Latest / The Scene Projects / Heather Harper on Local Music, Drifted Harmony, and Navigating the Indie Scene

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Heather Harper on Local Music, Drifted Harmony, and Navigating the Indie Scene · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Today's guest is Heather Harper, a four time Josie Music Award nominee and the 20 '22 winner
• 0:08
  of female artist of the year.
• 0:10
  She's also a part of a duo called Drifted Harmony, of which they are a three time nominee
• 0:16
  for Josie Music Awards as well.
• 0:18
  Let's get into the conversation.
• 0:26
  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
• 0:30
  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
• 0:35
  from across the Midwest.
• 0:38
  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:52
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:54
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Heather Harper.
• 0:58
  Heather, welcome to the show.
• 0:59
  Hello.
• 1:00
  Thanks for having me.
• 1:02
  Well, obviously, we got some real exciting things coming up here soon.
• 1:07
  But before we get into, I'm sure a little bit of talk about the upcoming Josie Music Awards,
• 1:12
  Wanna give you a chance to just have the floor here and give us a little bit of your
• 1:15
  backstory.
• 1:17
  Sure.
• 1:18
  So I've been singing pretty much my entire life.
• 1:24
  Obviously, grew up in church.
• 1:25
  I know a lot of people say that, but I did.
• 1:28
  I started off singing in church with my mom's side of the family, and a lot of my influences
• 1:34
  for music came from my mother.
• 1:36
  She went to Nashville when I was, like, four.
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  I remember going on this trip because she got offered a record deal, and she ended up turning
• 1:43
  it down because she was like, do you wanna or they asked her, do you wanna lose your privacy?
• 1:47
  And she was like, oh, no.
• 1:49
  I never thought about that.
• 1:50
  And so she denied that.
• 1:52
  And, pretty much now, she's just been watching me grow as an artist.
• 1:57
  And, I believe the first time I realized I wanted to do this for a living was when I got
• 2:03
  to sing with her on a small stage in Chandler, Texas when I was 10 years old for a community
• 2:09
  event.
• 2:10
  And, it was a Judd song that we sang together, and I was super nervous.
• 2:15
  I have the video somewhere, which is hilarious.
• 2:17
  But I knew from that point on, wanted to be a singer.
• 2:21
  And, I got my first guitar when I was seven years old.
• 2:26
  Did not know how to play it at all.
• 2:28
  And I just know my mom showed me a few tricks on the guitar and a few chords, and I didn't
• 2:33
  even know chords at the time.
• 2:35
  So I played by ear for the longest time until 2016.
• 2:39
  I had a guitar player.
• 2:40
  He quit on me last minute.
• 2:41
  I had a show that night, and I was like, I am not canceling the show just because of that.
• 2:46
  And so I was determined, and I taught myself chords pretty quickly, and I went on to play
• 2:51
  that three hour show myself.
• 2:54
  So yeah.
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  And I've been doing this full time since then.
• 3:01
  That's incredible.
• 3:02
  I love the spunk of, like, you're not gonna keep me from playing.
• 3:07
  That was definitely the mindset.
• 3:08
  I wasn't gonna, you know, have it look bad on me because I still wanted to go on and do it,
• 3:13
  and nobody else could do it because it was last minute.
• 3:16
  But, I was determined, and now I just play for myself, like, for rhythm.
• 3:20
  So yeah.
• 3:22
  No.
• 3:22
  I was very fortunate.
• 3:23
  I began playing, I played drums in concert band and then picked up the bass guitar for jazz
• 3:29
  band when I was maybe, like, twelve, thirteen, seventh grade.
• 3:31
  Mhmm.
• 3:32
  And then but my dad was a guitar player.
• 3:34
  My uncle was a guitar player.
• 3:36
  I grew up with guitars around me.
• 3:38
  And then once I kinda put that together with like you, I've been singing since I could talk,
• 3:42
  not necessarily in the church, but around family gatherings, around the campfire.
• 3:47
  When we moved to South Dakota, we had my dad's guitar and us singing.
• 3:52
  That was our entertainment.
• 3:53
  Right?
• 3:53
  So I have always been a musical family, and I I got that bug pretty early in life as well.
• 4:01
  Before I ever realized that, like, I'm gonna do this for a profession.
• 4:04
  Right?
• 4:04
  And not that I do just music now.
• 4:07
  The podcast is definitely taking more of my time than my music career, but I just got back
• 4:12
  from the Wild West Songwriters Festival in my hometown of Deadwood, South Dakota yesterday
• 4:18
  and or two days ago rather.
