Meet Cabell Harris of Broke in Stereo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cabell Harris.

Cabell, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in the rural hills of Northern California on a ranch outside a small farming town in a small cottage. I got started with music in early childhood and became pretty serious in high school when I picked up the guitar. I used to spend hundreds of hours with four-track Tascam and a synthesizer making all sorts of stuff and learning basic multi-track production. I ended up getting a few scholarships out of high school to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. I picked up a bunch of new influences while I was there and became pretty serious about myself as a composer and producer.
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After leaving Boston, I bounced around for a while, trekking through South America. I ended up writing a lot and filling up notebooks with songs and shorthand lyrics. Some of those really held their value as tunes and some I picked apart to use for multiple tunes. Either way, I ended up delving much deeper into songwriting and started to marry the two worlds of songwriting and production.

I moved to Brooklyn in 2013 and started releasing tracks on Soundcloud for fun. Some of those ended up on my debut EP “Ear Art” in 2014. A handful of respectable musicians and producers discovered it and encouraged me to pursue the project seriously so I started playing live all over the NYC club scene. Anytime I had the opportunity I pretty much played a show. In 2015, I booked a show in DTLA, had a great response and came back to tour the western US with a trio in 2016. Since then I released a single, “Outer-Net” 2017, a full-length album, “Auditory Artifacts” 2017; and another single, “Johnny’s Got a Gun” 2018.

Under the alias Broke in Stereo I’ve established a handful of great working relationships that have helped me to continue to tour and release music. I’m grateful to have that support and I’m always working to continue to build bridges and elevate.

Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely has been anything but a smooth road. I think I could’ve done a lot of things differently to make the process a bit less challenging, but regardless I’m sure there would’ve been bumps along the way.

I’ve had crazy struggles with club owners about money, set times, and whatever else you can think of.

I’ve had difficulties with bandmates.

I’ve had my car break down in the middle of a tour and ended up haggling in Spanish at a junk yard outside of Los Angeles on the way to Phoenix.

Police…I have a few good police stories. One time when I was playing a solo tour, I was chased through the Southern Arizona desert in the middle of the night by border patrol. They must’ve thought I was a drug dealer or human trafficker. They asked “you understand why we pulled you over?”. I didn’t but instead of getting into it I just nodded yes then after a lot of questioning they let me go.

In 2017, I had been living in Northern California when the fire of October 2017 chased me out of my house without a shirt or shoes and put me in a hotel room for two weeks. That was actually the catalyst that caused me to move to LA.

I’ve had enough moments of wanting to give up to know that it’s all worth it and there isn’t much out there that can stop me from doing what I do. I guess they say nothing is worth doing if it’s easy to do…or something like that.

What else should our readers know?
I’m a singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The views are incredible. It’s funny because when people think of Los Angeles they don’t think of nature, they think of smog and traffic. But the views of the San Fernando Valley from the hills, Coldwater Canyon, Topanga, Malibu, the mountains….it’s really a beautiful place. Also it never really gets very cold so I can enjoy open windows almost every day of the year….and tacos obvi.

What do I dislike? Ha! Traffic, parking and the public transportation.

Pricing:

• $10 – “Ear Art” – EP
• $15 – “Auditory Artifacts” – Album
• $25 – “Johnny’s Got A Gun” – Album/EP Package with signed poster
• $0.99 – “Johnny’s Got A Gun” – Single Release

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brokeinstereo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brokeinstereo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brokeinstereo

Image Credit:
Photo with “Players” sign: Photographic Expressions LLC / David & Patricia Dreyer

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.