The Harry Teardrop Interview
Get to know the next big thing as he releases his latest single
Harry Teardrop is an enigma. He learns as much from bands like Blink-182 and Blur as he does from jazz singers like Billie Holiday and Bill Evans. A first generation American citizen born in the Upper West Side, Harry moved from New York to Portland, overseas to Shanghai, and to southern California before returning to New York City to attend NYU. Like the water droplets he’s named after, Harry goes with the flow, collecting all these experiences and influences to create his own self-produced spin on rock that pairs dirty guitar riffs with dance/rap-inspired drums and sticky hooks. It could have you screaming along, moshing, dancing, or crying at any given time. Maybe even all the above. On May 31st, 2019, Harry released his debut EP 1000 Backyard Pools, and followed it up with the October 2020 double single $2. Today, he’s coming off the release of his first single of 2021 called ‘My Funny Girl.’ After excitedly discussing the release in his Discord server, I shot Harry a message to see if he’d be interested in doing an interview, and got an enthusiastic reply in a matter or minutes. Though a summer thunderstorm momentarily cut my power at the very start of our Zoom call, we were able to reconnect and talk about the past, present, and future of Harry Teardrop’s music. Read below!
Brian Harrington: How did the name Harry Teardrop originate?
Harry Teardrop: The name Harry Teardrop comes from my brother Drake, who I work with and he’s like my best friend. He was showing my this song called Frankie Teardrop, and I was like fifteen at the time, and this song is just the most anxiety inducing ten minutes, he’s screaming and it was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. Honestly at the time I just thought it was funny because I was so taken aback, and then as I kept revisiting it, I was like damn this is really hard. Drake actually had his Instagram name as Drakie Teardrop, and I was like ah that’s cool, I’m gonna copy him, because that’s what younger brothers do. So I changed my Instagram handle to Harry Teardrop back in high school, this was before I was even putting out music, and then by the time I got to college and I started dropping music I was just like well I’ll go with this name because people were already calling me Harry Teardrop just from my Instagram handle.
I feel like a lot of artists are now coming up with their online screen name as their stage name. I know Charli XCX originated from her old MSN Messenger name.
Really? I didn’t know that. It’s kind of cool because you’re usually not putting that much thought into it when you’re just coming up with a handle, so it just takes away the whole getting too in your head about it.
As an NYU student, what role does the city play in your sound?
Pretty much everything. My sound has changed so much since I was living in California, and I think that’s just a byproduct of me living here. Everything is so fast paced, and you meet all kinds of different people who listen to everything, so that’s just broadened my horizons a lot.
You seem to also be well connected to the New Zealand music scene too as you’ve collaborated with artists like Stupid Rich Kid, Tom Verberne, and Maxwell Young as well as getting write ups in New Zealand press. How did that come about?
That’s sick that you’re also tapped into the New Zealand scene! They have a really cool thing going on over there. This is so insane, I actually met Stupid Rich Kid, well we started dm’ing each other like three years ago, and we found out about each other through our Spotify related artists. We were both in each others related artists and then one day he just dm’ed me like ‘yoo what’s up?’ and I was like oh I recognize that name, ‘hey how’s it going?’ We just started dm’ing and then he introduced me to Maxwell, and for a while we were just texting and sending each other music, it was cool having that community. With my friends here, they all help me on music, but we were already friends so you know there’s a little bit of bias, of course you’re going to hype each other up. But to see people all the way across the world who I had just met through music and we were helping each other on music was such a cool experience. And we actually met up in person! I met Stupid Rich Kid and Tom, they came to New York like two years ago, and it was our first time meeting each other in person and right off the bat we were like best friends, just so many similarities, they’re really cool.
Tell me about your new track, My Funny Girl
I wrote it one of the first nights I moved into this place, which was like first week of May, and there was no furniture here. It was empty with just a mattress that I got off Craigslist on the floor, and I was just laying in bed playing guitar, and something about it really inspired me in that moment, and I finished it in one night. The first line is “I’m not scared of anything so I don’t know why I get nervous around you.” It’s that sentiment of why is this so hard for me, usually this shouldn’t be so hard. It’s a sweet song.
I discovered you off of your 2018 track Mercedes Benz, but going back to your first official single with Chinatown from that same year, it sounds starkly different compared to the music you put out today. Can you describe the evolution of your sound since then?
It’s kind of always how I’ve made music is each song has a different sound. Mostly that’s just me trying to figure out what works for me, and I think the more practice I get with it, the more I’m starting to hone in and polish my skills. Ideally I want my sound to be a mix of all the stuff I’ve put out before, and I think it’s getting towards that. I think that’s just a product of me being young and not trying too hard to fit into a certain genre or something. Which has its pros and cons, I love experimenting, but I always wanna be able to have an identifiable sound. Most people I would say don’t really care too much which is awesome. I think everybody nowadays is down to listen to whatever.
Strawberry has become one of my favorite songs of yours, and looking at the streaming numbers, it seems to have resonated with others as well. Were you uncertain which songs would perform well off of 1000 Backyard Pools, or did you feel like you tapped into something special with that track?
Definitely, Strawberry was the one where I had the most fun just listening to. It’s just a feel good song, so I was hyped and knew that I wanted that to be the single, but I didn’t really expect the EP to do anything. I mean I wanted it to be successful you know, but I was trying not to think about it too hard. It’s cool how Strawberry has started picking up just in the past couple months actually.
Really?
Yeah something about the algorithm, it got picked up on some discover weekly playlist or something and now it’s getting more streams which is cool. And actually I’m pretty proud that it still holds up for me, it doesn’t sound like the stuff that I’m making now, but I think it’s still pretty quality which is a nice feeling.
