An Interview With…
Headband Henny!
Henry Parworth is a 21 year old artist from Kalamazoo, Michigan, creating indie-inspired r&b and hip hop tracks under the name Headband Henny. After his debut album ranked top 5 in his area, Henny’s passion for creating music is at an all-time high. His ability to expand in and out of his genre and create something new every time is beyond impressive to me. He’s also just a genuinely nice guy! Read our conversation below :)
Dylan: You're from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Tell me about it. What's it like?
Henny: It has a great underground music scene. In my neighborhood we have a bunch of house shows, so on any given Friday or Saturday night, there'll be different houses throwing shows in their basement. And, obviously, on social media, the addresses aren't public. So you kind of have to be in the know to hear about the shows, and then ask the admins of the house where the shows are at. But yeah, Kalamazoo is great. The underground music scene here was how I was able to get started and have the confidence to do shows and stuff.
Dylan: Did you ever play those smaller shows in your area?
Henny: Yeah, I did. I have a four piece live band with a drummer, a guitarist, a pianist and a bassist, and I just met them by going to shows, and they offered to play some of my stuff live. We've been able to do some cool stuff. A couple of weeks ago, we opened up for the All American Rejects in Dearborn. It was insane. They allowed us backstage with them, and we got to be on the stage while they were, and there were probably like, five to six thousand people in the crowd.
Dylan: No way! I always thought that Gives You Hell music video was the coolest thing ever when I was younger. Last question about your hometown - what do you think is the sound of Kalamazoo Michigan?
Henny: I'd say the sound of Kalamazoo Michigan is more midwest emo and indie music, so that's kind of my influence. I really like a lot of indie and alternative music, but I also like to give my hip hop spin to it. So it's part the music that I grew up listening to, and then the music that I'm surrounded by with all these midwest emo, indie, and alternative bands.
Dylan: I wanted to ask, how did you get into music originally? I know you had those house shows in the area, but was that what sparked your interest? Were you already into it?
Henny: I was always into music when I was younger. My sister had a piano, and I'd play that all the time. I found out when I was younger, I wouldn't say this was like a hidden talent, but I would be able to remember the lyrics for songs really easily, easier than most of my friends. I remember at one point. Have you heard of Eminem's Rap God?
Dylan: Yeah of course.
Henny: I used to be able to rap that song front to back, even the fast part. And that's where my love of hip hop started to grow. I started to venture out and listen to Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Isaiah Rashad and all those [artists]. When I was in high school I started writing. I didn't really take it too seriously at that point, I just had fun with it and wrote songs. Then I went to college to play soccer and wrestle but I got sent home because of covid, and moved in with my brother. One of his roommates was a mixing and mastering engineer, and had a full studio in his basement. Having the access to that kind of resource with somebody who had a degree in mixing and mastering, [was great]. I started making music with him, and then that's how I started to have professional level music.
Dylan: How'd you get the name Headband Henny?
Henny: When I was playing soccer in high school, everybody would call me Henny, and sometimes I'd pull up to practice with a headband. I don't know what it was, but it would give me superpowers or something. So everybody [would be ] like, '“Oh, Headband Henny’s here!”
Dylan: I want to talk about early stuff. You started in 2022, with a single called, Here I Go. Looking back after putting out your new single Slumdog, how do you feel like your sound has evolved over time?
Henny: I've been having a lot more fun with the music and [I’m] not putting too much pressure on myself. I put a lot of stress into things surrounding the [first single] release, but now I feel more comfortable making what I want to hear, rather than what other people want to hear. I don't factor that into creating music, and I'm definitely down to do like any genre that I like to hear.
Dylan: One song that stuck out to me was Henny’s Holiday. I loved that track and was stoked when I saw you’ve put out two of them. Are you gonna do a third?
Henny: I just want to make a Christmas song every year. When I was younger a lot of artists would have Christmas albums. And I love Christmas music, so that's definitely something I want to continue doing.
Dylan: Is Henny's Holiday going to be limited to Christmas, or can we expect a Halloween track? I feel like the beat switch on the second one fits that vibe.
Henny: That's actually a good idea. I've never thought of that, but that's something I'd love to do.
Dylan: Last year you put out your first album, Purple. How was the reception?
Henny: The reception was pretty good. It got top five albums of 2023 in West Michigan. And my live project was top 10 bands to watch in Michigan. It was just cool, we did a few sold out shows, one in Kalamazoo, two in the city called Grand Rapids, and we're about to go on tour at the end of this month. Releasing a body of work kind of legitimized what I was doing with Headband Henny and people around this area started noticing.
Dylan: Your most streamed track is One on One, and I was curious - did this song take off, right away? Did you feel pressure with the next tracks coming out to deliver?
Henny: That showed me how I just gotta take a lot of pressure off of myself. That song, One on One, was with my friend Micah, who I met playing ping pong at Kalamazoo College. When we released it in November, it was my least streamed song. Then Tiktok picked it up in February; we started posting a bunch of Tiktoks about it, and it started to gain an insane amount of traction out of nowhere. It went from our least streamed song to our most streamed song. Micah, who was on the song, got signed by Columbia Records. It was crazy to see how fast the song could go from zero to one hundred and it made me [consider] how the song did that. It was just one of those songs that you can play for your grandma or your uncle, but also your homies. It's very pop, but still gives like that new jack swing from the 90’s, which is kind of nostalgic. I think that's why the people enjoyed it. It kind of sounds like it's from a different time, but it's still modernized.
Dylan: What was the biggest hurdle in your career?
Henny: The biggest hurdle in my career is self doubt. I don't know, I just thought that I wasn't good for a while. I still have a lot of self doubt. But then I realized that music is a subjective thing, whether it's electronic music, or rap [etc.]. As long as you're expressing yourself in a way that you like, and that other people might enjoy, that's okay. People also just like when you're doing your own thing, and if you do it's bound to work.
Dylan: What do you think helped you overcome that?
Henny: Being surrounded by so many musicians and being able to collaborate with so many people and getting their perspective [helped]. It was great to hear people who are struggling with the same thing as me. All my friends are musicians, and so being able to hear from them and understand how they deal with it is kind of like therapy.
Dylan: I'm curious. Do you have any advice for new artists?
Henny: Man, I know everyone says this, but be yourself and hold yourself accountable. And, you know, listen to yourself and never give up. There's so many times, where it just didn't seem like any of the things I'm doing now were possible, but I just kept my head down and kept going and had fun with it. And as long as you're still having fun, that's still a reason to keep going.
