fly it, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

That's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

I like that hashtag DIY kind of feeling to it. Absolutely that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Hashtag DIY is definitely that.

SPEAKER_04 23:53

That's great, because it it comes out like you were saying, if you've got exuberance and creativity and you're kind of winging it, then the audience receives that spontaneity.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

And when you are talking about go ahead, yeah, letting other people giving other people permission to wing it, you know, is is important. Like, you know, people think they need to be perfect or do things perfectly or have it be some kind of way, and sometimes we just have to wing it.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

That fits your theme, which is which is the chillaxing. We we live our lives with all these demands, like family and friends, and jobs, the world's going ape shit, and it's stressful, yeah. And if you let it go, then you embrace a little bit of chaos and a little bit of improvisational uncertainty. And if your show is wired together with that spirit, I think it captures that and it projects it out so people can tap into it.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

Sounds like that's what they were liking about your first shows, which is they were connecting with you and your ideas, and they were feeling better about it.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

unknown 25:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:10

Tell us about uh who was in the crowd and who you're anticipating for the upcoming shows. Is this generational? Is it gender focused?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Who's grooving on your grooving? Well, that's part of the amazing thing about it. We're we're from Baton Ridge, Louisiana, not typically known for its, you know, incredible open-mindedness when it comes to new forms of art or things, but I I like to push back on that myself, and I I think the people here are a lot more willing to experience these things uh than they might seem on the surface. So at the shows, it it's still been surprising, uh, but not so much. Like we've got everyone that you can imagine showing up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, that's um pretty, pretty mixed group of of young people all the way through to elder folks, like um, and we really want that, uh, um like a multicultural mix of people of different ages and backgrounds, and you know, there's this the stereotype around anything that's labeled like wellness or healing as woo-woo, you know, and I think that that stereotype really takes away the the power and the potency of what it means to just come together and and relax and feel better. That's not woo-woo, that's human, right? And there's all of these ideas that, you know, participating in especially in the South, right? There's a lot of folks that are very religious and kind of have these ideas that that going and doing something that is labeled quote unquote healing might be going against what their religion teaches. And I'm just here to say that that's that's actually, I think that's false. Um, because we're in alignment with anyone's faith and belief and whoever higher power or you know, this is not about religion or woo. It's about humanity. It is about coming together and experiencing art and music and connection, and that's a very human thing. And um, I just think that it's important to talk about that because this, oh, that's too woo-woo, it's actually no, it's human, you know. Like, come hang out, get in back in touch with your humanity, and you know, feel better. And that's like if we distill it down all the way down to like its basic common denominator, that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

Yeah, no ideology, no politics. You leave it at the door. Yeah, and it sounds like it's great for men, women, young, and old. Absolutely. Any anyone and everybody to just tap into that free-flowing spirit of creativity and yeah, yeah, and we've had some folks, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

I think in general, everyone knows that, you know, commonly women tend to be more attracted to or maybe people, not just women, but people who are don't fall into the category of traditional male um gender role. And you know, especially in the South, you know, men are taught second up, don't don't be vulnerable, be a man, you know, don't have go to NASCAR, you don't want to go to uh and and and and like and it's unfortunate because um I think a lot of men, but everybody are struggling around having a place to express and feel and let some of this stuff go. And we've had I mean, I've noticed that there's been some guys that have come to the shows that would never go to maybe even never even go to therapy or anything like that, you know, and have told me after the fact, like I had no idea what I was in for, but that was amazing. I feel so much better, you know. This one guy went on a whole journey, he like was able to like connect with his grandmother and and forgave his mom, and like this is like a 30-year-old guy from Baton Rouge that doesn't have doesn't know anything about like alternative healing work, and he just came and had his own experience and and loved it, and that's what it's all about, you know. Um we're not telling anyone how to be, or you know, we're just creating a place for them to reconnect with themselves.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

