Daily Inspiration: Meet Harper Dhadde

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

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started singing after consuming endless media of Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana during my developmental years. From the age of 5-18, I learned instruments and vocal skills with little direction. I started by learning the piano in preschool. When I got bored of classical music, I switched to the guitar. And in middle school, my mom pushed me to join the orchestra. That is where I learned to play the violin and upright bass. Now, most of my music is based on the piano, but I keep up regularly with the guitar and bass guitar.

I began writing music very early in life. I filled notebooks with poetry, but I never remembered melodies after I wrote them down, so the poems stayed poetry. I read back on my words and cringe, but it was the beginning of my storytelling journey. I finally took my dream of becoming a singer seriously in high school. I attended a songwriting camp in LA the summer before Senior year. I wrote my first full-length song. Part of the program was going to a studio to record our song in full. We had a time limit of a couple of hours, and that was one of the hardest experiences of my life. My song was deep. Deeper than my mentor was expecting. I felt embarrassed listening back to my voice without any reverb or autotune. It was painful, but I realized just how long of a road I had to go to become who I wanted to be. I returned to my small town in the suburbs of Chicago with a fire burning and a string pulling me to LA.

My trip to LA, surrounded by like-minded songwriters, showed me a path that had been buried under my circumstances. My parents worked in IT, and my brother was studying to be a doctor. And once I saw a path, I was able to draw a line from where I was and where I wanted to be.

I believe that a song is enhanced by the visuals you put along with it. In fact, I once entertained the idea of being a music video director. I took classes on videography, bought a camera and lighting, and wrote storyboards for all of my self-made music videos. The process of releasing a song is not the fun part. But the only way I get through it is by making videos, taking photos, and editing together visuals. It is all a part of the art that I make, and it’s the art of it that keeps me going. I love it.

Anyway, I quickly learned that if I was going to become a singer, I’d need to start making original music. And it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wanted minimal people involved in that process. And so I learned how to produce music myself.

In 2019 I wrote my first EP Low City. On my trip to LA that summer, I noted the differences between the skyscraping, tall city that I spent my childhood in and this other city that was nothing alike. Walking the Santa Monica promenade, I wrote the two words “Low City” into my notes app. Low City was my first self-produced and self-recorded piece. The entire EP was finished by the end of my senior year, but I didn’t release it until long after. I graduated high school in 2020. Once the pandemic hit, I took my time to perfect the EP. Even before I released the EP, I put out my first-ever single to be available on streaming platforms.

In March 2020, I released my song 2009. My family was moving out of my childhood house just before the pandemic hit, and I took the empty rooms as an opportunity to record vocals without anyone hearing me. In my empty, echoey, painted-over bedroom, I recorded a song about nostalgia. About how life will never be the same as it was in my memories. Little did I know that this would become a common theme that I reference in my art to this day.

Despite my hard work on the EP Low City, I have since taken it down from all streaming platforms (except SoundCloud). As my sound and skills evolved with my songs Faceless, Pick Up The Phone, and Get a Life, I felt less and less confident in the quality of those first few songs I’d ever written. Nevertheless, the songs I wrote for the EP are still powerful, and the stories they tell still stand.

From 2020 to 2023, I was a student at the University of California: Irvine. I used my online freshman year to write and record music and have since graduated early with a degree in Business Economics. After moving to Orange County, I wrote and recorded my only studio single Clown. I released my latest EP Such A Drag the week after graduation.

I’ve listened to K-pop for the last eight years of my life. When I first came to California, I was working on demos for K-pop companies. However, after an incident where I wasn’t paid for my work overseas, I stopped writing songs for others. My sound is a reflection of the intricate and flashy production style of 2nd and 3rd-generation K-pop groups. Western influences of mine include Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and Doja Cat. But I still stay true to my early influences of Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, and the early 2000s pop-punk scene.

I am very proud of my latest EP Such A Drag. Every time I release a song, I am getting closer to making music that I’d listen to myself. I’ve talked with other artists, about how it’s easy to write a song. The hard part is writing a song that people want to listen to. A song that gets stuck in people’s heads and speaks to them words that they want to hear over and over. The song Such A Drag was about my experience in college. My experience as an artist seeing the American college lifestyle as art. I was confused because college is fun and it’s a good thing for me, but I didn’t feel like I was in the right place. I perceive every part of my life as art. The world isn’t something to be understood, and neither is art. This puts me on a train of thought that leads to my song Bug Art. Bug Art was the prerelease single to the Such a Drag EP. I found a fellow musician and artist Sweet Joey Vermouth on TikTok. He makes physical ‘Bug Art’ that he destroys and throws away. This makes the masses talk in the comments about what art is. Such a silly yet deep way to start a conversation. I sampled lyrics from his song Bug Art and sent him my version for his consent to release it, which he graciously gave.

My goal with my career is simply to make music, go on tour, and share my art with people. To inspire people and make them feel good. Every Preeti (the name of my fanbase) is loved and seen. I spread the idea of “do whatever the f*ck you want, but we only get one life so use it wisely”.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t come from a family of artists. My parents work in IT, and my brother is a nurse. Although my mom is very supportive of my career, I can’t come to her with my professional problems. Nevertheless, my mom is my biggest inspiration. She graduated top of her class in an engineering school that was mostly male. She moved to the United States without any money and gave my brother and me a life of opportunity. She gave me the freedom to pursue the life that I truly want, and as sung at the end of my song Get A Life “I’ll make my mom proud of me,”.