I listed your Soundcloud demo A Lesson From The Universe as one of my favorite tracks from last year.
Yeah I remember that! That was a sick write-up, thank you.
Wow, thank you! I loved how the lyrics were very blunt and personal, what went into the writing of that track?
I literally wrote the whole thing as if it were a long text that you’re just like rambling, you know what I mean? I wrote all those lyrics in like an hour. It was three in the morning or something and I was off of no sleep. I wasn’t even thinking about it being listened to by anybody else and I think that’s kind of where the best stuff comes from when I can just forget that I make music as a profession, and I can just do it for myself. It’s hard, I don’t know.
It’s funny how when you remove thinking from it, you don’t overthink stuff, and can come out with something cool
Yeah I’ve definitely struggled with that, as do most people, so I’m trying not to be too hard on myself about that. But yeah going forward, just not thinking about it too much and making whatever you make is I’ve learned the best thing. Just to try to capture that lightning in a bottle, and you’re not going to do it every time, but it’s good just to get in that habit.
I’ve seen you go far out of your way to engage with fans, from creating and interacting with them in your Discord, to hosting livestreams, and even just playing games of Among Us. What is it that makes that artist/fan relationship so important to you?
I think it has to do with where I’m at in my life right now where I’m not blowing up like crazy on social media or anything, I’m not going on tour right now, I’m trying to just take advantage of the position I’m in to be able to form those connections right now. There’s a lot of people who become successful really early and don’t have the time to be able to spend getting to know their audience so for me it’s just fun honestly. I like getting to meet new people, and I grew up moving around a lot so I’m kind of used to having online friends anyways. For me it just feels like meeting new friends over the internet.
In your Lyrical Lemonade interview last year, you said you’ve been working on a bigger project since 2019, and the songs on $2 were two that didn’t fit in with that project. Now that you’ve dropped your first song since that release, what’s the status on that bigger project?
laughs I’m still working on it. I’m really trying to put it out in 2021, so my goal is to finish it by September, and then start dropping it. So now there’s going to be the real push forward for that. I wanted to do it sooner, but life just kept getting in the way you know, it happens like that. And I’m kind of glad that it does happen like that. I don’t want to be too work oriented to the point where I’m missing out on just being a 21 year old, it’s hard finding that balance.
Especially since you do so much of the work for your music. From writing all the way down the line to mastering in some cases, almost everything is done by you. Your brother Drake also works with you a lot on the visual side of things. How important is that independence and creative control to your process?
It’s pretty much the only way that we’ve done it, you know $2 was kind of the first time I tried really working with other people, getting a mixing engineer, and getting somebody else to shoot the video too. I’m still getting practice with that. I know it’s better to work with more people, just because I can have a tendency to be a control freak. I’m trying to treat my relationship to my work as if it were me fostering a cat or like a baby. It’s good to be protective, but you can’t smother it either so that’s what I’m starting to figure out. At some point the work that you make just becomes its own thing and you can’t control it anymore. I’m trying to get more hands on deck.
It’s another thing where you have to find balance because it certainly helps to get more ears and eyes on your work for input, but at the same time you know best how you want your music to sound and your visuals to look
Yeah definitely, and also a big part of it is just on a budget level unfortunately. Right now I have to be pulling favors a lot from people, either getting a homie discount rate or just straight up asking people to do stuff for free, like Drake for example. Drake does so many things for me for free which I really appreciate you know since he’s my brother he’s down to help me whenever, but I also don’t want to be taking up his time to the point where it doesn’t make sense for him. That’s a big part of collaboration too is trying to make sure that everybody feels respected and compensated. There’s a lot of work that goes into being the head of a brand, but it’s all fun so that’s all that matters.
Most of my blog is based around discovering new artists, is there anyone you want to give a shoutout to?
Hmm, I gotta think about this. Death By Algorithm is a sick name by the way! I like your website too, it looks super clean.
Thank you! It’s been fun to put together in the last, a little less than a year
I’m trying to think of artists. Honestly all of my friends, yeah all my friends I want the world for them. I mean like James Ivy, he’s been one of my best friends since I moved to New York, and he’s killing it right now which is awesome. Just all of my friends in that scene like Drake for example, and Postcard Boy is one of my really tight friends. Everybody on the internet is so connected these days, like artist-wise especially. Basically if you fuck with another person’s work, and they also like yours, there’s just an instant connection.
What do you have planned coming up along with this single release?
I’m playing a show next week! Shit, oh my god that’s in like a week and three days. Damn I gotta practice for that!
The show will have happened by the time anyone reads this!
I’m playing a show with Jean Dawson and Junior Varsity next week.
They’re both sick, that’s going to be incredible!
Yeah, it’s going to be on a rooftop in New York, it’s going to be crazy, I’m really hyped about that. So that’s going to be where I debut the song, and then it’s going to come out, and I’m also working on a video for it. I bought a camcorder off of Amazon for like sixty bucks and it’s really shitty, but it gives it a vibe. I’ve just been filming my friends and random stuff that I see around the city, and I’m going to edit it all together, probably on iMovie honestly, it’s going to be very DIY laughs. I just want to give something fun to watch along with the song. I think $2 was kind of, the tone was a lot more serious, and then with this one I’m just going for a fun summer song. Just to show that I have two sides you know.
Stream Harry Teardrop’s music on Spotify and Apple Music, and keep up with him on Instagram and Twitter. His next show is at the Mercury Lounge on August 23rd, 2021.