Brett Harris: A Southern boy with a British beat

Brett Harris grew up on the gospel of British pop, and now he’s preaching to the Triangle choir. This week he releases his debut LP Man of Few Words.

With a release party at the Nightlight on Friday, the Durham musician sat down with Assistant Diversions Editor Linnie Greene to talk tape recorders, the South and the wisdom of Lennon and McCartney.

Diversions: How and when did you become a songwriter?

Brett Harris: I got kind of a late start, I guess, because I used to sit down with the guitar or the piano, and things would come to mind. But either my attention span was too short or something would come up, and I’d get called away or distracted from what I was doing. And I’d just forget what I was working on.

So once my wife and I were visiting her parents, and we found, in an old closet, her brother’s old tape recorder. It’s one of those where you hit the play and record at the same time and use the old cassettes, and it’s painted in like these amazing early ’90s DayGlo colors. I think it was custom done. And so we thought, “This could be fun. This could actually be really helpful.” So we brought it home.

Dive: How did that method of recording affect your music?

BH: I think it taught me to have discipline. And it also taught me to be willing to commit to an idea. I think the Beatles, (John) Lennon and (Paul) McCartney, used to have this tenet that they held each other to that they would write, and if they couldn’t remember it the next day, it wasn’t worth pursuing. I don’t really follow that. Sometimes I’ll surprise myself with what I’ve done, and a lot of those ideas are songs that have ended up on this new album, and things like that, but a lot of the times, you know, it helps me to learn how to be more economical in my writing, to move past ideas that aren’t going to turn into anything.

Dive: You mentioned the Beatles. Where do you find artistic inspiration?

BH: I am very much inspired by the music of the ‘60s, the early ‘60s especially. They were the British Invasion groups. And a lot of that’s because it’s fantastic music, but growing up my family didn’t have a lot of music in the house. Nobody else played an instrument, except my mom, who sight read, and played piano out of a hymnal, you know. I think it’s kind of that Southern institution of sorts.

There really wasn’t a lot of music at home, except she did have her old Beatles records, and she would play those and pick those out on the radio, and we’d get to hear them. But a lot of just classic pop music is where I got my start. It kind of branched out from there. I’m inspired and influenced by anything that’s good. The fun part is having that journey of finding out what it is that you like, finding out who your influences are. Just discovering new music, both new and current stuff and stuff that’s super old.

Dive: What was the recording process like for your new album? Did you integrate the tape recorder at all?

BH: We didn’t do the tape recorder for the record. We tried on one track, it was this old loop I had made, and that got banished properly, but maybe that’ll surface one of these days. I had done a couple of EPs before, and I did them in a studio where it was a great environment. Loved working there.

But at the same time I felt a lot of pressure on myself to get things done quickly. Because, you know, time is money in a studio. So it was a great experience, and I was happy with the result. But I was looking for something that would afford me the opportunity to be a little more experimental — maybe not so much in a sonic attempt but just in the way I approached each song — and gave each song its due diligence.

Working at Arbor Ridge with Jeff Crawford really afforded me that opportunity. We were able to co-produce the record, and it was the first time also that I had someone to collaborate with in the confines of the studio. Plus, it’s just a really great, laid-back environment. You know, it was the type of music that you make with a dog laying on the living room floor.

Dive: What were you listening to as you made the album?

BH: Oh gosh. Wow, at the time I was really listening to a lot of George Harrison records, a lot of Harry Nilsson, which I love — a lot of different stuff, actually. I was influenced a lot by what I saw going on vocally, and sort of this really interesting move that’s a return to pop music, which makes me really happy because it’s some of my favorite stuff. I love a good rock ‘n’ roll song, and I love soul music, too. I listened to a lot of soul music. I don’t know if this record has much soul music to it. There are a couple of tracks that might.

But yeah, I think my influences were kind of all over the place going into this because I had such a long time and was just constantly going and finding new records or finding old records, and just trying to absorb as much as I can.



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.