One of the Gold Coast’s most versatile, talented and experienced musicians, Harry J Hart, is now offering up his skills for hire. Harry sat to chat with me in a moment that seemed symbolic of where he’s at musically. Sandwiched between a tour as a session musician, and his own March 31 gig at elsewhere, Harry talked skills and new directions.
Listening to how much Harry has accomplished, especially for one so young, is mind blowing. Harry started his musical career in his early teens as a solo artist. He’s had awards and accolades such as Best Guitarist at Bluesfest Busking and been a finalist for Musician of the Year at the Gold Coast Music Awards, twice.
After growing to a full band, and hitting nine years as a full-time musician, Harry says:
“I think this is my year for branching out. I found after I wrote my last album [‘Holding on for my Life’] I kind of felt I’d hit all the spots I wanted to hit. I kind of felt really lost and uninspired for a while and then all this session work came up and now I’m just overflowing with ideas and creativity and fun.”
The session work had been brewing in the background for a few years, but recently it’s become more of a passion, says Harry.
“I love finding new music and it’s always been so exciting for me when I get to play for new artists and they’ve got all this amazing music that I get to hear, and get the privilege to play with them.
“Its slowly starting to become my preference.”
Harry is open to all kinds of session work, from performing to recording.
“It’s not just guitar that I do session work for. I play bass and drums in a few other projects. Sing, guitar, bass, drums, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I love variety so genre isn’t really a thing that bothers me either, anyone from any genre can call me up.”
Emergency calls for help are no issue either.
“One of my favourite thing is playing songs that I’ve never heard before. As dumb as it sounds, I love it. After a while music is a theory, it’s just patterns. You’ve just got to figure out the pattern and you’ve figured out the song before the first verse has even started.”
Music theory is something Harry continues to study extensively, and does so with true living legends. Just this January he was in Las Vegas for an intensive four-day masterclass with guitar greats Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather (guitarist from Toto), Mateus Asato, Corey Wong, Steve Morse, and Peter Frampton. As Harry says, “an insane line up of people.”
He’s learned from the best from many genres and he’s more than happy to share all he’s learned through private lessons. Harry has the experience to teach anyone from five years old and up, he’s truly been cultivating a wealth of experience and skills.
In fact, the more we talk, the more I feel this article will seem some kind of music dealer. Like, pssst, hey, you want a session musician in the studio or tour? I got a guy. You want someone to help write your music, yeah I know a guy. You need a music director, or producer? I can hook you up. If you want a music teacher, yeah I’ve got your guy. Your guy is Harry J Hart.
Oh, did I mention Harry could also be your guitar technician? He tells me, “I just love music equipment. Guitar-wise I build pedals, I tinker with my guitars all the time and I don’t think I have one guitar that is completely stock.” While for Harry guitar tech is more of a long-term vision, if the right opportunity appears he’s not going to say no.
Harry is all about a variety of opportunities, including song writing sessions, co-writes, musical direction and arranging.
He says, “I got the amazing opportunity last year to play with Casey Barnes. I did musical directing for Jade Holland, and a handful of artists. Whenever I hear a song or someone shows me a song and they don’t quite know what to do with it, in my head I kind of already hear the whole thing, like all the parts, how everyone plays together, certain little bits. I just love that stuff and would really like taking it to the next level.”
Harry also wants to take producing to the next level.
“I’ve got a little studio set up and I’ve been recording myself for a couple of years now. I’m really trying to make it a goal this year to start recording other people and getting my chops up with recording. I have so much fun doing it, I get to go what I call mad scientist where I just have all these crazy ideas of sound and crazy ways to run things and different ways to approach things. A lot of it’s very outside of the box.”
The mad scientist has been coming out in Harry’s own recordings and musically he’s switching directions.
“I’m now kind of getting weirder, getting more experimental. Having a lot of fun trying different things and just getting goofy.”
The upcoming gig at elsewhere will be his last that is 100% the old Harry J Hart sound. To coincide with the occasion, on 31 March Harry will release his cover of Matt Corby’s song ‘Brother’ online.
He explains, “I’ve been closing every show for maybe the last six years with ‘Brother’ and people have been bugging me to release it. I thought I’d finally get around to it. And with ‘Brother’ being released it’s kind of meant to be a full stop to like the end of an era I guess you could say, the end to that sound.”
Harry J Hart fans should make sure they’re at elsewhere on 31 March to farewell the current sound. Hit up elsewhere’s Facebook for tix. ‘Brother’ is out on the usual channels. To hit up Harry for his musical expertise, go to @harryjhartmusic.