That's the heart of art in ways, which is it circumvents the everyday and it taps into people's heart and soul in a way that's direct, eliminate prejudice and biased, preconceived notions, and ideally get the brain to shut down a little bit, like shut up already and just tap into what you feel.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yeah, that's that's the idea. I mean, at its at its core, what we're doing is as old as humanity itself, you know, just gathering, you know, around some songs and yeah, relaxing, releasing a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

You guys have just updated from the fire pit in the cave in France to uh we're just working our way back to that. Yeah, that's an even better way of looking at it. It's like we've had like 60,000 years of history, and now we just need to get back to basics. So you guys are something that's a lot. How did you guys spread the word about your original show? So it's really busy out there, everyone's really busy. That's part of the problem. Just getting attention, marketing. How did you guys promote your first shows? How are you promoting the upcoming ones? And how do you integrate that into your lives as artists? Because half of it is doing it and creating the content and the experience. And as a writer and a podcaster, I know too that just getting noticed in this crazy world is so hard to do, and it's often antithetical to the content itself, right? So you guys are doing this spontaneous, feel-good show, and then at the same time you have to be like the roadrunner with the sign, meet meet, right? Come see us, right? How do you balance those two?

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Well, uh let's see, delegating tasks, you know, like where I'm not I'm not suited to the content creator uh self-promotion, come watch me play type. Um I'll play anything, I'll go anywhere and do it, but uh it's it's hard for me to ask people to come see it. And so she's really great at getting the word out and getting in touch with the right people, you know, and we are um sponsored physically by the arts council of Greater Baton Rouge, so that helps us here a lot. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

But you guys created that relationship, it didn't just fall out of the sky. Right, yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yeah, it's funny, it's funny you asked that question because um we were just talking about how we're really looking forward to having the resources to hire a team to be able to help us with that stuff. It um it can be a lot to be the artist and the web designer and the flyer maker and the the marketing and support person, and that's kind of a role, it's a role that I'm really comfortable in, that I have a lot of experience in, uh, that I can do well-ish, you know, but it takes away from my focus of practicing my vocals and being in the studio with Taylor. And um, but I'm happy to do it. And, you know, we split up Taylor's learning Ableton Live. He's learning how to do things in that software that I don't know how to do, that I don't have the time to learn. So I go do the newsletters, he learns the software, we come back together, we get in the studio and we work it out. But um, if anybody wants to find us on social media or on the web, you can go to honeygold experience.com.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

Yeah, and look in the description below. I'll put in all your links and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

So yeah, honeygold experience on Instagram. And um, we'd love if anyone could follow us, and we're building our Instagram right now. It's brand new. This is a brand new project, so we're just getting our legs and and starting to get some momentum going in the virtual content world, right? Yeah, so yeah, it's fun to feature you guys.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

You know, I've had I've had all sorts of people on the podcast. I I had probably the most famous one is Lawrence Juber, who is Paul McCartney's guitar player. I had him on last month. You know, and he he he's like, I'm like, ooh. And John and Paul and everybody, and that was a great experience. But I'm having a great time helping to promote you guys because I I think it's uh it's wonderful to be DIY and just go for it. A lot of people want to do what you guys are doing, which is like, I want to be an artist, I want to put on a show, I want to be in a band. And it's easy to get distracted and to make excuses and whatever. But it's great that you're doing it. And and that's like 90% of it, which is just instead of just thinking about it and hoping for it, it's putting it into practice and having the uh wherewithal encourage just to throw it out there.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

So thanks for saying that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's just kind of like I'm I'm real comfortable just jumping off the cliff and then figuring out later. Uh, Taylor's been a good sport of like kind of me dragging him off the cliff sometimes, and he's like, I don't know, and I'm like, well, we're doing it, and then he just steps up and we do it, and it's wonderful. And it's just a reminder that taking creative risks can be really good for lots of reasons.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

It's a field of dreams sort of scenario. If you build it, like they will come. Like if you put the show on, you know, it's a risk to rent out a large venue and put all this work into something and maybe not sell all the tickets you want, or you know, just break even, you know. But you really have to push that aside and just go for it and know that you're doing something that's worthwhile.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

And you know, you have to convince people that it is, and you have to show up and do a good job.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

The first people you gotta convince is yourselves.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

That's the hardest part.

