Sweet sounds of Honeygrl — Abbey Doerre — hit Minnesota’s airwaves
"Hearing my song 'He Likes a Girl!!!' play on The Current was a huge achievement for me," says Abbey Doerre. "It's always been a dream of mine to hear my own music on the radio, so that was a big moment."
Her song was played on a statewide broadcast of The Current's "The Local Show" on Oct. 13. The program explores Minnesota's local music scene.
Doerre, a 22-year-old who grew up in Rochester and moved to Minneapolis this past July, performs her music under the moniker honeygrl. The name is fitting since the honey she's pouring into ears is certainly catching more listeners than the proverbial vinegar.
"I can't remember a time where I haven't been interested in music," says Doerre. "From an early age I always knew it was the one thing I needed to do."
She participated in choir from her elementary years through high school and started learning how to play guitar when she was 14 from an instructor who taught at Rochester's former Avalon Music. She attended classes in the music production program at Rochester Community and Technical College when she was 19, an opportunity that gave her access to resources that allowed her to record her original songs.
One of Doerre's earliest memories of loving the experience of performing publicly was participating in her high school talent show in 10th grade.
"I performed 'Vienna' by Billy Joel on my guitar, and I had done performances before, but that was definitely the most people I've ever played for," she says. "It filled me with such a unique energy that I've never felt outside of performing."
The first public show that Doerre booked was at Rochester's Forager Brewery this past May. Before that, she'd performed a few times at Café Steam's monthly open mic. After playing the open mic, Doerre says her friends encouraged her to try to book some shows.
With a little legwork, Doerre managed to book shows at Mall of America and the Rainbow Stage at Twin Cities Pride.
"Because I had always wanted to play the rotunda at Mall of America, and Pride is a very important event to me as a bisexual person, so I just Googled and looked up if there were any applications or any opportunities," Doerre says. "And I was able to email the organizers and snag some spots to perform in those shows. I'm super grateful for those, and I really want to do more shows on that level."
Doerre's music is a mixture of pop-punk and folk. She gets inspiration from bands like Fall Out Boy, Destroy Boys and Billie Eilish. Though she is working towards releasing her first EP "Chrysalis," she already has several singles streaming including "June," which came out earlier this year.
When Doerre first started recording her songs, she recorded them in her bedroom. For her two most recent releases, she recorded at Rochester's Carpet Booth Studios, where she worked with young local producer Jack Liedel.
"I'm super lucky that his influences are very similar to mine in terms of songwriting," says Doerre. "These songs seriously wouldn't be what they are without his guidance. We've been working together since January of 2024, and I'm so excited to share what else we've been working on."
The songwriting process Doerre uses involves a lot of free association. She tends to start with lyrics first and add melody and harmony later.
"Usually what I find myself doing is opening up my notes app and just writing down every thought that comes into my head when I'm feeling some sort of way," she says. "After that, I skim through what I've written and turn those thoughts into lyrics. For instrumentation, I tend to just mess around on my guitar and see what sounds good."
Doerre encourages other young artists to put themselves out there like she did. She urges them not to fear trying things that might lead to failures.
"There are so many musicians on the planet, and so many people, there's bound to be a handful of people that love what you're creating," she says.
Music has been a way for Doerre to turn her emotions into art.
"As a teenager, I really struggled with finding ways to share how I was feeling, and being able to write it down and make something out of the emotions I am experiencing is really validating and shows that what I'm feeling is not only real, but capable of being turned into something beautiful," she says.
Honeygrl's honey-do list includes completing her upcoming "Chrysalis" EP. With several songs already in the works for the project, she hopes to release it later this year.
