Daily Inspiration: Meet Harper Parr

Today we’d like to introduce you to Harper Parr.

Hi Harper, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a loud and proud New Yorker, raised between Tribeca and the West Village. After seeing Grease and The Sound of Music when I was around two years old, I knew that whatever magic was coming out of those soundtracks was what I wanted to spend my life chasing. I couldn’t explain it then, but I can still remember the feeling.
Music was woven into my life from the beginning. I attended a small progressive school where every student was expected to participate in music and theater, and at home I was constantly writing songs, singing, and searching for ways to express myself and the intense emotions I always felt. My parents divorced when I was four, and while I wouldn’t have described it as a defining hardship at the time, I think it quietly shaped my emotional world. I remember listening to music as a little girl, such as “Someone’s Watching Over Me” by Hilary Duff and feeling things that seemed far too big for me to understand, but I knew they mattered.
My aunt, an incredible singer and vocal coach, was a defining musical influence for me. After years of begging her for lessons, she gave me a certificate for unlimited singing lessons when I was eight years old. During our very first lesson, she told me, “I’m coaching you to become Harper Parr and nobody else.” That philosophy has stayed with me ever since. While, of course, I have the artists I deeply admire and “stan”, I’ve tried to build my life around becoming the fullest version of myself rather than imitating others. I’m looking forward to seeing what influences people hear in my music, rather than focusing on chasing a certain sound.
I trained with my aunt for the next decade, sang in every vocal group I could join during high school, and continued writing songs throughout my childhood and teenage years. While music was always the constant, I was equally interested in understanding the world around me. During college I spent much of my time living in Madrid, first during the pandemic and later through NYU’s Madrid campus. That period gave me independence, perspective, and a lot of time to think about who I wanted to become.
Although my path has been far from linear, my soul-crushing adoration for music has remained the one thing that never even slightly wavered. Every chapter of my life—from growing up in New York to living abroad—has shaped the person and storyteller I am today, continually leading me back to the dream I’ve carried since I was a little girl: to pursue a singing career. Now I am in LA for the foreseeable future because I was finally ready to commit to myself.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. A lot of the cobblestones and sidewalks are wonky, in fact. In all seriousness, I grew up faster than I felt I was supposed to.
Growing up in NYC was an incredible gift. The city almost feels like a character in my life story and has become deeply woven into my identity and my music. There were periods when substance abuse within my family created a level of uncertainty that felt much larger than what most of my friends were experiencing. I don’t say that with resentment—in fact, quite the opposite. Both of my parents worked incredibly hard and gave me a beautiful life. But as an only child, I often felt responsible for understanding and navigating adult situations before I was really old enough to.
For a long time, one of my biggest struggles was reconciling those two truths. I felt immense gratitude for the life I had been given, while also carrying emotions that I didn’t fully understand. Looking back, I think those experiences made me incredibly observant. I became deeply attached to memories, songs, smells, places, and people. The art of nostalgia, carrying a kind of positive weight, has become the center of my aesthetic. I carry everything with me—still do—but as I move through life, I’m constantly learning what old feelings really meant. Meaning, for me, is always evolving, and it feels clearer now that I’ve lifted some of the fog that once weighed me down when I was younger. What felt overwhelming as a child has since become one of my greatest strengths as a songwriter.
I also struggled in more traditional environments. School never came naturally to me, despite caring deeply and working hard. I often felt like I was carrying a lot internally while trying to keep up with the expectations around me. For years, I felt different from many of my peers, but I didn’t always know how to explain why.
The biggest challenge in my artistic journey was accepting that my own story was worth telling. My songwriting comes directly from my life and is lyrically very honest. I actually find that if I start to veer from my truth into a more fantastical/exaggerated version, then I can’t write the same. It took me a long time to become comfortable to share those experiences publicly, especially when they involve people I love. Deep down, however, I knew the songs I was most afraid to share were going to be the most important ones. I had always hoped that by telling the truth about my own experiences, someone else might feel less alone in theirs.
Ironically, the struggles that once felt like obstacles became the foundation of my work. A recurring theme in both my life and my songwriting is that I wouldn’t change anything. I always subconsciously knew that very experience shaped me into the person and artist I am today. The older I get, the more gratitude I feel—not despite my story, but because of it and what I plan to become.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a singer-songwriter whose work centers on storytelling, memory, and the people and places that shaped me. I am currently working on my debut artist project that is essentially based in New York. I am so eager to finally release what I call my “coming of age” album. On this project there are songs I wrote dating back 10 years, but it’s very important to me to tell my story in this chronological sense that makes sense to me.