SPEAKER_04 36:43

And that's the hardest part. When everyone's got an imposter syndrome in one form or another because we all start like this big. We gotta we gotta start somewhere and go forward. But it's just believing in yourself and thinking that your stuff is is good and that you're out there contributing, and uh, and then the rest is just go code, and then you guys have a nice relationship as a couple. As you're mentioning, you complement each other's skill sets. So there are a lot of artists like you, Taylor, where I could jam all day long on multiple instruments and with different groups of people, and it's just coming out nonstop, but ask me to like put a sign up or tell people to come see me. I mean, that's like a different part of the brain. That's a different skill set. And then, you know, Soraya might be like, hey, you know, try this, do that. And then two of you together are almost greater than the sum of their parts in terms of blending and adding to each other's natural abilities, and that and that's cool to see. Thanks. Tell us uh a little bit about your backgrounds because it doesn't seem like Taylor, you woke up yesterday and you started playing a bunch of instruments, and Saraya doesn't sound like you woke up on Tuesday morning and decided you wanted to be an artist. So, can you give our viewers and listeners a little bit of background, what was going on pre-Honey Gold, and don't don't forget to tell us about the cool mural behind you too.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

For those on YouTube watching watching us, uh, it's kind of cool. And I I understand there's some history there too.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Yeah. Well, I'd I I wish I could say that I painted that myself.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Um but uh I thought so when I first saw it.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

I was like, wow, that's take credit. As you can tell, I'm an incredible interior decorator with my hostage background here.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yeah, I um well, I I think you know, a lot of folks, I think we're all artists. We all have that uh as humans, the ability to express ourselves creatively. Uh maybe some are on a different side of the spectrum than others. Like I've always been into performing and creating since I was a kid. And um my my mom, uh I I was born and raised in Baton Rouge. My mom was an artist, she was a local blues singer, and uh she was like a bright wild light, you know, um burned out a little bit too early through um some bad choices. And good for her.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

That's the artist they heard, right? Don't go halfway.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Yeah, so she was a big deal around town in the 80s and 90s, and you know, I moved to California when I was 21, spent most of my adult life in California, and then when she passed away in 2022, I unexpectedly bought this house in Baton Rouge. That's a whole long story for another time, but um but I ended up with this house, which was a huge blessing, and uh I was gonna just rent it out as an investment and go back to California, but circumstances conspired to keep me here. And uh I love interior decorating, it's one of my hobbies. I really got into it during the pandemic, and I finally had like my own place to decorate. And so uh this mural that came out of my um process of decorating my house after my mom passed away. I feel like I really took a lot of grief and sadness and challenges that I had with her and her experience, and transformed that into something beautiful through creating this home. And um during that time, I started singing at the local blues jam where she used to sing. And I got embraced by a lot of the local musicians who knew her and really suddenly just had this creative life here in Baton Rouge that I didn't have in the Bay Area because there's a huge live music scene here and and jam scene, and um, and that's when I met Taylor. Uh I met him at the local blues jam at uh Phil Brady's. If anybody is interested, it's like one of the longest running blues jams, I think maybe in the in the United States.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Yeah, so um, so yeah, that's that's the story of the mural and and how I met Taylor and we were friends, we were just friends for a while, you know. We'd hang out at the blues jam and um and then uh and then we got together and the rest is history. Cool, it's all interwoven. We have dogs that we have sequestered outside that are all right.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

