Alternative rock singer-songwriter honestav is having a stellar year, and with a massive tour underway, things are only about to get bigger for the star.
Of course, Av’s success wasn’t always guaranteed. He came from a broken home with both parents struggling with addiction, and lost his brother when he was a teenager. In time, his focus turned to songwriting as a way of processing his troubling experiences. He proved quite prolific, releasing more than a hundred songs in the span of two years.
With a unique fusion of alt-rock, folk and hip-hop sounds, he made a name for himself with viral TikTok hits, including “Stuck On The Floor” and “Growin’ Pains,” eventually bringing him to today. Av released his chart-topping sophomore album Sweet American Boy this summer, which includes the smash single “Crash First” featuring mgk. The Sweet American Boy Tour is also currently underway as he brings the new album across North America before taking it to Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
It’s an exciting time for Av, and we got to learn all about his latest music and the things that make him one-of-a-kind as our Man Crush Monday. Read our full interview with him below.
(Photo credit: Austin Simkins “Salty”)
Name: Avrey “Av” Freeman
Hometown: Pierce City, Missouri
Birthday: April 17
1. honestav released his latest album, Sweet American Boy, this summer.
honestav: The Sweet American Boy album deals with a lot of self-reflection; a lot of self-worth type of thoughts are in the album and every single song.
Going on the road with these songs is so sick. The songs on this album feel more like music to me. They’re personal, still, but they’re music. So playing them live at the shows, it feels like there are still people that are there to hear the words and feel the feeling of the song, but there are people that are there to just enjoy the beat and the rhythm.
2. June also saw the release of “Crash First,” his viral collaboration with mgk.
honestav: “Crash First” was just a real-life moment that we had. Kells (mgk) is a friend of mine and we were just in a studio together experiencing that. I think “Crash First” is a human moment. It’s a real life thing that was going on between two grown men. The track itself means a lot to me because of what we talk about in it.
I also thought it was really cool to hear him open up about his dad because he’s this A-list celebrity and people don’t think of him as a regular human being. So I thought it was really cool to hear him open up and come down to ground level with me. I realized whenever I was working with him how much his writing has inspired me while I was coming up because he’s unc. So it was just cool to see it all come together.
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3. His favorite animal is a classic.
honestav: The first thing that came to my mind was a giraffe because it’s cute.
4. To get in the right mindset, he likes to commune with the universe.
honestav: I talk to the universe out loud. That’s my ritual. It’s my good luck charm. Talk to it out loud in front of everybody.
5. He says his Aries zodiac sign describes him perfectly.
honestav: I’m an Aries to the fullest. I’m exactly what you think of when you think of an Aries: exuberant, loud and outspoken.
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6. He adores dreary weather.
honestav: I love the rain. I love the thunderstorms. I like a tornado. Tornadoes are probably my favorite type of weather.
7. If he could pick anyone from history to be his mentor, he wouldn’t change a thing.
honestav: Juan Madrid, my manager.
8. Who’s his biggest celebrity crush?
honestav: What is this, a set up? Her name is Curteise. Or they call her Curty on Instagram. She’s funny as hell. She’s bad.
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9. In three words, he describes himself as “the f***ing man.”
10. He likes to play basketball to pick himself up when he gets discouraged.
11. If there’s one thing honestav wants his fans to know about him, it’s that he’s a good person.
honestav: Maybe I’ll mess up and do bad things, but I’m an actual good person. And I know that. That is kind of like a fallback where I make sure that I make good moral decisions because whenever I read a bad comment on Instagram, it’ll mess me up. If I’m living bad for a week and I’m doing all the wrong stuff and somebody says something bad about me, it’ll mess me up. But if I’m doing it right, if I’m doing what I can do right, and I’m being a good moral person, whenever people say messed up stuff, I don’t care about it.
For even more on our musical Man Crushes, click HERE to discover everything you wanted to know about “Euphoria” artist Lamar Morris.
