Artist Spotlight: Honore

The young and upcoming R&B star Honore' (honor-ray) is a singer/songwriter/producer, hailing from Altadena, California. His Creole (African American & French) and Pilipino roots give his "neo-soul" sound a distinct flavor that fuses influences such as Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Brian McKnight, and Musiq. His myspace states that "He describes his music as 'positive music for all ages, without any bounds or limitations.'" BakitWhy had the chance to catch up with this smooth R&B star and he gave us a "sample sample" of his music:

In early 2003 Honore' teamed up with Trek Life and brought forth a soulful, hip-hop track called “Wonderful,” produced by Spontaneous. This song was picked up by Hidden Beach/Sony music and placed on a compilation CD called “Hidden Hits.” Soon after, a music video for "Wonderful" was directed by up'ncoming Director Bobby Torres. It was this experience that led to Honore's 1st music video, "Good Love”.

In 2004/2005 Honore' recorded his debut Cd “Better Man” with Producer Mike Cee from the Arkiteks- (who produced for Babyface, Janet Jackson, Blackstreet). Throughout 2005 Honore' toured within the US with various overseas Filipino Artist such as “ Vina Morales, Erik Santos and American Idol Season 3 Finalist Jasmine Trias”

Summer 2005, Philippine radio stations “Magic 89.9 and The Wave 89.1” began airing Honore's remake version of “Lets Stay Together”. Which was well received by the Filipino community and ended up 2 on the radio charts. In July 2006, Honore' appeared on many of the popular Filipino TV Shows “ Eat Bulaga, SIS, SOP, Star Talk, and Unang”, and also opened for The Pussycat Dolls at The Araneta Coliseum in front of 14,000 fans. Fall 2006 Honore' continued to tour with Jasmine Trias and Kris Lawrence in the US.

In spring of 2007 Honore' filmed two music videos - "Tears in Heaven" a remake dedicated in memory of his father and the prideful "Pinoy Love" featuring American Idol (2004/3rd Season) Finalist Jasmine Trias. In May 2007 Honore' was 1 of 2 finalists (out of 450 artists) in the online music video contest, "MusicNation". He was the nation's unanimous choice through online voting and placed 2nd due to judges' final votes. In July of 2007, the “Pinoy Love” music video debuted on MTV Asia. As well as the major radio stations in the Philippines.

In December 2007, Honore' competed in an online music video competition “Famecast.Com”. Out of 60 worldwide artists, Honore' won the contest and became the Hip-Hop/R&B Fenom in Season 3. Honore' received worldwide recognition and appeared in major music magazines such as “ Billboard and Spin”.

Honore is currently recording his worldwide debut CD entitled “Undeniable' which is due for release Fall 2008 with Production from, “Speeshbeats, Mike Cee from The Arkiteks, and EJ Cabigting. It was this experience that allowed Honore to establish Banana Gravy Productions in partnershp with Music Video Director: Bobby Torres..."BobGenius".