THE NOVEL IDEAS + JASON HAWK HARRIS

The Novel Ideas are a country-folk quartet of friends hailing from the great state of Massachusetts. The following in their own words charts their evolution. They said that they . . .

were playing around with a song they’d never performed live. The four friends sat in a room in their house in Brighton, Massachusetts, contemplating the song’s mechanics. They sang together, trying out different harmonies
and arrangements until, finally, it clicked. Vocalist Daniel Radin recalls, “When we finally got the four-part harmony down, it was this moment where we realized like ‘oh, this isn’t just an element of our music—it’s a feature.”
It was an important realization for the The Novel Ideas—a moment when the band began to understand their artistic partnership. Since then, they’ve earned a reputation from music critics and fans for their moving four-part harmonies and rich Americana sound.
From rock clubs to living rooms to festival stages, the band strives to convey honesty
and intimacy through their music.
Featuring the voices of three songwriters, their newly-released self-titled album, produced by Rick Parker (Lord Huron) and mixed by Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne, Bonnie Raitt), showcases the band at its best. Capturing the spirit of their live performance in recorded form wasn’t easy, but the result is a heartfelt representation of who The Novel Ideas are as a band. Track by track, The Novel Idea represents a contribution to the country-folk
scene that balances love-and-loss melancholy with thoughtful instrumentation and
intricate vocal arrangements.

Sarah Grella – Vocals
Danny Hoshino – Guitar, Pedal Steel, Vocals
James Parkington – Bass, Vocals
Daniel Radin – Guitar, Vocals

Jason Hawk Harris experienced his musical coming of age one fateful day in middle school when a friend played him Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”  Indeed, fate seems writ large in Harris’ artistic journey.  He comes from a long line of musicians; a tradition that all but guaranteed a both passionate and vexed relationship with the guitar.  Though classically trained, he considers it perhaps the greatest instrument ever created (and occasionally wants to smash his Martin over the head of its inventor).

As a young man armed with a healthy prodigality, however, Harris refused to confine his ambitions to six strings.  While his peers were trying to learn stick-shift, Harris was writing choral pieces and obsessing over American avant-garde composers like George Crumb.  These broader horizons led him to earning a BM in musical composition.  But after graduation, the dynastic power of his forebears reasserted its strength, and he returned to his guitar.  He went on to produce the first three albums of Americana/Roots band, The Show Ponies.  He’s played with bluegrass titans like Noam Pikelny and Michael Daves.  The marquees have gotten bigger and the tours longer.  Still, these days Harris often finds himself casting a wishful eye to the past.  He laments the lost opportunity to collaborate with his uncle John Harris, who passed away in 1991.  “He wrote sad country songs about heartbreak, love and shame, “Harris says, “and he sang them like it was the last thing he’d ever do.”

Taking up his uncle’s mantle, Harris’ songs offer nuanced explorations of life’s vagaries; matching determined honesty with vivid imagination.  His upcoming record fuses robust musicianship with a poetic vision inspired by magical realists like Charles Williams and Haruki Murakami.  His music, Harris explains, shares in their “audacious assumption that the physical and spiritual occupy the same plane of existence.” -Written by Phillip Aijian

http://www.jasonhawkharris.com

http://www.thenovelideas.com