• 4:20
  And it was it was nice to get out and just perform and to remember how much I loved that
• 4:24
  part of it.
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  And just being in front of a room of people and singing my heart out and and having their
• 4:31
  energy and their reaction to that, it's really hard to replicate in any other facet of life.
• 4:39
  I saw I saw some pictures.
• 4:40
  I did a little snooping myself.
• 4:42
  I saw you were a musician as well.
• 4:44
  So I was hoping you'd talk about that.
• 4:49
  Well and that's how this started was that I released the song in 2024.
• 4:54
  We had released one in '23, and then we're, you know, getting ready to release more.
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  I couldn't keep up with that, like, releasing song every week or every month or however long
• 5:03
  the industry is telling you to to release stuff now.
• 5:07
  But I realized, especially in South Dakota, there's just not very many outlets for that.
• 5:12
  So I had done the local news, and I had done a few podcasts with my friends, but then that was
• 5:17
  kind of it.
• 5:18
  Right?
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  And people from California have plenty of other musicians and their friends to talk to about
• 5:25
  music.
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  And people in Texas, right, like, have their own people and people in Nashville.
• 5:30
  There but there was really nobody for people in the Midwest.
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  And, you know, South Dakota, but we're a member of the Midwest Country Music Organization.
• 5:37
  So we deal with a lot of artists from Iowa and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, right, North
• 5:43
  Dakota, Wyoming, all of these really, you know, rural areas that just don't have the outlets to
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  go out and, you know, perform and promote their music after they've taken so much time to write
• 5:56
  it and record it, and you know all of these things that it's tough.
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  And that's why a organization like the Josie Music Award is such a beautiful thing, and I'm
• 6:06
  just thrilled to be going down to Nashville for the first time to to work at the Grand Ole
• 6:11
  Opry.
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  It's like I said, somebody pinch me.
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  Like, is is this life real?
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  Now you've been, nominated obviously, a
• 6:20
  lot.
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  And Yeah.
• 6:23
  Your relationship with the Josies?
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  I'd love to kinda hear your take as someone who's new and me to someone who has a little
• 6:29
  bit more experience.
• 6:31
  Well, it first started in 2019.
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  I had never heard of the Joe's Music Awards before that because I know previously they had
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  been at Dollywood before the Grand Ole Opry.
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  And I think at this point, they were still at Dollywood because the first year I won artist
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  of the year in '22, that was also their first year at the Grand Ole Opry.
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  So years prior to that, it was at Dollywood, and I never got to attend those awards.
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  It was, you know, due to a mixture of, you know, being performing and stuff.
• 7:02
  I with my schedule.
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  Schedule conflict is the word I'm looking for.
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  So 2019, someone was like, hey.
• 7:08
  Do you know you're nominated in the Josie music award?
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  I'm like, what's that?
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  And then I find out it's the world's largest independent music awards show to be nominated,
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  and I was like, wow.
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  And so I got to looking more into it and, all the nominations I had, and I was like, wow.
• 7:24
  Holy cow.
• 7:24
  That's crazy.
• 7:25
  You know?
• 7:26
  And, of course, I just continue to be getting nominated each year, and I've been nominated
• 7:32
  ever since 2019 for something.
• 7:34
  And then finally, 02/2022, when I got to go my first year, I won an award, and that's my award
• 7:41
  to ever win my entire career, actually.
• 7:43
  I've been nominated in so many music awards.
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  And to finally take home an award and from a bigger event is, like, a surreal moment and an
• 7:52
  honor and a blessing and just to, like, really help you realize how hard you've been working
• 7:57
  and to not, you know, give up on working.
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  And because eventually, it will come to you when the time is right.
• 8:03
  But, yeah, just since 2019, I've been nominated every year and, nominated again this year.
• 8:09
  And, also, my duo, Drifted Harmony, which you mentioned at the beginning, we just formed in
• 8:16
  2024, which I really wanted her on this interview too, but she, couldn't because of
• 8:21
  schedule conflict today.
• 8:23
  But I told her I'd speak for us, and she was okay with that.
• 8:27
  So but we're nominated as well, like you said.
• 8:29
  And, we've not even been together for a year, but we've been, like, taken off since we
• 8:34
  started.
• 8:35
  And all obviously, still having our solo careers, like my Heather Nicole Harper and her
• 8:40
  stuff around the Drifted Harmony thing.
• 8:42
  So we're we're just busy, busy, busy, like, all the time.
• 8:46
  Yeah.
• 8:46
  So, obviously, this is what you do professionally.
• 8:49
  You're not working a a day job besides that.
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  You're staying busy playing music.
