Formation - November 2015
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The Harriets began as two solitary songwriters, who'd been looking to form a band after playing the Leeds open-mic circuit solo on acoustic guitars.
Thrown together at a house party, we found ourselves making a jangly, melodic sound that owed a little to the Smiths and a little to the Beatles. With a natural baritone-tenor vocal harmony on top, and tons of material between us, we had a recipe to work from. |
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Gigging
After playing a few small shows as a two-piece, we took on a drummer, Matt, and started playing some bigger venues and building up gigging experience around Yorkshire. At the same time, we stepped into the recording studio to work on our first 4-track EP with local producer and friend Zach Pygall.
The Harriets EP - Dec 2016
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Our live shows that year culminated with the launch of the EP at Wharf Chambers in Leeds, which we put on ourselves to resounding success.
Fiction is Not Imagination, reviewing the night, celebrated our 'authentic and exceedingly charming chemistry on stage' and 'incredibly varied' set. |
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New drummer - new direction
Matt departed the band soon after the launch and we were faced with the question of how to continue. Back as a two-piece but with some big gigs coming up, we had a search for a new drummer.
Ben knew Ryan from local band Purple Thread from a while back, and we brought him on board. His quick learning and powerhouse style propelled us through a string of great shows and we realised that with Ryan happy to just be at the kit live, we could continue to write, self-produce and document our work as a songwriting team. With this in mind, we set about working on a new single - we had the gear to record it in-house, and no shortage of songs to pick from.
Ben knew Ryan from local band Purple Thread from a while back, and we brought him on board. His quick learning and powerhouse style propelled us through a string of great shows and we realised that with Ryan happy to just be at the kit live, we could continue to write, self-produce and document our work as a songwriting team. With this in mind, we set about working on a new single - we had the gear to record it in-house, and no shortage of songs to pick from.
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Home recording - spring/summer '17In the spring and summer of '17, we recorded 'The Hangers On' and 'Celandine' in Dan's flat, on his 32-track Tascam recorder. We released it with the valuable support of Jumbo Records in Leeds, getting airplay on BBC Introducing and winning us support and funding from Higher Rhythm and Help Musicians UK's Breakthrough programme.
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Bingley Music Live
Our biggest show to that point was at the end of that summer, when we were one of four bands selected in a local competition to play the major UK festival Bingley Music Live. Our contacts expanded in local radio and among other bands as we took to the Discovery Stage and played a set on 4th September 2017.
Charity event
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Harriet Who?
After the success of the ‘Hangers On’ release, we wanted to DIY record once again, but go a step further, both in terms of product and promotion. We decided to release ‘Harriet Who?’ as a more continuous and conceptual piece, with 'Television,' and an intro and outro track. Even more, we video documented every aspect of the recording period to put on social media. The idea was to be more transparent going forward about our creative process and to include the audience in what we were up to.
This new process served us really well and the single was played on BBC 6 Music by Tom Robinson.
He said, "To me, their song Television sounds like a lost classic recording from CBGB's era New York, which in my book is high praise indeed".
He said, "To me, their song Television sounds like a lost classic recording from CBGB's era New York, which in my book is high praise indeed".
The new, improved Harriets
Our ethos going forward is to capture as much of ourselves making music as possible.
Follow our YouTube to see where we've been and what we've been working on.
Follow our YouTube to see where we've been and what we've been working on.
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