This is Ozarks at Large. I'm Kyle Kellams.
Destiny and Simon Marie are together. The musical duo Honeysuckle Jam, based in Eureka Springs — together a key word. They sing together, write together and want to bring us together through their music. That music is a blend of originals and covers they fine-tune to make as much their own as possible. Destiny fell in love with musical theater and Simon took to jazz, but both abandoned their passion for performance until they met each other.
Earlier this month, Simon and Destiny Marie came to the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio One to talk about their collaborative spirit — a spirit that even extends to how they selected the name Honeysuckle Jam.
Simon Marie: I grew up on a road called Honeysuckle Lane, and she wears a lot of honeysuckle perfume. So it was one of those things, like we kind of started thinking about honeysuckle and knew that we might want that name to be in there. And then one day Dez just literally looked over at me in the bed and was like, I think I know what our band name is. And she was like, Honeysuckle Jam. And we both just looked at each other like, that's totally it.
Destiny Marie: I feel like since high school, I wrote a little screenplay with my friends, and we really wanted to get to say "that's my jam" in it. And no one could say it in a way that didn't sound like it had been scripted. And I still remember that. And I think music is all about the jam. And even though we're just a twosome right now, it's about us jamming together. And when we get with other musicians, it's about us jamming together there too. So I feel like Honeysuckle Jam — I don't know, it reminds me of childhood, reminds me of being a kid and growing up and then getting to play music, which is our dream.
Kyle Kellams: How did music play a part in the two of you meeting?
Simon: No, actually, not at all. We met about 10 years ago now through a mutual friend of ours. And over time we started singing together a lot. We lived together before any of this stuff ever happened, and we would sing together occasionally. And she got me into doing some musicals. I got my degree in jazz performance. So we kind of all did our thing separately, and then slowly over time we started making more stuff together.
Kellams: I mean, that is so counter to what most — right? People that get together say, oh, well, we had this common interest in music and then discovered each other.
Simon: Right. Yeah.
Destiny: And I wasn't doing music like how he does music. I've been doing theater my whole life and did a lot of musical theater before this. So definitely going into making music together, deconstructing how to sing has been such an interesting thing, because singing in musical theater is so different than singing in a band.
Kellams: When and where was the first time you performed for others together?
Destiny: Well, do you think of that as at a gig? Or would you think of it as just in front of people?
Kellams: I want to hear both.
Destiny: OK. So for the first one, we started singing for our family about two to three years ago. We would have these little concerts next to the pool because my mom has a pool and we'd be like, come watch us sing a couple songs. And that was very fun. And then we moved to Rogers last year, and our first gig was at Brew's in Eureka Springs. That gig was really fundamental for us and a big reason why we ended up moving to Eureka. We started playing — it was for diversity weekend. And ever since then we've played every single diversity weekend. We've played at Brew's. So that's been kind of our little standing gig. Very special to us.
Simon: I've always loved music. I taught myself to play guitar when I was 11 or 12. I play multiple instruments. And so it's always been kind of my biggest interest. And Dez — she'll get going on music theory though, and I'll be like, I think you lost me.
Destiny: I think that's what's so cool about us, though — he grew up doing music a different way than I did. And so when we combine it together, he's challenged me to be a much better vocalist than I would have ever been before, because he's an incredible vocalist. He's amazing.
Simon: Thank you, baby.
Kellams: So musical theater — was there a favorite role or performance?
Destiny: I got to play Natalie in the musical "Next to Normal," which I had dreamed about since I was 15 or 16. I told somebody I was like, I want to be Natalie in "Next to Normal." And they were like, oh, well, you'd only get to play Natalie if it was like an all-Black family or something like that. You'll probably never get the chance to do that. And it was devastating. It broke my heart. And then I was 25, not a teenager anymore — like I'm past the window, there's no way I'll get to play Natalie. And I got cast in an all-Black family, which was such an incredible experience. It put a different connotation on the characters. I feel like it made us react to each other differently, and it was a very special experience.
And then I got to play Marta in "Spring Awakening" — another one of my high school dreams. So getting to do those two roles has taught me how much I should continue going after the things I dream about. And that even if things aren't working out in the moment, that does not mean they're not going to work out later. Because I quit acting and singing completely for five years before I ever got Natalie.
Kellams: Can I ask why you quit?
Destiny: I went to college, and that changes a lot of things. And I've always been a plus-size girl, and so I feel like when I went to college it really weighed on me how much I felt like I wasn't getting cast, even though I'd been cast a lot in high school. And I just got in my head about like, this is not for you, you can't do this. And I was really hard on myself. I still am really hard on myself.
Simon: She's really hard on herself.
Destiny: Yeah. But I do think that eventually I got to the point where I was like, I still want to do it. And I'm really grateful that I started doing it again, because my voice changed almost completely from high school to after college when I started doing stuff again. I saw a big change in who I was.