• 8:54
  Now, you said you grew up in Texas or at least you had performed there early in your career.
• 8:59
  Are you still in Texas now?
• 9:02
  Yes.
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  I've lived here my whole life, born and raised in Tyler, Texas, and, I've been performing all
• 9:10
  around East Texas since 2016 full time.
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  And, I've I've done I've gone out of state too and done some performances like, in Louisiana
• 9:20
  and Arkansas and Oklahoma and stuff like that.
• 9:23
  You know?
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  But Texas is kind of where I'm at.
• 9:27
  Well and having traveled there twice this year, we went all the way down to Austin and played a
• 9:33
  gig down there in Killeen, Texas.
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  And then I was in Grapevine for the podcast movement, conference.
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  And to just be in what has been, you know, especially for country music, such a a a
• 9:47
  backbone of the industry, really.
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  That and Texas is just a massive, massive state.
• 9:53
  You know?
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  You can you can drive for a whole day and not get out of it, and I thought South Dakota was
• 9:58
  big.
• 9:59
  Yeah.
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  So there's plenty of shows to play.
• 10:02
  Someone could spend an entire career playing and really never have to leave the state and to
• 10:06
  be very successful doing so.
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  And I'm sure there's, you know, plenty of people out there that have.
• 10:11
  But it's nice to get to to leave home, and I'm sure you're very well, very well received when
• 10:18
  you go anywhere, and perform in other states as well.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:25
  I mean, I love doing this for a living, and it it truly is a blessing to get to do this full
• 10:31
  time, you know, make my own schedule around.
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  Because I do have kids.
• 10:35
  I have a family.
• 10:36
  And so it's it's nice to also get to bring them sometimes to shows.
• 10:41
  You know?
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  So not all the time do they wanna go, which I don't blame.
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  They you know, it's something they're used to now.
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  But, when when they wanna go, they enjoy it and they have fun.
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  That's what I've noticed.
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  I think when my wife and I first started dating in 2018 and I was restarting my music career
• 10:58
  that she's like, well, I have to be at your shows, and I have to be.
• 11:01
  And now she's like, yeah.
• 11:02
  You you go ahead.
• 11:03
  You can go ahead.
• 11:04
  Song songwriter festival weekend, and you're gonna be running around playing two rounds and
• 11:09
  then a show at night and doing all these.
• 11:11
  Like, I don't wanna chase you around all of that.
• 11:13
  Well, I'm good.
• 11:14
  You let me know when you're playing, you know, the some of the bigger gigs, and we've been
• 11:19
  fortunate to play some of our larger amphitheaters around South Dakota.
• 11:22
  And, you know, they they try to be at those, and I make sure that I play.
• 11:27
  But you kinda spoke to something that I I very rarely think about, but that's the freedom,
• 11:33
  right, of, yes, we're kind of we play on the weekends, but also that means we could be home
• 11:38
  during the week and and with our families and really spending a lot of time because we're
• 11:43
  able to go out and to only work maybe a few days a week, at least in a performing aspect.
• 11:49
  Right?
• 11:50
  So I think that's that's what some people maybe miss is that, yes, it's very busy.
• 11:56
  It's hard as all can be.
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  It's very difficult to, you know, make a living, especially in this day and age where,
• 12:04
  you know, selling records isn't something that happens for a lot of people unless you kind of
• 12:09
  have a established fan base and that you take that approach because the industry is just
• 12:15
  pushing everyone to push the streaming platforms that don't pay you.
• 12:18
  I've actually sold more albums in the last two days of finishing mine, and I don't I don't
• 12:23
  even have a CD.
• 12:24
  I'm just selling a digital download.
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  But people want to support, and they understand that streaming really isn't doing that for
• 12:32
  independent artists now.
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  And they want to see that success, and they wanna be a part of that.
• 12:39
  Do you have, you know, do you sell CDs still at your shows?
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  And, obviously, merchandise is probably a big part of what you do as well.
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  I used to sell CDs.
• 12:50
  I don't anymore, but I do still sell merch like t shirts and tank tops and koozies and stuff
• 12:56
  like that.
• 12:57
  Because I do feel like physical merch is way better than, like you said, digital, because
• 13:03
  digital, we're just not we're not even getting enough to make up for the work put in it.
• 13:09
  You know?
• 13:09
  So I feel like people just if, you know, the fans coming out to the shows, buying merch
• 13:14
  physically, that helps us a lot more than going and, you know, streaming the song or
• 13:20
  downloading the song.
• 13:22
  Yeah.
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  I think I saw something recently where a a million streams equals out to, like, $1,500,
• 13:28
  and it's like, that doesn't that doesn't cover the cost of recording one song sometimes.