I used to feel frantically eager to release the songs I had thought were ready, but I am proud and grateful of the time I’ve invested in developing my craft, sound, and world building before rushing to release music. In an era that often prioritizes speed and visibility, I’ve taken a more traditional approach, like I always wanted to—focusing first on songwriting, musicianship, and artistic development. That perspective was further shaped through my time at the Los Angeles Academy for Artists & Music Production (LAAMP), where I was mentored by Stargate and spent nine months immersed in creating, collaborating, and refining my artistic voice.
I feel so confident now in my sound, which is fundamentally soul/pop and best played live with a band. Although I am not, my friends have coined “chain-smoker pop” to describe my raspy, rich vocal style. I am vocally influenced by Adele and Amy Winehouse and lean towards a cinematic production, that of being a super fan of Lana Del Rey (I could go on about this for eons). A string and piano combination to properly pull the heartstrings is my frequent objective. I know that my superpower is my a capella voice, so I also lend a lot of moments to a stripped back vibe– just my voice and a piano or a guitar.
What sets me apart is the unique experiences I have, and how I write about them. In day to day life, I am often met with intrigue when I’m telling stories not in songwriting form, so however I can get my specific personality across with humor and the darkness that exists in my writing is equally as important. I approach being an artist as both a creative and entrepreneurial pursuit. I have made it my mission to build a well-rounded creative world. While the singing and songwriting come naturally, and because I love them so much, I put extra onus on having a real understanding of the business. I am a startup at the end of the day and I want to build a foundational business for myself. I wish it was as simple for me as making music every day and skipping through life. With that being said, world building has arguably become just as important as the songwriting and singing. I am a control freak of my art and therefore every part of it has to feel like me. There is so much more to my universe than the stories I want to share, so building the visuals has become super exciting. I’ve finally reached a place where I feel confident in my own voice, vision, and the stories I want to tell.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’ve always considered myself a risk-taker, but not in a reckless way. I have forever been connected to my instincts, and most of the biggest decisions in my life have come from listening to that inner voice when it tells me something needs to change.
Growing up around entrepreneurs, most notably my father, whom I deeply admire, I heard the word “risk” all the time, so I didn’t really feel the stigma around risk-taking. To me, risk-taking is one of the most important things a person can do for themselves. A risk can entail something very small like trying out a new hobby or something as large as moving away. Sometimes the biggest risk is simply being honest about what you want. Regardless of whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, growth requires some willingness to step into the unknown.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that when I start feeling stagnant, it’s usually a sign that I need to pay attention to my gut and lean into the feeling rather than ignore it. If my mind and body are craving change, there’s usually a reason. My dad’s best advice is “lean into the fear”, and once I truly began listening and actively doing that, I feel like a more free risk-taker. If you don’t risk, do you expect reward to be dropped in your lap?
Moving to Los Angeles this past year is probably the biggest recent example of risk-taking. After college, I settled back into New York, many of my friends were there, and on paper it would have been much easier to stay. But upon discovering LAAMP, I immediately felt that I needed to do this for myself. The decision was difficult because it meant leaving behind a life that was comfortable and familiar, and one that I loved, but I also knew that I was ready to fully commit to my singing dreams. I feel grateful for my sense of self and knowing, and it only gets stronger. I knew the time would come to commit to pursuing singing in a real way, and I knew that I was ready.
I’ve made similar decisions before. During college, I spent much of my time abroad in Madrid and traveling throughout Europe. While many of my friends followed a more traditional college experience, I felt an overwhelming desire to explore and experience life from a different perspective. To this day, some people think I didn’t graduate college since, as social media reflects, it looks like I was just galavanting all over Europe with my dog for a couple of years. True, and I was also in school!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that comfort and growth rarely happen at the same time. My life defining moments almost always start with uncertainty. I’ve never regretted taking a risk that was aligned with who I am. I don’t really live life with regrets, but I do look back on the times when I knew I should’ve stepped up and taken said risk.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harperparr/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@harperparr

Image Credits
Carleigh Hyser
Jenna Freiberg
@snapshaughtz
Rai Benjamin