Hazy Days Music are proud to be premiering Connor Black-Harry’s latest single "Sucker Punch"! It's a fantastic release just in time for the summer. It's an upbeat indie-folk tune about opening up and being vulnerable, I'm sure the chorus will be stuck in your head after the first listen."Sucker Punch" is Connor's second release for the year, you may also recognize him from being a session musician with amazing Australian artists Gretta Ray, Nancie Schipper and member in Grand Pine. Make sure to stream "Sucker Punch" now. Hazy Days Music thanks Connor for taking the time out and having a chat.

We are very excited here at Hazy Days Music to be premiering your latest single "Sucker Punch". What is the story behind this song? How did you find writing this single compared to your other releases?

Before writing a lot of my songs, I don't really have a story planned. I tried something different for “Sucker Punch”. I wanted to write down a bit of a story, I tried keeping images of interactions and paintings of a conversation between people and loved ones. Some had clear messages, and when bunched up next to each other they overlapped perfectly. After finishing and playing the song a few times, I could see the message of the songs refers to opening up and being vulnerable, I see it as stretching your arms out as wide as possible, even though you know people could take advantage of that but it’s worth the risk. At the time of writing that song, I wasn't really feeling that way, maybe subconsciously I was because later on, I could see those feelings coming out, a self-fulfilling prophecy I guess.

With Covid lockdown giving us all this extra time, do you feel like the free time added more pressure to be creative or it took the pressure off and allow you to explore more with each idea?

Often when writing a song, I get distracted by wanting to record it straight away. I can hear the whole production around the song, and I would work as fast as I can to get it recorded before I lose the thought/idea. When I do that something normally takes a back seat, like lyrics or a chord progression. Through the COVID lockdown, it was nice to have the extra time to not rush the song, I had the chance to step back and take the pressure off of having to finish the song in a few days. It allowed me to explore different ideas and really work on all parts of the song, always asking “Is this actually what you want to say? What's the best way you can word this? What do you really mean by this lyric? What do you want this song to mean?”

I started working on ‘Sucker Punch’ late last year and played it live a few times, I had a really good idea of how I'd like the song to sound. I ended up having a few different demo versions of the song. It didn't help that I would keep updating my home studio equipment and be like “Well now I have to re-record this and see how it sounds.” I think I still ended up going with a lot of the first demo takes. Over the past year and a half, I am really proud of where ‘Sucker Punch’ has grown too. Some days I would sit down to work on the vocals and I would sound horrible, but I wouldn't push it, I’d be happy to come back and give it a go another day. Before COVID, if that would happen I used to be able to distract myself with a gig or rehearsal, where you can get that satisfaction that way, but because of COVID I couldn't get that my fix from something else, it would play on the back of my mind for a few days that this idea is still there and I have to give it another go. That's what I needed I think, just having that time to dedicate to being creative and get into that flow.  

I felt a different sort of pressure over lockdown, but I felt this new self-imposed weight that I couldn't waste lockdown and come out of iso without anything to show. So that was a bit daunting and scary, if you get into that headspace when you are working by yourself and you get stuck on an idea, you don’t have anyone to bounce things off and you start to second guess everything. You just have to remind yourself to commit to a decision and stick to that direction and see it through.

It looks like you had a lot of fun making the music video for "Sucker Punch". Where was this filmed and who helped with the recording? Did the Covid restrictions make it difficult to plan out the day?

"Sucker Punch" was filmed in the Coburg Velodrome, it was directed by Michael Ridley and filmed by Tom Dunphy. They’re a true power duo! We had a small budget, a limited number of people helping out due to the restrictions. We filmed at double speed so when it’s played back it is in slow-mo but I’m magically singing in real time (if that makes any sense ahah)

I was talking with Michael about how I feel really uncomfortable in front of the camera, so he made me look into the camera and sing at it the whole time. After the first chorus, a bunch of my friends start throwing paint and water balloons at me, trying their best to stop me from singing, as I'm opening up and being vulnerable. My brother was down that day, I don't know who put him in charge of the water balloons, but he wasn't holding back. you can see a few bounces off me that didn't burst haha.

This is the first solo music video I've done, I'm really happy with it, and I think it's turned out amazing! We were really lucky to get it done in one take, because I didn't have any spare clothes, another guitar or extra paint, so it would've been interesting if we had to do it again haha.

What do you have planned for the rest of the year and the summer? Now that gigs are slowly returning in Melbourne, will you try to play as soon as you can? Can we expect any more new music being released soon?

I will be releasing another single in late February and dropping my debut EP in late April. Once those things are out, it will push me to start working on new music and give me a bit of a clearer idea of what I need to sit down and work on.

In regards to shows - we will just have to wait and what restrictions are in place for Melbourne, but I'm keen to get a band together and start working out a set. I've heard that festivals might be coming back in March, I'd love to jump on as many as I can, I’m really keen to start playing live again.  

I love the idea of having some low key park gigs in some of Melbourne's green spaces/skate parks/car parks, Anywhere really! It could feel a little guerilla but I think that most of the muso’s would agree that there’s got to be a fresh game plan for COVID safe shows. We need to play to stay sane!

At the start of this year, I approached Mahala Bond, who also manages Grand Pine, and asked her if she might be interested in working with me. At the beginning of lockdown we started working together, and it's great! We work really well together and have some exciting things coming up. Having a Mahala around has been great! Having a manager is excellent and I recommend it to any creative person they should look into it.

Stay up to date with Connor Black-Harry on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.

Posted on the 17th of November by Jake Taylor.