Eartha Harris
by Mister Mime
13th July 2021
Eartha Harris’s brand new EP 'Soft Apolalypse’ proposes a realistic interpretation of a word reserved for often dramatized global calamities. Eartha has actively incorporated social and environmental elements into her art for over two decades under her well-known alias ‘Living Light’ among other projects, and this self-titled branch out occurred as a natural development to satisfy her desire to give a separate life and identity to sonic expressions at faster tempi while maintaining a conscious message which is as relevant as ever.
The music seeks to paint such a picture that, as explicitly evidenced by recent times, the processes of growth and destruction happen continuously, in the now, rather than at some cinematic climax, and it will take our collective awareness in each moment to have hope for a better future. These groovy and grounded tracks bring these points to light, and the artist’s own description probably explains it best: “Cosmic dub house for the global dance floor”
MM: Can you tell us a bit about your new self-titled music project "Eartha Harris"?
EH: The Eartha Harris project started growing organically out of Living Light as I began having a desire to produce at faster dance tempos while trying to keep the Living Light sound. Eventually, I realized the direction I was going was becoming a sort of hybrid between dub techno and slower progressive trance and progressive house, and that the true sound the music wanted to become was actually being held back by trying to make the tracks still sound recognizable as Living Light. I also simultaneously felt a desire to return to the original psychedelic downtempo dub sound of Living Light. And so forming these into two different projects has felt liberating for both in that there was no longer that tension between the two worlds trying to sound like each other. Now both sonic entities are free to go wherever they want :)
Image Courtesy: Flashflood Studios
MM: Why are the EPs called “Soft Apocalypse” and “Mirror Suit”?
EH: "Soft Apocalypse" came to me while in Covid quarantine and is meant to symbolize the idea of an apocalypse occurring while everything looks and feels normal and for the most part comfortable - like the way we have all just been in our houses for the past year due to Covid 19. The track title "Reveal" gives a nod to the idea that the true meaning of the word apocalypse does not necessarily signify fire and brimstones, but actually "a disclosure or revelation" - which I’ve certainly seen in the sociopolitical tensions in the US over the last year. The current events have caused a lot of people to reveal their true colours, you could say, as well as a lot of hidden social issues coming to light to hopefully righted. "Twenty Twenty Won" (another track title) is basically a reference to how 2020 kicked our collective butts and got us paying attention to these important issues. I end the EP with "Glimmer" to signify the glimmer of hope I am seeing as we start to come out of the other side of Covid.
But the EP name and the album cover are also meant to signify the way climate change has been creeping upon us. I chose the piece "Ordinary Day" by Abraham Yael as the cover as I love the representation of a person walking casually in a spacesuit on what at first looks like Mars but is actually potentially Earth when you notice the blue sky. For a while during the peak of Covid, stepping out into the world armed with masks and sanitizers sort of felt a bit this way. But it's also a reminder of the greater looming issue of climate change and for us to keep paying attention and keep pushing for positive environmental solutions.
As for "Mirror Suit" (to be released) all I'm going to say at this time is that the titles are based off dreams.
Image Courtesy: Flashflood Studios
MM: Can you share some stories behind the making of the tracks, if any?
EH: So the first EP, Soft Apocalypse, actually has a history spanning over three years. The track "Glimmer" was a first attempt at writing a dance track three years ago which I had temporarily titled "Supernova". I did play it out at a few shows while I was still working on it, but it never quite felt like it was right. This was also while I was still trying to fit it into the "Living Light" sound. Over time, I realized it needed richer more textured basslines, completely different percussive elements, and for the melodic elements to be much more minimal, which is how it came to be the song it is today. You could almost see it as my sort of training track for the music of this project.
Reveal, on the other hand, was written just one year ago and occurred during the transition from Living Light to this project, which you can hear in some of it's elements. Then came Twenty Twenty Won, which was written just a few months ago after I finally made the decision to have this be a whole new project. And I feel like you can really hear the freedom in it as it's no longer trying to sound like Living Light at all. Instead, my intention was to take inspiration from dub techno and progressive house and add in elements of Pink Floyd and Underworld to create something entirely new. I would say this track is the best example of the new sound moving forward.
As for the upcoming Mirror Suit EP, I'm still trying to keep a lot of this secret so as to not spoil the big surprise, but I will say that all the tracks feature some beautiful modular synth melodies and textures by one of my favourite musicians, and it is being released on one of my favourite record labels.
Image Courtesy: Flashflood Studios
MM: Who are your musical influences?
EH: I have many, and probably not all ones that are immediately obvious. I already mentioned Underworld and Pink Floyd as having sonic influence in some of these tracks. Also of significant influence for me growing up was Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, and Peter Gabriel. In the mid-90s I was all about Janes Addiction and then discovered the beautiful music of Dead Can Dance, the German industrial act Einsturzende Neubauten, Skinny Puppy, and especially The Legendary Pink Dots - an amazingly talented and unique avant-garde psychedelic band from Amsterdam. They became a huge musical influence for me. Next came The Orb and The Saafi Brothers, who I discovered in the early 2000s. You can hear a lot of their influence in my music, and you can imagine how delighted I was to actually get the chance to make an official remix for the Saafi Brothers a couple of years ago and appear alongside both of them on the Youth & Gaudi remix album Liquid Sound Design put out last year. Then around the mid-2000s, I discovered Antix, Pitch Black, Tomic, Atmos, Vibrasphere, Sebastian Ledger, and the whole Iboga Label progressive house sound that I immediately fell in love with and have been in love with ever since. Along with that came the discovery of ambient dub techno like Echospace, which is what inspired a lot of the more spacious and atmospheric elements that I put in my music today.
Image Courtesy: Flashflood Studios
MM: As an electronic musician, how do you see a synergy between (human) nature and technology?
EH: It's funny you should ask this because back in the late 90s I had a solo project called "Project Sphere" where I wrote industrial synthpop with "natural" world beat elements and would dress myself up in various wires and cables and vines and leaves and sing about various social and environmental issues. I would open shows by pretending to grow out of the ground like a tree by casting my shadow onto a white sheet in front of me, with my arms covered in branches, and then I would tear through the sheet and step out dressed like a robot wearing all these metal parts as video projections of the amazon rainforest would sweep across the stage followed by shots of tanks and mushroom clouds. My whole thing was the pursuit of peace and the symbiosis of nature and technology. I felt it was possible to progress technologically in ways that are responsible and that even give back to the land, instead of exhausting our resources and destroying our ecosystems. Back in the late 90s, I didn't feel like anyone was having these conversations, and a lot of the time I felt like my art fell on dead ears. Now, of course, 25 years later, none of this is novel, but I swear it has felt like waiting for The Ents in Lord of the Rings to make a decision. At least we are finally now admitting that there is even a problem (well, most of us at least).
Image Courtesy: Flashflood Studios
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All Images courtesy of Eartha Harris and Flashflood Studios
