SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Canadian singer-songwriter Georgia Harmer has a new album out. It's called "Eye Of The Storm." It's an introspective record that explores Harmer's emotional growth and self-discovery as an early 20-something. She self-produced the album, much of which was recorded in friends' living rooms and garages. We recently caught up with Harmer in Toronto to talk more about it and walk us through some standout tracks.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EYE OF THE STORM")
GEORGIA HARMER: (Singing) Out of the eye of the storm, there's you and I on the shore.
I wrote this album over a long period of time. So I started writing it in the pandemic before my first album was even released, and I didn't realize I was writing an album at the time. Part of the reason why it took me so long is because I was really figuring out what my identity is musically 'cause I think with your first album, you're just like, here's my songs. This is what I made, you know? And it was definitely involved, but it was a little bit more free. Like, no one was watching yet. And the goal, obviously, is to grow. And so it's like, what do I want to grow into? And so the whole time we were recording it, I was asking myself that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EYE OF THE STORM")
HARMER: (Singing) I need to know how far to go. I don't wanna leave you alone. Just tell me this, will I amount to anything?
(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGIA HARMER SONG, "CAN WE BE STILL")
HARMER: The first song I wrote for the record is "Can We Be Still." It's the first song of the record.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAN WE BE STILL")
HARMER: (Singing) Now do you understand? I don't have another plan.
So my best friend of my whole life - her name is also Georgia. She's my very best friend. We're sisters. This song was a way of just expressing to her that much like family, our relationship is, like, a nonnegotiable for me. Like, I intend to be best friends with her for my whole life.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAN WE BE STILL")
HARMER: (Singing) Open up my eyes and find us growing up together like I was so scared to lose, to be alone. In staying close and knowing for 20 years, look in the mirror, do you know that person there...
I have a lot of friends that I've been friends with for a long time, and I've written a few songs about a few of them. And I think that it kind of gets to a place where, like, words can't reach. Like, you can definitely tell your friend that they mean a lot to you, and you can tell your friend that you love them. But having a song written about you, I think they like that (laughter). I think it made them feel loved. And, like, my best friend, when I sent her this song - she's seen me play it live a few times, and she is always bawling in the front row.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE IT ON")
HARMER: (Singing) All this time listening, you would think I'd pick up something other than all this language of conflict.
'Take It On" is the most self-reflective song I've ever written. It's the most about me that I've ever written. I have had and have the tendency to take on the emotional well-being of other people. I think being the sensitive person that I am, I'm just predisposed to kind of caring too much sometimes. And so when I was writing "Take It On," I was feeling a lot of those feelings - the sort of, like, burden of if everyone's OK and if there's something I should be doing or something I should have done or if I've done something wrong and having those spirally thoughts. And I just sat down and poured out of me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE IT ON")
HARMER: (Singing) I am so irritatingly mean to no one but me, to no one but me.
I am so irritatingly mean to no one but me is a very, like, self-loathing line, but it's also kind of compassionate because it's like, I know that no one else thinks that I'm mean and that I'm really just being hard on myself and that all of this anger and frustration or, like, worry or anxiety that I have is really just being directed at myself.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE IT ON")
HARMER: (Singing) I wanna believe it wasn't you who taught me to feel so sorry. I must've learned all that from my own body.
Through the process of writing this record, I was able to arrive at a place where I was actually looking at myself and writing about myself. And like, I think that translating your experiences is therapeutic because writing a song is like one nice, tangible way to solve things for me. It doesn't always answer the question, but it at least kind of, like, takes the question out of your head.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE IT ON")
HARMER: (Singing) Take... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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