We recently connected with Harley Eblen and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Harley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on was an unexpected one. I had someone reach out to me after hearing a podcast interview I did, and say it inspired him to pick up songwriting again after many years away from it. We kept in touch, and about 6 months later he asked me to record strings on a song he had just written.

That would have been moving enough, but it went deeper. The song was a project he was working on with his sister to give to their aunt who had just received a terminal diagnosis. I cried when he told me about the project, I cried when I first listened, and every time something fell into place in the arrangement it made me cry. I felt like they let me into their grieving process, and it was something I’ve never experienced before.

It’s one thing when someone is trusting me to help make their work more commercially viable. That’s the day to day responsibility of this work. It’s another thing entirely when I’m being trusted to help someone express their love to someone they care about. I still get overwhelmed thinking about it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I fell in love with the cello when I was 9 years old. I first heard Yo-Yo Ma on the radio, and it took my breath away. Ever since then, my life has been dedicated to creating sounds that move me.

As a kid I studied classical music, but the rigidity of that community made it never quite feel like home to me. After leaving that world in my teens, I explored the limits of the instrument by learning bluegrass, Celtic, and folk music, before stepping into songwriting and away from cello.

I spent the next few years of learning to find my voice as a songwriter, brought that experience back to the cello, and found a way to bring all of those worlds together:

Arranging and recording strings for artists and producers.

Today my primary role in music is giving a song that last 10% by arranging and recording strings. People send me songs, and I have the privilege of getting to sit with them, feel my way through, and help bring them together in a way that only strings can (in my biased opinion).

My favorite thing about this work is getting to reflect an artist’s own song back at them. We get so close to songs that we write, record, and produce that it becomes hard to hear them objectively. My goal in every song I work on is to get at the heart of what you’re trying to communicate, and find a way to deepen the message with my string arrangement. So if a song is supposed to make your listener cry, I’m trying to make the artist cry. If a song already feels triumphant, epic, emotional, self conscious, anything, I’m asking myself, “How can I push this feeling further?”

I can’t imagine a better job.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My life has been a constant series of pivots. I’ve been an instrument repair technician, a triathlete, a standup paddle board instructor, a podcaster, a handyman… the list is a little ridiculous. But here’s what I learned from all of that:

Giving up is great.

I’ve given up dreams over and over, not because something is too hard, but because a better opportunity presents itself. In his book Range, David Epstein says, “To find your path, just start walking.” I’ve found that that path has been full of potholes, blind corners, and more jump scares than I can count, but it’s been worth it.

But to get to specifics, the pivot that helped me build this business was giving up on the idea of “making it” as a solo artist. I had someone ask me what my business plan was, and my answer amounted to “hoping it will work out somehow”. He encouraged me to instead find a way to serve other musicians. That changed my life.

I went from feeling directionless working on my own music, to learning how to find people who needed help and helping them elevate their work. Once I had a clear direction and learned the new skillset (which was a painful year that I’m just going to conveniently gloss over here) I was working on better projects than I could have imagined, pushing myself to a level I had never been at creatively, and beginning to earn a living doing something I loved.

So I guess the real pivot was going from making art for myself, to asking myself how I could serve others in making their art. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I look at these platforms a little differently than a lot of people. I go window-shopping for clients, and build relationships with people I want to work with. That’s it.

I only have about 1500 followers on Instagram, but that’s where I get 90% of my work. My content strategy is primarily a way for me to keep conversations going on a one to many level. I can’t talk to everyone I want to every day, but if they see my face and hear my work on a regular basis, I stay top of mind. So when I check back in after a week, a month, 6 months, it’s like we never stopped talking.

Once I learned to ignore the algorithm and focus on the relationships, things started working.     

Contact Info:

• Website: HarleyEblen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harleyeblen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarleyEblen
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXvRiCes8ET54z5rDCZDQpw

Image Credits
Dominic Romano Janet Eblen Bettina Mueller-Tuescher