Harrison Whitford – Afraid of Everything

Holy shit. Nashville-based Harrison Whitford has just released his debut album, and damn… this record might already be one of the TOP 3 records of 2018. Harrison was kind enough to tell us a few things about the making of his incredible record, so make sure to read through our little Q&A below.

‘Afraid of Everything’ is bursting with emotion, honest lyrics and beautiful melodies. It feels so raw & unedited, you can hear the emotion in every single note. It’s a collection of songs that manage to be both deeply personal and distinctly universal at the same time.
It’s special. It really is. And you don’t wanna miss out on it.
You can buy & listen to ‘Afraid of Everything’ on all digital platforms now. ❤️

Our favourite tracks: ‘Take A Walk’, ‘Pair Of Lungs’, ‘Part Time Heart’
Our favourite line: ‘You burn like rain on an acid day’
For fans of: Literally everyone who cares about good, meaningful and honest music.

Can you tell us a bit about the making of ‘Afraid of Everything’? The recording process, where it was recorded, who was involved…?
We made the record in a few different places, all over the course of six months. The bones of the record however were tracked live at Sound Emporium in Nashville. The band consisted of my close friends who I played with on an a daily basis at the time. Kevin McGowan and Tarka Layman made up the rhythm section, Alex Labrie was on second guitar, and my friend Marshall Vore was producing. We did virtually all the basics live in three days. After that, Marshall and I had to go work on a couple different things so that put overdubs on hold for a minute. Whenever there was some free time, I would lay down a guitar track or whatever here and there. It was a sporadic process. Even in mixing we ended up cutting out a song from the original sessions and recorded ‘Strangers In The Making’ at our friend Tony Berg’s studio.

How would you describe the sound/vibe of the album yourself?
Pinning down a description of the sound of something you made is always really hard, at least to me. Sonically it has a lot of high fidelity and low fidelity elements at play, which I think gives it a kind of kinetic energy. Ultimately it sounds like a snapshot in time to me. I can hear where myself and everyone else was at emotionally.

One of your best friends produced the album, right? How did that influence the working process?
Marshall (Vore) producing the record was a leap of faith for the both of us. I had never let somebody have that much involvement in the arrangement/recording process before, but Marshall had visions for each song that were really seductive to me. And above all, he cared so intensely about the songs and was blatantly honest about what he liked and/or disliked that it made it easy to trust him. As well, like working on anything with someone you hold dear, it becomes a lot of fun. Maximum shenanigans were achieved.

Do you have a favourite track on the album?
I really like how ‘Both My Friends’ turned out. The acoustic accompanied by the drone, synth and the knocking on the back of the guitar throughout the song creates this little universe for the song to float around in. The solo was also lots of fun to record, and I like how it sort of explodes out of the mix.

Were you listening to any artists/records in particular while making the album?
Of all that I was listening to, Phoebe Bridgers was taking up most of my ear time. Marshall and I had just been working on her record beforehand and so there were definitely some methods we carried over from that process to ours. I was also listening to Coma Cinema, which I think is just one of the most criminally underrated modern bands/artists around, Paul Westerberg’s solo records, Elliott Smith’s Either//Or, Blake Mills’ record Break Mirrors, and Julien Baker.