The Power of Harper Finn

Any music lover knows that feeling. That powerful feeling they get when a certain song glimmers across the Spotify suggestions, or sparks on the radio, and all they want to do is dance. That feeling when the message cuts deep—deeper than anything—and they circle around so it can play again and again and again.

Music has a certain way of barraging its way under the skin and stapling itself to the soul, to be remembered for later or to be associated with new experiences. At this year’s Grammys, the power of music was described best by singer/songwriter Jon Batiste when he won Album of the Year. “It’s like a song or an album is made,” he said, “and it has a radar to find the person when they need it the most.” No truer words have been spoken.

For Auckland-based musician, Harper Finn, music in any form has given him that feeling. It’s no surprise—he was born into New Zealand music royalty. Born in Auckland to Split Enz and Crowded House member, Tim Finn and TV producer, Marie Azcona, his house was full-to-the-brim with sound. During his highschool years at Takapuna Grammar, he really fell more in love with music, taking great inspiration from his music teacher.

By age 18, he had become a member of an eight-piece hip-hop group appearing at a wide range of venues and really getting a taste for performing to an adoring crowd. Since releasing his first solo single, Look Who’s Sorry Now in 2018, the young Kiwi artist has made himself into a real pursuable asset to New Zealand’s music scene. He has put out a raft of music, even winning Breakthrough Artist of the Year at last year’s Aotearoa Music Awards. Harper is surely an artist to watch out for.

The sound he produces is new-age and offers light and dark, soul and heart. Each of his singles gives you that feeling, it seems, and makes listeners just want to get up and dance. Upon M2 sitting down with Harper, he was getting ready to release his debut EP into the world – NEWCOMER, out June. With a taste of the new and the old, his upcoming EP promises to take the music industry by storm.

First off, can you give me a little backstory into how you found music?

I found music at a very, very early age because my father is a musician. Some of my earliest memories are of him and the piano around the house. As a toddler, I remember waddling around—the piano was right where my eye-level was—and my dad would be playing.

My mum was a massive music fan too, so she was always playing The Clash, Run DMC, The Beach Boys, The Zombies and New Order. I was very lucky to have both sides of the equation. That made music an ever-present thing in my life.

What other musical artists inspire your own sound?

I really love Tame Impala. I think Tame Impala were huge when they first came onto the scene because their music is fun to listen to and also to talk about. Their sound is just fantastic melodies, great grooves and beats. Those are two cornerstones of what I love to make. I love melodies that move you and grooves that make you want to dance. I think they heavily influence and inspire me.
Daft Punk too—another group that really inspires me a lot—with the way they use meaty bass-sound and mix that analog and organic electronic. I try to find that balance.
Christine and the Queens, who’s a great French artist, is brilliant. I love the way Christine dances, the way the music transfers from an audio experience to a physical experience. I’m someone who loves to dance and move to my music. Those three artists have shades of everything that I do in them.

So you like to balance between concept music and dance-party?

Totally. I want songs that you can dance to and move to. I want listeners to feel great or you can sing them in your car. I want the songs to be able to be played on both sides and allow you to have that yearning, that melancholy.

I think music is the most powerful when it is a complete release. I try to do that by writing all my songs on the piano so their bare bones can be accompanied on the ivories or acoustically. If you can get everyone involved and enjoy a piece of music by simply playing it on a guitar or piano, you’ve got a good song.

What can listeners expect from your upcoming EP, NEWCOMER?

It’s a collection of old and new songs that touch on the idea of having new experiences for the first time. It’s all in the title, right. First time falling in love, opening your heart for someone, dancing for the first time, singing for the first time. It’s my first EP of work I’ve ever put out.

We constantly have new experiences and have things happen to us. I want people to be able to all collectively feel unified with the sentiment, especially seeing how the world’s going right now. The EP really taps into that. At the moment, everyone sort’ve wants to be a new person in a new city and everyone wants a new set of surroundings. We’ve all been stuck in the same place for so long, especially with Covid.

NEWCOMER is quite genreless too. I don’t want people to put their finger on what it sounds like. I want them to have a new experience listening to it.

The reason I put old songs on the EP is very much because I want it to feel like the way the world was. I feel like everyone’s coming to music at their own time. Timelines for me have become quite unimportant. I’m more interested in putting out great music and hoping that people will get turned onto it when they want to.

Everyone is adjusting to coming into that ‘new normal’. Did you find the lockdowns were good for inspiration? Or was it quite creatively jarring?

It was incredibly jarring, for sure. You don’t realise what inspires you until you don’t have it. It’s seeing people, or going to certain places, doing certain things. It just made the world feel different. In turn, I wasn’t being inspired by the world.

For me, it was quite difficult to write. I tried to write here and there, but everything became a lot slower. There was a pressure to do something really amazing and be super productive. I think there was that initial phase where everyone was trying to achieve and work at the same pace that they used to be. We’re lucky here in New Zealand, lockdowns at the first part of the pandemic went fairly well. They weren’t as long as the rest of the world. In those periods out of lockdown, I found my way back into songwriting.

Congratulations on your success at last year’s Aotearoa Music Awards. How did that feel getting those honours, even before releasing your first EP?

It was overwhelming. An immense sense of gratitude. It’s massive, just how lucky I am to have talented people around me. It was a time to acknowledge myself and the hard work I’ve put in, but also the work that my team has done. As cliché as it sounds, it is a team effort. There’s a lot of other people that are involved and help me do what I do, even though it’s my name on the award. I just feel very lucky to have fantastic friends and awesome people who work with me.

It’s a dream, this has always been my dream. This is all I’ve wanted to do. There’s so many other people who are helping me trying to achieve that. I feel like the luckiest person on the planet when I got recognised at the AMAs. It was very reassuring and it was an encouraging sign to keep going.

What does your creative process look like?

Usually, I sit at the piano and just play for a long period. I like to play the piano most days just for half an hour or so, just pretty mindless playing. It’s my way of just unwinding and de-stressing. I like to channel how I feel and then let it wash me away sonically.

Naturally, something will pop out and catch your ear, and it feels like going into a subconscious state where I just write and write. Once I’ve fleshed that out a little bit, I’ll either go into the studio or I’ll jump on my laptop and start to record something. The studio is where I find the drums, the bass, the groove.

What have you got planned for the future?

New music. Watch this space, for sure. We can’t really commit to playing some shows, but my intention is to play shows as soon as I can. I’m constantly writing and have stuff on the go. When the time is right, I’ll put new stuff out. I think playing live is the pinnacle, everything I do leads up to that moment.