• 13:33
  Right?
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  Depending on, you know, where you're doing it at.
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  If you're going into Nashville and and hiring professionals to play on your albums and then
• 13:41
  to do a recording space, like, you're you're so much in debt when you finish this to have
• 13:47
  nothing to show for it is kind of sad.
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  I was really happy to see that, you know, three people over the weekend had had given us $10 to
• 13:55
  get the digital download over the songs and just to to own something.
• 14:00
  Right?
• 14:00
  So you don't have to go on Spotify and listen to 12 songs that aren't ours to hear one of our
• 14:07
  songs.
• 14:07
  Right?
• 14:08
  So I think it's coming back.
• 14:09
  I think people understand that the music industry, way that it's been for the last ten,
• 14:14
  fifteen years, has really hurt the independent artists.
• 14:17
  And that's why you don't see as many that are really cracking up into that, you know, the
• 14:23
  upper echelon of being, you know, quote, unquote, rock stars.
• 14:27
  Yes.
• 14:28
  Yes.
• 14:28
  And I noticed too, like, it's been so much easier for a lot of us to just put out singles
• 14:33
  instead of a full album because then you're really getting a lot more traction by doing a
• 14:37
  single at a time.
• 14:38
  You're getting people ready for the next one versus an album, you're not sure if they're
• 14:42
  gonna listen to the whole thing, which I've I've, tested that.
• 14:49
  No.
• 14:50
  And I I then that's what I I released a few singles over the last two years, and I just I
• 14:55
  wanted to I wanted to bring out a a and it's only five songs.
• 15:00
  I mean, really, I guess, it'd be like an EP.
• 15:02
  Right?
• 15:02
  But I I wanted they were works.
• 15:04
  They were songs that really kinda fit together, and it was just like, I just wanna get these
• 15:09
  out.
• 15:09
  I wanna release them all as one thing and as a collection of works and as something that, I
• 15:15
  have to show the world.
• 15:16
  And I just I'm doing enough already.
• 15:19
  I don't need to be promoting a new song every couple of weeks and rolling things out like
• 15:23
  that.
• 15:24
  It's just it's a lot.
• 15:25
  It's a lot of work, and, it's really it's not dictated by anyone except the industry.
• 15:31
  Like, the industry is telling us to do that because that's what feeds their model.
• 15:36
  Right?
• 15:36
  That's what keeps new
• 15:37
  Yeah.
• 15:38
  Songs coming out on their platforms and then us driving new listeners into their model.
• 15:43
  And I'm just not I mean, there's billions of people on this planet and, like, a a fraction
• 15:49
  of 1% have heard my music.
• 15:51
  So I can push the same old songs that I've been working on for years for probably twenty years
• 15:58
  and and still not that many people, you know, in in the population of the world will have
• 16:04
  heard it.
• 16:04
  So we'll see.
• 16:05
  I'm bucking trends around here, though, Heather, and I and I have that capability.
• 16:10
  Right?
• 16:10
  When you own the radio station and the the podcast and and everything that's promoting it.
• 16:16
  So, awesome.
• 16:19
  Well, I know you're a busy gal.
• 16:21
  I don't wanna keep you for too long.
• 16:24
  Why don't you tell everyone where they can find your stuff, and, we'll get them streaming and
• 16:28
  listening to all your music.
• 16:31
  Sure.
• 16:31
  Well, if you just go to my website, heatherharpermusic.com, everything about me is
• 16:37
  on there, about my duo.
• 16:39
  My social media links are on there.
• 16:41
  I am on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all that stuff.
• 16:44
  And, also, I'm getting ready to release a new song November 7 called The Cowboys Way.
• 16:50
  I at least try to release a song, like, once a year because, you said, you know, I feel like
• 16:55
  the live shows is where it's at right now versus releasing a song.
• 16:59
  They have that for a good year to listen to.
• 17:01
  You know?
• 17:02
  But, yeah.
• 17:03
  So that's where you can go find me.
• 17:05
  You're at.
• 17:06
  I'll I like the single a year.
• 17:08
  I on the streaming.
• 17:09
  Right?
• 17:10
  The way at one point, I think so.
• 17:12
  It's like, have to roll out a new song every week and a music video with and everything.
• 17:16
  I was just like, who has who writes 300 or, you know, 50 songs a year?
• 17:21
  I haven't written 50 songs in my life, I don't think.
• 17:24
  Right?
• 17:24
  Not that we're good enough to record and release to the world.
