Welcome to AP&R, the place we spotlight rising artists who will quickly turn out to be your new favourite.
Harmony, as soon as one-half of LA indie outfit Girlpool, is tapping into one other realm. The singer-songwriter is stepping out with a dreamy, distinctive solo act that serves because the artist’s first formal debut into the world of pop. Smiling into the digicam with a mouth stuffed with tooth gems that glint within the sunny bed room she calls me from, Harmony tells me concerning the expertise of rising out of a style the place she’d discovered success, and leaving it behind for a sound that felt extra suited to the girl she’s turn out to be. Though Harmony’s debut venture Dystopia Girl does pop justice, it’s miles from bubble gum. It’s deeply poetic spun sugar—woven via with spirited, considerate lyrics which can be constructive with out being cloying or synthetically delicate.
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This pure, refreshing tackle pop music didn’t come from years within the trade perfecting the crowd-pleasing style, gearing as much as meet a mainstream viewers based mostly on analytics—relatively, Harmony’s path to pop was each uncommon and delightful, stuffed with self-actualization, mysticism, and melody-filled dreams. After years within the alt-rock and indie bubble, stewing and singing about melancholy, heartbreak, and lifeless ends, the scene that had as soon as been a haven started to really feel stifling. With maturity and expertise had come confidence for Harmony, and he or she has been adamantly pouring these emotions and realizations into Dystopia Girl, the album she has been each gracious sufficient to share and converse on with AP, unpacking the tracks that got here to her in one other realm and breaking down the second she realized she might, and would, be joyful.
[Photo by Skylar Newman]
So this is your venture—your venture. Have you been ready a very long time for this second?
Yes, I’ve at all times been experimenting. Basically, I’d been making pop—like, my iteration of pop music—since 2016 or ‘17 and on my computer, demoing things terribly. Some of it is still online, but I was just putting it up at the time by myself. But now, this is my first legitimate, okay, I’m doing this moment, which is really exciting.
What do you think makes your iteration of pop different? What sets it apart?
I feel like it still has the songwriter lyricism, the way the songs are written isn’t as formulaic. It’s extra flowing, however it’s nonetheless sonically poppy. Overall, it’s much less structured and extra idea-driven than refrain pushed.
Do you’re feeling such as you’re making an attempt to play for a special viewers than you probably did beforehand?
I do not suppose it is for the viewers who was listening to Girlpool once we first began, most likely in 2014 or ‘13. But it relies upon as a result of I really feel like as my style has modified as an artist, and what I’ve been desirous to make has modified, I’m certain the style of people that have listened to Girlpool or music I’ve made prior to now has modified as nicely. So usually talking I might say it is like a fairly totally different vibe, however has the identical coronary heart. The spirit of it is the identical, however identical to the sound of it is totally different.
How do you’re feeling about coming into a “new era?” Is there fear around it?
I feel like it’s confusing because like Girlpool was so incredible and such a gift for me and Avery as artists. It taught us both so much, but it also kind of bound us in the way that we were in a band structure and perceived the entire time through the project. We grew so quickly after we had started, it was like that the precedent we set was so strong that we were almost constantly disappointing our initial fan base. Now it feels a little bit like there’s more freedom because there’s no precedent, you know? For people who follow me on social media, who’ve seen my [solo] demos for years or who know the podcast, they know the vibes. This is really unsurprising honestly. But yeah, if you’re just like an early Girlpool listener and see this, you’re gonna be like, what in the goddamn hell is that. [Laughs.]
I can imagine it’s easier to be yourself as a solo artist than to do so in a band that you’ve been in for years, and essentially grown up in. With this project that you’re putting out, would you say this is a truly authentic version of you?