Kellams: Simon, jazz performance?
Simon: Yeah. So I played saxophone all through school, got my degree in performance, and I was kind of a big fish in a small pond with that. And I really wanted to go to this school and get my master's abroad. So I flew and auditioned for this school in Austria and I didn't get in. And so I was so bummed about it, and it really just — after that I put my horn down and didn't do music, at least professionally, for years. I kind of just kept playing guitar at my house in my bedroom away from everybody.
And then once me and Dez started playing together and I realized how much joy I felt playing with Dez and other people — because you can play music in your bedroom all day long, but it's kind of like talking to yourself, you know.
Destiny: Like, Simon has two full album-length CDs from when he was 16 that he never showed a single other person. And they're actually good. Like they're not even just, oh, this is so cute, you were making music. They're like, this was good. This is good for a 16-year-old in his room.
Simon: Yeah. And so I've always been kind of nervous to put myself out there. I can be pretty shy. And so that was probably my biggest hurdle, and something that has changed with us doing this, because we're both at a point where we're like, OK, we both really, really want to make music. It's nothing left to lose. Like once you've already given it up and come back to it and realized you do want it, it's just kind of like, OK.
And my brother died a couple years ago, and that was so painful. And it made me really realize how much I wasn't investing in myself the way I needed to, and how much he wasn't going to get to live anymore. And so I really wanted to get to live a little bit instead of constantly making myself so small because I was scared. And so I feel like I'm very grateful. I want to say something about him because he meant so much to me. And his death has changed my entire brain chemistry and how I decide to go about the world.
Kellams: What was his name?
Simon: Daniel.
Kellams: Would you like to perform something?
Destiny: Yeah. Absolutely.
Simon: All right. So this is our song, "Grim."
[Honeysuckle Jam performs "Grim"]
Kellams: That's fantastic. Thank you so much.
Destiny: Thanks for letting us sing.
Kellams: So both grew up in Central Arkansas, have lived in Rogers — now you're in Eureka?
Destiny: Yep. That's right. We love Eureka. I mean, Eureka is a creative hub for a reason. I do believe it's a space where your creativity is heightened. It's very interesting to move to a new place and try to get into a community, but it is so rewarding to get to be up there and just to go see all the art that's being made. We are not the only musicians up there. There are some truly incredible musicians in Eureka. Tons of inspiration and people to be inspired by. Eureka is a really cool place. It's special.
And some of the songs — I feel like we've been writing some great songs, and we didn't start writing those songs until we moved to Eureka. Part of that, I think, was the loneliness. We basically had work and we've had our time together to work on music. So I do think having such a small community has helped us feel like we can make the time to be writing regularly.
Kellams: Destiny, you were told as a young person that you probably wouldn't play a certain role because of your skin color. You put pressure on yourself in college. Is it important for you, as a Black person and a self-described plus-size person, to be in front of people — to show that performing is for all of us?
Destiny: I think it is really important for everybody to know that performing is for everybody. Performing is not just supposed to be for people who are — what would you say — conventional. I think it is for everybody, and we all have the ability to make art. So I teach at the Clearspring school, and that's been a big thing I've tried to teach my students this semester: you are an artist already. Even if your art isn't what everyone else would think of as art, it is art, and we should all be going after what makes us feel that way.
Kellams: Simon, you sequestered yourself when it came to music for a long time because of what happened in Austria. What do you think now that you're back out?
Simon: I think it's so important to just be the artist that you are. I realized, looking back after I found those old recordings of my music and listened to them — even I, at the time, was like, oh, this is trash. But listening to it as a grown adult, I'm like, wow, I was really making great music even then when I was just 16 years old.
And I'm a trans man. And so that has been — recently, you know, with everything that's going on, trans people are getting so much hate, and it makes me kind of want to retreat and not be out. But I have seen so many other trans people that are out there doing their art, performing — trans musicians that I look up to who are out there doing it — who have inspired me like, OK, they can do this, then I can do this too. And so that's been a big help.
Kellams: You both walked away from performing for a while and found each other. I don't mean this as a pun, but — do you think it was destiny that you got together?
Destiny: One thousand percent. I think we were always being led to each other. I really do.
Simon: Yeah. I mean, when we were roommates before, we used to walk around the house singing "You're the One That I Want" from "Grease." We used to walk around both singing that song, and it was like a huge thread throughout the whole time we knew each other. And now looking back on it and we're here — and all that time that we spent singing "you're the one that I want," and here we are, being together and performing. So yeah, one hundred percent. I think it's destiny, I do — Destiny.
Kellams: Destiny, Simon, thank you so much for coming. I cannot tell you how honored I am that this is your inaugural radio interview.
Both: Thank you. Thank you.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