• 17:28
  Well, I had a professional tell me that, actually, ideally, three to every three to four
• 17:33
  months, you should be putting out a song, which I was doing that for a while.
• 17:36
  But I I think as long as you're doing, like, a couple a year, you're good.
• 17:41
  But I just I had, like, some life things that happened.
• 17:44
  I was in a super bad car accident last year, so it kinda put me back a little bit.
• 17:50
  But, I mean, I'm back now, obviously.
• 17:52
  This year has been full swing.
• 17:55
  But, you know, that that's just what I feel like has worked for me.
• 17:58
  It may not work for you, may not work for this person over here, but that's what I like to do.
• 18:02
  Because here in Texas, like, all these cities are now becoming music friendly.
• 18:07
  We're getting more venues with music, and just live shows and physical merch is just where
• 18:11
  it's at right now.
• 18:12
  And, hey, you wanna release a song on the platform in the middle of it?
• 18:15
  Go for it.
• 18:16
  If you don't, that's okay too because I feel like it, you know, the fans coming out to see
• 18:20
  you live is where it's at.
• 18:22
  I couldn't agree more, and I hope they get to come out sometime and see us perform together
• 18:28
  down there in Texas.
• 18:29
  We'll bring you up to South Dakota.
• 18:31
  We got plenty of gigs in the summertime.
• 18:34
  Winter slows down a lot for us for a good reason, but maybe that's when I can come down
• 18:38
  and visit y'all in Texas because it was a 100 degrees and a 100% humidity I felt like when I
• 18:43
  visited in May and in August.
• 18:46
  So I struck out twice on, you know, decent weather.
• 18:49
  My old suburban doesn't have AC, so I will never do that again.
• 18:53
  But maybe I'll come down to Texas in, like, February.
• 18:56
  Maybe that'd be nice.
• 18:58
  Yeah.
• 18:58
  Just look out for snow and ice.
• 19:00
  Sometimes it hits us for, like, two days, and then we're back to bipolar holiday.
• 19:04
  Yeah.
• 19:04
  See, I know how to drive in snow and ice.
• 19:06
  I this is why I grew up in the tundra here,
• 19:09
  so we're good.
• 19:10
  Everybody else can stay home.
• 19:12
  Yeah.
• 19:13
  All fun.
• 19:14
  Well, Heather, I'm really forward to meeting you and your cohort in Drifted Harmony at the
• 19:19
  Joseph Music Awards there in Nashville coming up here soon.
• 19:23
  Congratulations on the new music coming out, and I I can't wait to meet you
• 19:27
  in person.
• 19:29
  Sounds good.
• 19:30
  I can't wait to meet you as well.
• 19:31
  Looking forward to it.
• 19:32
  We're two weeks away.
• 19:34
  So exciting.
• 19:34
  It's it's almost here.
• 19:36
  And because I was so focused on our Wild West Songwriters Festival and kinda getting through
• 19:41
  that weekend that it hit me on the way home where I was like, oh, you're gonna be at the
• 19:45
  Grand Ole Opry in two weeks.
• 19:47
  Like, wow.
• 19:48
  And I don't know that even by next year at this time, hopefully, when we're going back there
• 19:53
  again, that we'll have sunk in how far we've come as a media company.
• 19:59
  I mean, I've only been doing podcasting for about eighteen months, but I I brought the
• 20:04
  mentality that I had, you know, knocking doors, selling magazines door to door back in the day
• 20:09
  to this thing.
• 20:11
  And, you know, we were able to win an award from the Midwest Country Music Organization for
• 20:16
  the content creator of the year.
• 20:18
  So that title and as you kind of alluded to earlier is, you know, we don't necessarily do
• 20:24
  it for the awards, but it really helps in the public because now you've been recognized.
• 20:31
  And our organization, it's voted on by the members, so that felt even better to be like,
• 20:36
  oh, our people.
• 20:37
  Right?
• 20:38
  My friends have recognized me as worthy of this.
• 20:41
  I have to go live up to that now.
• 20:43
  And we've released a ton more content this year than we ever thought about doing last year.
• 20:49
  So, hopefully, we can live up to the name and live up to that recognition.
• 20:53
  And I'm I'm sure you feel much of the same anytime that you're recognized by your peers or
• 20:59
  by an organization like the Josie's.
• 21:00
  You just have to go out and work that much harder now.
• 21:04
  Yep.
• 21:05
  Of course.
• 21:05
  I couldn't agree more.
• 21:08
  Well, Heather, thanks for your time today, and thanks for being part of the scene.
• 21:12
  Yes.
• 21:13
  Thanks for having me.
• 21:14
  See you in a couple of weeks.