Wind In His Sails

“It’s been a while coming and I’m feeling appropriate levels of anxiety and nervousness and excitement all mixed into one confusing emotional rollercoaster. I’ve had the songs for quite a while now so it’s exciting to get them out there and see what people think of them.”

Reflecting on the EP as a whole, Harley offers, “The last year has been a pretty crazy journey full of incredible experiences, and all those journeys make a whole, and that’s kind of what Vessel means to me. Everyone’s kind of a vessel that transports their own experiences on a single journey and that’s what it’s about for me – it could be a bit farfetched to think that people might come to the same conclusion from a single word, but I kind of like to leave things open to interpretation anyway.”

With the EP delving into themes of love and loss, all through his beautiful (and now possibly trademark) electronic style, Harley admits that the making of some songs may have acted as an outlet. “I’m not a hugely outwardly emotional person, so when I write music it tends to be emotionally driven, which is a surprise because I never start out with the intention of doing that, and then it just kind of ends up that way. So I think [making music] has been like my own therapy without me ever realising that it was, but now it’s pretty clear.”

"Everyone’s kind of a vessel that transports their own experiences on a single journey and that’s what it’s about for me"

In the lead up to Vessel’s release there was no doubt about the amount of buzz and attention given to the movements of The Kite String Tangle, which Harley explains was a bewildering experience. “It has been weird, I mean that song Given The Chance was actually a slow burner, a lot of people think it kind of blew up, but it took about six months to really get going. I did my first Given The Chance tour kind of early on and then I got to do like another one or two after that because of the slow burning nature of it. It was like a journey that became a parody of itself because it would just one-up itself every month or so, like something else awesome would happen, and you’d think, ‘Oh that’s it, it’s run its course,’ but then something else would happen. It’s been an insane year and I’ve had some pretty massive lifestyle changes – when music presents itself as a career like this I kind of drop everything else, and so it’s changed the course of my life, which is awesome. Every musician wants that to happen, so I’m feeling [very] lucky.”

While his electronic style might sound more at home in the clubs of Melbourne or Sydney, Harley doesn’t feel the need to position himself in those areas to propel his career forward. “Brisbane’s pretty well known for its garage grunge rock, but I like the sleepiness of Brisbane, how it’s chill here. I like being other places, but I like coming home to Brisbane. I think if I was ever going to move it would be a big move and I would go to the UK or something.”

Even with Vessel still fresh, Harley reveals he has already started work on what could be his debut album. “I’ve got maybe four songs that I’m happy with right now, but that could all change in six months. I could have three albums that I hate by then, so I’m trying really hard to not release an album unless I’m really stoked about it and proud of it. There’s a lot of pressure from people to put out an album if the momentum’s there and the time is right, but I don’t think you can force it.”