Georgia Harmer

On her upcoming sophomore album, Eye of the Storm, Georgia Harmer has stepped more confidently into every part of the creative process, from producing her own tracks to directing videos. It's a natural evolution for the Toronto-based singer-songwriter, whose deep musical roots and close-knit scene have helped shape both her sound and her sense of self.

We caught up with Harmer to talk about finding her artistic voice, building a creative community, and why her new album is the closest she’s ever come to matching sound with vision.

Analogue: How’s the Toronto music scene feeling for you these days? Do you feel like you’ve found your place?

Georgia Harmer: I really have. I’ve been preaching about the Toronto music scene for the last year or so. It feels like it’s coalesced into this really strong, supportive community. I’ve made so many friends through music, sometimes without even realizing it. I’ll run into people constantly and hear about shows happening, and it just feels like a small town in the best way.

It hasn’t always felt like that for me. For a while, I didn’t feel part of it, or like there wasn’t enough happening. But now I really feel in it. There’s always someone to call—whether you need an overdub, a t-shirt design, whatever. It’s all here, and it’s local, and I love that.

Analogue: Has Toronto always been the center of your career, or have you tried planting roots in other scenes?

Georgia: I’ve lived here most of my life. It’s my hometown. But lately I’ve been spending more time in other places. I’ve spent time in Winnipeg and have a lot of friends from there, so I feel a bit connected to that scene, too. It’s so fulfilling to get involved in a different community and see what’s happening elsewhere.

I’m really social, so I love it when people ask, “Are you from here?” and I’m not—but I’ve connected enough that I fit in. That’s made me want to try living in a few more places, even just for short periods. But Toronto is always home base.

Analogue: You come from a very musical family. When did the idea of pursuing music as a full-time career feel real to you?

Georgia: It was almost hidden in plain sight. I had so many examples of people who made music around me. I had examples of people who made music exclusively for a living and those who made music while working another job that paid most of their bills. I think that always seemed more realistic.

I've been making music since I was a kid, just because I wanted to. All throughout my high school career and young adult life, I've been writing songs, playing music with friends, and getting invited to come sing with people. It's community. It's all about community.

But I went to university for general arts because that's what everyone was doing. Everyone was trying to get into a good school, so I was like, 'I can get into a good school.' I went to McGill for one semester, but I was pretty unhappy there. I just wasn't excited about school.

I was having a good time socially, but a friend of mine said, 'What are you doing here? Obviously, you don't want to be here and you have something that you're excited about. Go home and do music.' So I went home.

I'm 18 at this point. I got a job as a backup singer for Alessia Cara. I got that job through knowing people in music. I got this audition without even knowing who the artist was and ended up doing a promo tour for her album. Two other young women were also backup singers and I became really tight with them. We became like a unit. But eventually, it was such a toxic environment. It wasn't right for us. We bailed.

Analogue: You bailed?

Georgia: All three of us bailed at the same time. It was complicated, like anything is. It was all of our first time working at that level, so we were a bit whiplashed by it. But it was cool and fun as well.

After that in Toronto, I assembled a band and the two women that I'd been touring with were singing harmonies with me. I had a bunch of friends who were playing in each other's bands as well. Those were the beginnings of what the music scene is now for me.

One of the friends I'd made had seen me play. He wasn't in my band. He was just a pal in the music scene. I was actually just with him, trying to remember how this happened. He said that I said, 'Yeah, let's go! I have 11 songs. We're making an album.' He said, 'All right, II'll figure something out.'

When I finished the album, which I made with four friends of mine, it was like, 'Okay, now I can send this to labels.' Then I got a couple of offers and Arts & Crafts was the best one. So that was the beginning of it.

Analogue: How comfortable do you feel now in your artistic skin compared to right before your first release?

Georgia Harmer: With this album, I've been at the helm of it creatively. I produced it myself. I have made a bunch of music videos. I've felt super involved in the process of making vinyl art. I feel very confident about my instincts now compared to when I was releasing music for the first time.

I feel like I'm better at communicating what I want, at listening to my gut and trusting my own taste. I was helped so much on my first album. All those people that I made the album with and all the people who helped me put it out were so helpful and involved. This album has also been collaborative, but I have felt stronger in my own choices and my ability to make decisions.

Analogue: That sounds like a healthy progression, instead of taking control because you'd been burned or something.

Georgia Harmer: Totally. Both albums were very collaborative. I had a really clear vision for everything, and if something wasn't right, I would try to communicate and dig through it and carve it out until it was exactly what I wanted. That was true for both albums.

I just have way more tools for communicating those things now. I also have more of an ability to trust that it can get to that place. I feel more comfortable and more confident taking that creative control rather than anxiously trying to convince somebody to play a different guitar part. I'm just a better producer, and I have like a better way of communicating with people and a better way of trusting myself.

Analogue: That brings to mind a theme I’ve heard from a lot of artists: the tension between what you hear in your head versus what ends up in the world. How close is this new album to what you originally envisioned?

Georgia Harmer: For this album, I think we struck a nice balance. I wanted it to sound exactly how I had pictured it and I went in with such an intention, but I was also so pleasantly surprised so many times and inspired as we went.

I think that's ideal to go into the studio with an intention. You have these arrangements and demos for pre-production, but then a lot of it was recorded live off the floor with musicians that I've worked with for a long time. I trust them so deeply. So we're all wondering, 'What's going to happen?' Somebody will try something weird for one take, and that's totally encouraged because it leads us down another exciting path.

It's so creatively free if you allow yourself not to be married to your original idea. That was a huge part of this and really exciting for me—getting to be the producer, getting to work the session, getting to have my hands in Pro Tools, getting to work with people who were so receptive and excited about getting it to a place where it felt right.

Nobody was occupied with making the song exactly as I wanted it or exactly as they wanted it. We all worked toward getting the song to feel and sound as good as it could be. What is this song in its truest form? What will support the song? I'm so lucky to work with people who have that agenda.

Analogue: Is there a track on the record that best represents that balance between vision and discovery?

Georgia Harmer: Yeah, a song called "Last Love". We struggled with the band arrangement of it, because it's this really weird, trance-like, continuous river of a song. It doesn't have really an arc or an intro. You have to decide what comes in where.

We ended up re-recording it, just me and my ex-partner, sitting and playing acoustic guitar on either side of a microphone. We just took that take where I'm singing and he's coming up with ideas in the moment, all these counter melodies.

We got to use that as a backbone and then add all these different layers, and each layer was inspiring a new idea. Then we had our friend come in and play a bunch of subby synth bass on it. Then we were like, 'Okay, now it needs like a more percussive bass.' It's arranging as we go.

There are a couple of others on the record that were like that, where the actual arrangement and production of the song was reactive and responsive and in the moment.

Analogue: There's gotta be a real joy in the discovery process there.

Georgia: It's the most fun part for sure.

VISIT: Georgia Harmer