So we can we can talk to them too. They're they're part of the interview. And it's it sounds like it's the legacy of your mom. It's enjoying live entertainment and then putting it all together.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Yeah, it's been a very unexpected journey. If somebody would have told me that I was gonna end up buying a house in Baton Rouge and um and staying here and and meeting my partner and and doing what we're doing, that would have been just a wild fantasy that I would not have believed. So it's been a very surprising, wonderful journey, um, not without its challenges. You know, uh another part was I my background is in, you know, technology and um in software engineering. And over the last few years with the economy changing the way that it has, I've had just a series of layoffs. Um and it's been very difficult to secure work in that field. And so that's really, I want to say, forced me. Um it's guided me to really double down on my art and music and go for it in a way that maybe I wouldn't have otherwise, which has been hard and beautiful and all the things.

SPEAKER_04 43:11

Sounds like AI revenge, too. So when I saw your clip too, I was like, wow, this is refreshing because it looks like people actually put this together.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Oh yeah, we have a pretty strict policy of uh no uh AI art in our visual presentation. I mean, I guess a lot of software has artificial intelligence in it, but we're specific I'm specifically talking about like just full, you know, that dolly, you know, a AI generated art, which can be Yeah, and it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

It's in music, it's in songwriting, it's in video, and yeah, it's like everything refreshing. I'm I'm not a lot I and I've got a a bunch of shows where I talk to AI technologists on Both sides of this and artists. I had the uh illustrator of Aquaman. He's a DC guy, super cool. Dan uh Donagilio. He hates it. You can imagine. Like it's it's knocking on his office door, and he's personally threatened by it. So I've had all points of view. And you know, AI is something we all need to live with and adapt to, and it's got some useful tools. But just vis-à-vis your work, it's refreshing because it's super duper human. You got a bunch of real people in a real event, you got real people creating real content, and you've got real engagement between real people, and the screens are up there projecting your stuff, but it's not your usual digital, digital insanity. And that's a good antidote to the times right now, too, because the last thing you want to do is set everything up and have everybody, you know, doing selfies and doom scrolling, right? It's about being in the moment. Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Did you you you left the room when it was time to talk about your background?

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Well, it it's 90 plus degrees and you know the dogs were outside. I couldn't couldn't stand it. Um but yeah, so on on that note, that's uh that's plenty of a good segue to say that I've been playing music for 25 years uh and was uh a visual artist before that. You know, I was a kid, I wanted to be an illustrator actually and draw comics and cartoons and such. And I kind of I think saw the writing on the wall years ago when it came to illustration, like with Pixar and stuff, that like okay, the digital stuff is really taking over, and it's much less of what I thought it would be, you know, is physically like drawing and being a part of it. And so I got into playing music because that's just in the moment, real, like everything is happening right at that second, and you have to be fully present for it. Um so I started on cello in in middle school and played bass and high school and jazz band and played in a bunch of original bands and been in some cover bands and stuff. That's a really big scene here is cover band music here who's not as everywhere, I think. Yeah, yeah. And and so that's what makes you know that's what makes it possible to make a living here as a musician, because for the longest time it didn't seem like it was an option. There was so many other things you could do to actually make a decent living, and I was playing music on the side as a hobby, and it was plenty fulfilling, but uh around the time of lockdown and such, I tried to change careers a couple of times into things I thought that I might you know be more comfortable with doing for a long period of time, and ended up not working out, and I was playing enough music at the same time to pay my bills with just doing that.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

That's huge.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

That's huge and I realized like if yeah, if I can just pick up a few more gigs, do this a little bit more regularly, and make this the focus, I can actually make my living this way. And then this opportunity came along and it really once again it it just kind of evolved with each iteration of it that from that black box theater where we did our first show for 40 people came the first big opportunity from that was like the planetarium show. So now suddenly there's an opportunity to do something that I've also always wanted to do, which was kind of make film or movie or even video game like music. Um something because I love film, I love the visual art as well, and I want to contribute to that, but I am more versed in the music side of things after 25 plus years. So I get to perform almost a live score, is kind of what it's doing right now, and it's really it's really great.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

