“A few people even asked me if I’m a part of a greater conspiracy – I can tell you that I am not.”
Tanaya Harper is an indie/rock artist who started out in 2017 gigging around the local Perth music scene. Tanaya constructs beautiful vocal melodies and lyrics based around mental health, psychology and relationships to create her tunes.
Since starting out in 2017, Tanaya has accomplished an incredible amount as a musician. Along with supporting the likes of Stella Donnelly, Alex the Astronaut and Abbe May, Tanaya has also recently started working with Walking Horse Music, a management business owned by Matthew Johnson, who also teaches the Music Business course at NMTAFE Leederville.
A big thank you to Tanaya for chatting with us, we are super excited to see where the world decides to take her and her stunning music next!
Congratulations on your new EP – ‘Slow Motion Breakup’ – how did the release go? Was there anything changed about your promotional plan because of COVID 19?
The release went really well thank you! It was released literally in the week of all the venue restrictions taking place in Perth, so there was lots of online sharing of the track ‘Don’t Go Outside’ in particular, haha. A few people even asked me if I’m a part of a greater conspiracy – I can tell you that I am not.
Well, as the EP came out we’d been a month and a half deep in promoting the EP Launch at Badlands on April 3. It had already been stressful trying to make as many pre-sales as possible, making sure people know about it through multiple different marketing points, hoping that a really popular band doesn’t have a launch on the same night. There’s all these little stressors that I actually really dislike about the music industry. It becomes less about the music and all about the numbers which you have no control over. So anyway, a few weeks out from the launch we realised we’d have to cancel the EP Launch, but I didn’t feel angry or anything. That’s life, things are going to be out of your control – more than anything I was just SO happy to have the EP out. It means a lot to me and I didn’t want to hold onto any longer.
How did you find your experience with the Isolaid Festival?
Isolaid was really fun! It’s also super weird playing to your iPhone! I’m big on interacting with a crowd: telling stories, friendly banter, jokes here and there. I think my true crazy is apparent when people are watching from their bedrooms as I’m just cracking jokes to myself. It was also a massive honour to be on a line-up with prolific Australian artists, like Paul Dempsey, wtf? and then also International artists too! The Weather Station was before me, she was beautiful.
What have you been doing to keep yourself occupied during isolation? (both musically and otherwise)
Well, I thought I’d be writing a tonne of music, but I’ll admit I haven’t been very musical at all. I mean, I sing about feeding the cats and brushing my hair while I’m doing those things, but I haven’t actually sat down in a structured way and consciously written much music much at all. I do have one song that I’m slowly putting together, but outside of that we just finished all of Better Caul Saul (dying for the next series), various films and documentaries, re-entering a vegetarian lifestyle, playing Cluedo with my boyfriend, spending lots of time in bed with my two cats, reading books. I haven’t drank since November, and I actually don’t find it hard when I’m at gigs because buying alcohol out of the house
is so expensive, BUT, cooking at home has made not drinking SO much harder! I’ve also gradually started planting native flora in the garden – I want to attract native birds and bees to the house.
How did you come to work with Walking Horse Music?
I’ve been with WHM since around the middle of 2019. It was a long journey. I’ve known Matt Johnson for a few years – I met him through Ali Flintoff (BOAT SHOW, Dream Rimmy, Denise Le Menice) while Bells Rapids was often playing on line-ups with her. Matt and I would have chats here and there about the different songs of bands we loved – there was a common understanding between us of a very particular sound we both love. I asked him quite a few times if he’d like to manage me, but he had a consistently full roster so the timing wasn’t right. Side-note: I don’t know how Managers do it! Just managing one artist is SO much work – let alone multiple! Anyway, so I never left Matt alone, I guess I was like that devious salesman, always there reminding him that I’m still interested haha! I showed him Slow Motion Breakup at the start of last year and we gradually became an official team once his rostered eased a bit.
What gives you inspiration for your music? Is there anything you particularly like writing about?
I mostly like writing about the human experience and interpersonal relationships and/or psychology. The mental/emotional/spiritual journey.
I’m not writing literally about psychology, but more about how our minds shape the world we live in and the relationships that we have.
Self-awareness is something I strive for, yet I feel so far away from it, so perhaps I don’t realise that I’m writing about the human struggle of a mind at ease? Who knows hey…I’ll stop now before this becomes the ramble of all rambles.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
I think I just try my hardest to be kind to myself and to remind myself of the OTHER things I like outside of music. Sometimes it feels like music is all I’m good at and that when I’m not doing it, I must be a failure and a fraud. That’s such a horrible way to think about myself, but it’s also very insidious and strong. I think learning is the best way to deal with a blockage. Just fill your mind with new things that you will ponder over days/weeks/months, and eventually it will solidify within you as a new belief you might have, as vague as that sounds, and one day you’ll appropriate it to a song you start writing.
Tell us 3 fun, random facts about yourself
Hmmmmmmmmm…….
1. I’m deaf in my left ear
2. Sometimes I look my cat Larry in the eye, and I see myself, and I wonder if my soul is fragmented and part of it lives within Larry
3. I want to marry Louis Theroux
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
A few years ago, before I released Some Kinds, I served Abby May at a Bookstore I used to work at. We got talking about our current music plans and I said how it was taking a while and I was getting frustrated. She told me that you can make a plan, but that plan is not THE plan, it’s just a rough outline that allows for you to have something to work towards. The project will be ready when it’s ready, not
when I want it to be. It won’t be ready because I wrote in my diary the day it will be finished. I’ve really held onto that, because it’s true!
Do you have any exciting upcoming plans you can share with us?
Music wise? Well I have 4 new songs recorded and ready to go for release – so Matt and I aren’t too sure just yet what to do. If a gig launch of Slow Mo isn’t possible for a long time, then should we just move onto the next thing?
I do have a music video for Shit Talker I’m yet to release – so keep your eyes peeled for that! Matt Pitcher and I filmed it on Super 8 footage at The Royal Show last year!
No date is set, but the moment intrastate borders open I’ll be driving down south that same day to see my Mum in Albany. I miss her so much.
If you would like to keep up to date with Tanaya and her music, you can find her here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanayaharpermusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanayaharpermusic/?hl=en
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Qz11Z21KPHJi3CpxuEmaO
Bandcamp: https://tanayaharper.bandc
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