It’s just sides. There are so many sides. What’s being shown at a given time is what you’re at peace with. As a child, I had been obsessed with pop music and pop culture, but I felt like such a reject in LA that I grew to hate the things that I loved. And that’s why indie and punk scenes were so rewarding for me, was because I really felt like there was nowhere else for me. I have endless gratitude for that culture and being able to make work in that genre. But I think as I’ve grown older, I’ve overcome the perception I had of myself not having space or being allowed in mainstream media. My ability to accept and want to do certain things has changed… I was an outcast as a kid and I think it impacted my brain in a way that was just so ridiculous. Now, doing this feels like a part of myself I haven’t gotten to express yet. Finally, I have made peace with wanting to express it.
It’s rare to hear someone talk about pop music in that way, as actually being the truer form of self. I think, especially in the alternative world, there is a stereotype about pop music is that it’s synthetic, it’s fake happiness, and the truest form of authenticity is heavy music. I gravitated towards punk as an outsider kid, too. I saw people who looked tough, who were expressive, and I followed. But it’s interesting to hear about your journey toward pop as a form of growth, it’s incredible.
I don’t even feel like making indie rock was ever inauthentic. And making pop music is equally not inauthentic. They’re both authentic. It’s just what I am eager to show right now—it might be a new expression for me to share, but it’s not new for me.
Authenticity can’t really exist in black-and-white, anyways. For anyone.
Yeah, the authentic self is such a fun and entertaining human thing we do. We’re like, oh, are you real or not? But it’s really about whatever you’re experiencing in a moment and the way you’re reacting to it that is authentic. When I first started making music, I was like, do I really care about this? Or is this just something I’m doing because it’s cool. I was so fixated on that idea. And it’s just like, it will stunt you if you’re constantly analyzing reality. Just continue to exist in the moment and the real thing will arise.
It seems like it’s more about taking a litmus test of are you comfortable with yourself right now? But sometimes not being comfortable with yourself is also a good thing too, for artists.
Everything is just how you look at it too. Nothing is bad, it’s just where you’re sitting in the room.
[Photo by Skylar Newman]
What’s your favorite track?
There’s different value in all of them and they’ve all been really cool moments for me. But I think the title track is probably my favorite. I really like the metaphors in that song, and the poetry in it is an effective mantra for how I view the world. “Good Things Take Time” was like the primary tune the place I felt like, oh my god, I’m happy, and moving towards happiness and I’m making the choice to feel differently about my life. That was the first song that I’ve written that I really felt like was coming from a place of joy and it was really so crazy to do that.
It’s interesting to even think about good songs coming from a place of joy. I feel like we have this preconceived notion inside and outside of the music industry that the greatest tracks, albums, and art come from great pain. That you have to be heartbroken to be inspired.
It’s so true. I felt that way forever. In terms of Girlpool’s music, the song “Fault Line” is a huge mark of who I was for most of my life. It’s kind of like being trapped in this cycle of suffering, making bad decisions for yourself but you just can’t stop but you willingly do it because you’re scared to break out and become something else. Then I wrote “Good Things Take Time”, three weeks after “Fault Line” came out and it was the craziest thing because I felt like once “Fault Line” was out in the world, it would be so cathartic I would become a different version of myself. Then “Good Things Take Time” came to me in a dream just weeks later. It was all chemical, mystical, deep, and spiritual.
Are a lot of your creative processes grounded in the spiritual and mystical realm?
Honestly, sure. But I really feel like the whole lot in life is, in a method. It’s not even about my processes—I understand most of life as a really non secular and mystical expertise. The tune, “I’m So Lucky”. The melody simply was in my head the day earlier than, and the primary line got here to me in a dream, too. I used to be dreaming about this person who was freaking with my head— nicely, I used to be freaking with my very own head on the time projecting on this freaking particular person. And I awakened and I had this line in my head! I hadn’t seen them in a very long time and it was like “You’re boycotting reality, so you come into my dreams.” So there is undoubtedly a mystical dream component. I do not know, I’m nonetheless figuring that out, as a result of I got here to my mother in her dreams earlier than I used to be born and instructed her my identify. So I really feel like there is a bizarre factor with me and dreams that I have not absolutely tapped into but that I like have to discover extra absolutely. [Laughs.]
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