It seems like a natural evolution of what you've been doing, but again, kudos to both of you. And if you can make a living doing what you love, then the oldest cliche in the book is also the truest that you never have to work another day in your life. So it sounds like you've been doing that and you're headed toward that, and there's a lot of stuff that you could add on and repurpose with what you got going on. So, are you guys gonna live stream anything? Are you gonna record it, archive it? Uh, do you have plans for expanding it? You've got the event coming up in Baton Rouge, then you've got the one in California. So I know you guys are just kind of winging it, but when you add multimedia and you've got this stuff going on, you're building a social media audience. Where do you see yourselves headed? Is are you thinking that far or are you just going show to show? What's your what is there a grand vision to this?

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Well, I I tend to be the one with the grand vision and ideas, and kind of Taylor likes to focus on what's in the moment and helping execute the vision, and that's another way that we work really well together. Like sometimes I have to reel it in, and he's like, hey, let's just focus on what's in front of us. We kind of straddle those lines of vision into the nuts and bolts of what needs to get done.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

You guys are like Rush. I don't know if you Rick Beado on you. He's awesome. He just interviewed Getty and Alex, and you guys are like Getty and Alex.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Wow, that's that's a high compliment.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Which one's Getty, man? That's a good comparison, right? Taylor's like Alex, where Alex has an attention span of about about 27.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

Uh compared to Getty Lee, that's uh that's an interesting, um, interesting comparison. I like it.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

Yeah, well at least in terms of the dynamic you just shared. So you know, it's like having a short attention span and being super creative, and then the other one holding it together and then being focused and then getting it done.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Yeah, yeah. I really can go off on on vision tangents. Uh so I think the most exciting thing besides the the planetarium film is uh simultaneously. So we're gonna create the idea is to create that in a game engine that makes all of the assets re it can be repurposed for a VR experience. So offering this to folks that maybe um are confined to their home or it's just not as easy for them to get out to go to a theater to have this relaxing experience that we can bring it to them and they can just lay back with their headset and they can receive the transmission of of love and relaxation, and that is like really exciting. So I think if we can nail the planetarium film and the VR experience, which is very uh very ambitious, it feels very ambitious right now, that we will have really accomplished something. And um, I'm just kind of constantly trying to bring my focus back to that, you know, and really hone in and uh focus on the live shows and creating this film that can be distributed all over to lots of different people.

SPEAKER_04 52:06

Very cool, and it makes a lot of sense and it's introduced sky the limit kind of opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Yeah, right. We're trying to make it so that although being a part of it and performing it live is uh one of the greatest aspects of it for us, we want it to be able to take place without us for people to be able to listen to it, watch it, experience it, you know, on their own time in their own comfortable settings.

SPEAKER_01 52:38

And then maybe eventually we can help other artists do what we're doing, uh, which would be really fun to, you know, help people create their own dome show or uh something like that. Right.

SPEAKER_04 52:52

Because we care a lot about Honey Gold, the franchise, right?

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Yeah, we care a lot about empowering other artists to um do their work and be successful and receive, you know, resources and abundance from doing their work. And I think we're both really passionate about that. And you know, that's a very long-term goal. We need to get our stuff together and you know, kind of get to a place where we could really empower other artists in that way, but it's simply something that we think about, talk about sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

