Pictures: Harry Strange – press.
Peachy Magazine caught up with the rising artist Harry Strange before the release of his new single Four in the Morning to have a chat about vulnerability in the writing process, inspirations, and much more.
Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of your new single Four in the Morning?
It was inspired by someone I was sort of seeing some time last year, and whilst I knew it wasn’t anything serious, I sort of hoped it might have become something more substantial? ‘Four in the Morning’ is almost a calling out on someone’s bullshit. The whole you’re saying one thing but doing another, but I can see through it. I wanted this song to feel like that moment you put your middle finger up and are just like, you know what, f*** this.
Listen to Four in the Morning by Harry Strange while reading the interview:
Your EP’ Crying at the Party’, and your lyrics, in general, have a very personal feel to them, how do you manage to put such personal and raw emotions into your work? How do you handle emotion and vulnerability when writing?
I am extremely lucky to work with an insanely talented producer called Brookfield, who is also my best mate in the world. We tell each other literally everything, and because of that, I feel that whatever we write is just incredibly honest and authentic. There’s no part of me that gets uncomfortable when telling him something that’s going on with me, whereas sometimes when I’m working with someone, I don’t know too well, there are certain walls that I just tend to keep up. That’s nothing against them; it’s just I always feel very comfortable when working with someone I’m close to.
“I think the most important thing for me when it comes to my music is that it just stays true to me and that I just keep doing what I want to do.”
Harry strange
What’s the most important thing for you regarding your music?
I think the most important thing for me when it comes to my music is that it just stays true to me and that I just keep doing what I want to do. I guess that sounds somewhat selfish, but I feel that if I were to start creating music for anyone other than myself, it would lose authenticity, perhaps.
Do you have a specific song of yours that stands out as something special to you either because of the process or the meaning behind or something third?
There’s a song that I haven’t released yet, which I wrote at the beginning of the year and is almost an open letter to myself. It’s some of my favourite writing, so I’m super excited to release it. Another reason I love it so much is it sees me branching into a genre that I’ve loved for so long but haven’t really explored yet, so that’s definitely an exciting part of it.
Who or what has inspired you in developing your sound?
This is going to sound incredibly cliche, but I think Billie Eilish has actually played a much larger part than I realise. Not only because her music is incredible but more because she doesn’t care what genre a track is or if there’s a coherent sound, she just makes what she wants to make. I definitely feel like I got so caught up in maintaining a ‘vibe’ or sticking to my singer-songwriter lane that I forgot what I actually liked. I found this EP so refreshing because I just didn’t really care what genre a song fell into or if it fitted with my other releases. I really felt that I was just making songs that I would love to be listening to, and I hope that shows in the music.
What are your plans for 2020?
Well, I’m hoping to graduate…that would be great! But after that, I’m moving back to London, which will most likely involve a lot of part-time jobs (if anyone wants to hire me drop me a message plz) but then hopefully just a lot more music.