Another thing that I struggle with regularly is how I want my music to be perceived. People say I shouldn’t care what people think, but an entertainer’s sole purpose is to entertain an audience. My mantra is that my audience is out there somewhere; I just have to find them. Furthermore, there’s a difference between a painting you put in a bathroom versus a museum. There is no “museum” in music. Would this be the radio? The radio is saturated and curated content harvested for the sake of a less boring morning commute. Streaming culture has removed passion from smaller musicians. It is so much easier to find smaller artists nowadays, but for the artist to make a career out of their art, they must take the art out of it. I idolize Lady Gaga and Doja Cat because are artists with their music and their image. I make music to be listened to as art. But how do I get to the people who resonate with my art? I don’t have a label or a team, and my social media presence is dependent on an algorithm that works against me as someone with an unconventional image. This is a struggle that a lot of small artists are facing. How do we stand out in a world of mainstream trends?

Being a young girl in a male-dominated industry is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I produce and write music through the female gaze, which is a pressure that I don’t carry lightly. On the other hand, I am sexualized and judged against my will. When a guy says to another guy, “Let’s work on music,” it is assumed that they are both on the same page. But when a guy comes to me and says “Let’s work on music,” sometimes it comes with the subtext of “And then maybe we’ll hook up,”. I have to pick and choose my sessions wisely, and so far I’ve been safe. But that doesn’t excuse the fear that one day I’ll trust the wrong person. So often, I just don’t choose anyone to collaborate with.

Overall I love surprising the men that I choose to collaborate with with my professionalism and focus. I portray myself as a free spirit, so I work with an aura that not a lot of people expect from me. I am respected by those who appreciate my music, but a lot of the time, people don’t see me as a musician first. They see me as a woman first.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I self-write, self-produce, self-record, self-release, and self-promote my music. I often even mix and master my songs, which artists usually outsource to professionals. I am known for sounding nostalgic and unique. I am also known for being extremely relatable and non-judgemental in my music, on social media, and in real life. I am not an unapproachable artist. I share my knowledge about my musical process without holding back. I play my unreleased tracks on TikTok live and love talking with the people who enjoy my art. Overall, the production and promotion of my music is an extension of me and myself as an artist. And I’m proud of the sound that I’ve created and the voice that I’ve made for myself.

I write music about my life. Whether in a cryptic way or in a literal way, I put my heart on my sleeve and tell listeners stories. Lyrics come naturally to me, but it takes trial and error for me to make a song that people would listen to. I don’t fit into a genre because I write in emotion. People often tell me that my music sounds like me, and that is the most flattering compliment. And I think producing my own songs is a large part of the effect I have on listeners. Not everybody needs to, and I’m sure my music would sound more professional if I let somebody else do it. But my production sets me apart.

I was deeply involved in my school’s arts programs. However, I would never get the solos in choir, despite taking countless vocal lessons with various instructors in styles like Opera, Musical Theatre, Jazz, etc. When the pandemic hit, my extracurriculars and lessons were canceled. I realized that I had been trying to sound like somebody else my entire life. Being home and listening to nobody’s voice but my own, I wasn’t forced to compare my voice and sound to those around me. I found my sound. But I am still grateful for all of the experience I’ve had leading up to starting my serious singing career. I can manipulate my voice to sound how I’d like, and being in choirs my whole life makes harmonizing and adlibbing second nature. Being in the school’s orchestra and taking lessons on the piano and guitar taught me the inner workings and layers of a song. My skills and background manifest in music production. The instrumentals of my music are what make me unique. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being a part of the production process of my songs.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I also have a strong background in dance. I’ve learned ballet, jazz, Bollywood, hip-hop, and K-pop choreographies. I was the choreographer and producer for my high school’s K-pop dance team. And I was deeply involved in my college’s K-pop dance crew. I love performing and take any opportunity to share my art on stage.

I am an actress and model with a print campaign with Levi’s Jeans in 2022 and a commercial out with Meta/Facebook. I am active in the modeling and acting scene in LA and plan to continue with this line of work as I continue with my journey as a musician.

I post vlog-style content on TikTok (@harperdhadde) and YouTube (Harper Dhadde).

I have a new song coming out on February 14th, 2024. This song, Genie In A Bottle, will be preceding an EP, “Famous Last Words” that will be released sometime this year.

I have merch available for purchase. The bleach-dyed shirts are completely customizable and hand-made by me.

Here is the link: https://www.depop.com/products/harperdhadde-harper-dhadde-handmade-bleach-dyed-t-shirt/

Pricing:

• Handmade T-shirts: 30$ plus shipping.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.linktr.ee/harperdhadde
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harperdhadde/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIsUG11H9VGuxKbDF_q_taw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@harperdhadde?lang=en

Image Credits
(2) Performance Photo & Guitar Photo: Rebecca Gottbetter @beckshots on Instagram. (2) Screaming Photo & Stairs Photo: Adam @aada3m on Instagram. (2) Studio Photos in Purple Sweater: Katrina @katchyaphotos on Instagram. (1) Clown Photo: Harper Dhadde @harperdhadde on Instagram. (1) Faceless Photo: Harper Dhadde @harperdhadde on Instagram.