We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Harley Reid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Harley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
Becoming your own musician in the digital age is both empowering and quite depressing.
What’s empowering is that there are so many tools and recourses available to make art at a high level, and share that work with your community or the world. Take advantage of any tools you come across that can help you learn, watch all the YouTube videos! I have had classical and jazz training as a musician, but thanks to the YouTubers, reddit forums and the likes, I was able to teach myself how to edit video, mix and master, and gain insight on technology that could advance my work.
What can create a double-edged sword is social media itself. It feels like everywhere you turn, someone is doing something similar to you with way more views. Recently, there has been data that shows thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube everyday, and tens of thousands of songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. Through this noise, you will find your community. It may take thinking outside the box, or focusing on the local community in front of you. Whatever you do, don’t give in, stay unique, and build community in person with other artists.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a multi-media artist, mostly operating as a musician. I am the bass player for Rain Garden (alt-shoegaze), guitar player for BLCKKBOYY (emo/hyperpunk), and have a solo project named Harley Omega (industrial/cybergrind). I also operate as a producer, musician for hire, and sometimes designer.
My art is inspired by the dark aspects of the human condition. Sci-fi, horror, superheroes, anime, and media of similar identities have all been huge influences on how I express myself creatively. We tend to often bottle up darkness, or suppress chaos and having a healthy release for that is not so simple. I seek to provide catharsis, and hopefully empower people to feel better about who they are and the world around them. I make dystopian art for a dystopian world.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Being yourself, and being good at being yourself.
Being yourself can sound easy, but it does take consistent mindful practice. You have to stay authentic to your goals and vision. Allow outside influences to polish what you have and inspire innovation, but do not let them change your core. Your uniqueness is what will set you apart in the extremely dense landscape of musicians. My work is aggressive, loud, chaotic, and weird. Yet, I haven’t had a bad reaction to the music from crowd participants. People really appreciate my authenticity, and the fact that they don’t hear things like what I do often. There’s novelty in the performance.
Being unique is awesome, but are you actually good at what you’re trying to offer? Do you know what social media works best for what you post or the content you like? Do you want to be secretive and hide your identity? Think through how you will present yourself. For example, my project is based off anime and comic books. Therefore, I treat myself like I have personalities and powers. I do so through my stage presentation, hiding cryptic messaging on socials, and adding theming throughout my work. Each aspect seems small or insignificant, however, for people paying attention it adds up to create a full package.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Making the kind of music I make, I have to be extremely careful of the energy I hold in my everyday life.
My main characters of the story are Harley Omega and Tyronic. This is so because Tyronic was the stage name I used to use. A couple years ago, I went through a very tough breakup that caused me to loose it a bit. I got lost in the character and made music that arguably pushed the line. I followed that up by partying excessively and loosing my way.
After snapping out of that period of time, I realized how much I had lost myself and separated from that environment and creation process. Pain was a part of my creative process and it was hard to unlearn using only pain to create. Now, Tyronic feels like a character I can channel, a primal energy I tap into when I need to go hard. I can’t spoil too many story beats, but that’s exactly how it should be.
Point is, be careful making heavy music and where those muses come from. You need to be healthy to maintain the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/_harleys_angels_?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=5ae99181-d829-4b94-ad02-d6bb3095fcc3
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_harleys_angels_/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/zA5zmT6VN2w?si=g5SSnhYFCxi6JDEd
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ty-beatz?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