Very, very fun and and very on point. Hollywood right now is being turned upside down by indie artists, like the two movies that are really popular now, Obsession and Back Rooms. Yeah, those uh those are made by YouTubers. And talk about technology, you know. One teenager on Blender just cooked up some first person rooms, eerie yellow rooms with creepy pasta shit. Yeah, and uh and Hollywood is like, this is interesting, you know, this has got a pulse unlike Mandalorian, which is like an old tired franchise, and they kicked ass. And the reason they kicked ass is because it's a lot like what you guys are doing, which is young people with a fresh new vision, doing cool shut, cool shit, and it's not like revolutionizing the technology, it's taking the basic tools that are already there, right, and building a following and just going for it, right? I think that that's really refreshing and it's exciting, and thank you. We just need more of it, you know. Go for it, shake it up, be disruptive, and have fun. And it's contagious because if you feel good about what you're doing, other people are gonna feel good about what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Yeah, yeah, that's been the case so far, we've found, and um yeah, and I just want to say too, like, it's not just us. We've had so much help getting this going from the strangest of sources, even just having a conversation with uh a local musician that doesn't even live here anymore. He's just visiting, helped us out figuring out you know, stuff last night just because he he knows how to do some of that and we didn't, and people that can do the visual things that we can't do, and and the promotions we can't do, all of that. Like we we want the help and we want to give people the opportunity to do what they do best on this, you know, with uh with the right intentions and yeah, you know, they say that when you're when you're doing your purpose, like things flow.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

And it it's really been like that with this project. It's been charmed in that way, um, where we've just received so much support and we get what we need when we need it, and we're just you know believing that that's gonna continue to be the case and doing our best to deliver um on our promise of like a good show with a good experience for folks.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

Yeah, amen to all that. I I'm a I'm a creative person too, so I do a bunch of writing and I write scripts and books and I do all that stuff. And I came to the realization that I want to connect with people because writing is very solitary. You know what I'm saying? Like and I started all these podcasts wanting to help other people and connect with other people directly because we might have a thousand friends on social media, but we don't really know anybody, and the only way to really connect with people is to talk to them and have a conversation and get to know them. So I feel blessed for talking to creative people like you, uh arguing with people about politics on other shows, but we live in an age where it's so impersonal and it's so inhuman, so it's no accident the bots are taking over. We're letting them take over because we've absolved our responsibility to connect with other people. And it's great that you guys are so collaborative, and that's a good sign that you're in the right direction because, to your point, you're not just doing this alone, and you're not doing it selfishly just for yourselves, but you're sharing it. Right, and that that is awesome. So thanks so much for making time and telling us about your stuff. I'm gonna have links below for people to connect to your shows. Thank you. I'm gonna get this podcast out there in time for the the shows coming up in in late June, and then you're gonna be in California.

SPEAKER_01 57:42

Yeah, in San Francisco. So we we have a show June 25th at Louisiana's old state capital here in Baton Rouge, and then we have a show at Audium in San Francisco on June 28th, which is uh another nonprofit organization and a unique space. It they it the the space kind of looks like a spaceship from like the 1960s kind of sci-fi. It's got 127 speakers surround sound room, and um, we're deconstructing the show for that. So we're gonna have the visual aspect in the lobby so people can check out the visuals and the more sound designing stuff that we do as a part of the show, have some snacks and some drinks, and then make their way through uh a dark, they call it the labyrinth, and they come out into this really cool spaceship room is what I'm calling it. And uh we'll have some ambient lighting and some candlelight, and we're gonna do our thing in there in San Francisco. So it'll be a very different experience.

SPEAKER_02 58:49

At the audio.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Yeah, at audium.

SPEAKER_04 58:51

Sounds great. So congrats again on getting it going. Best of luck and best wishes to you.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

And maybe six months a year, we can check back in, see how things are going. And when you uh when you're at the uh what what do they call it? At the at the sphere. At the sphere, yes, you saw where I was going at where you're at the sphere in Vegas for honey gold, and I'll be like, hey, I I knew that's the role. I knew it was Sarah and Taylor. They were on my damn, they were on my damn podcast.

SPEAKER_03 59:22

We're headed, we're headed for the sphere.

SPEAKER_04 59:25

That's right, that's right. So good luck to you. Like, comment, share, everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much. And go to the shows, check them out.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Yeah, yeah. And if anyone would like to donate to help us create the full dome honeygold experience, there will also be a link on how to donate a tax deductible donation for uh our film.

SPEAKER_04 59:48

Cool, congrats, and thank you. Keep it going, keep it coming. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.