Veteran singer-songwriter Kyp Harness remains spontaneous
KITCHENER — He’s a self-described vintage movie geek whose childhood heroes were Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. Hence the writing of two noted non-fiction books about both to prove his film-loving point.
He has also written fiction with another coming out next month.
He is a cartoonist known for web comic strip “Mortimer the Slug.”
Musicians Daniel Lanois, Bob Wiseman and Mary Margaret O’Hara have all covered his songs.
This veteran singer-songwriter creates insightful, poetic, wry, urban lyrics summoning up the essence of Arlo Guthrie, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Patti Smith and Bob Dylan, with a sonic thrust of Jerry Leger and a titch of Kurt Vile.
He is Ron Sexsmith’s favourite song-scribe and often regaled as the “songwriter’s songwriter.”
Many musicians agree it’s his lyrics that put him in a class of his own — an artist who moves his audience from song one.
Kypton Boyd Harness, a.k.a. Kyp Harness, originally hails from Sarnia.
“I was liking to read. I remember that when I was young,” says Harness in his easygoing drawl. “I don’t think I started at any insane age but I remember wanting to read in kindergarten and Grade 1.
“I know that was a big lifeline for me because sometimes the things in books seemed to be more real than the stuff that was going on around me. That is the way it is for a lot of young kids. You use your imagination and stuff.
“I always thought I was going to be a cartoonist when I was growing up and I got lots of attention for it in Grade 1, Grade 2 and also in high school,” he recalls. “I always dug doing it and then other things took over.
“I got more into writing and it was only when I left Sarnia that I got into music learning how to play guitar and getting to write these songs that had always been in my head. I always had the cartoonist thing and then a couple of years ago I was inspired to do “Mortimer the Slug.”
Harness never took singing lessons.
“This is integrity. I want to keep it real so I resisted it,” he states.
“I think I have come through a bit better not trying to do stuff that I cannot do with the voice on my new album especially.
“I am not under any delusion that I am going to make myself into some AOR radio friendly crooner. To me, it’s whatever fits the songs so that is my voice from an early time. It is conceivable that people will go through all of my albums and see what the evolution is.”
Harness has 13 acclaimed albums to his credit, including “Spotlight Moon” (2016) produced by (13 Engines singer) John Critchley (Dan Mangan, Elliott Brood, The Once).
Harness’s new album, simply entitled “Kyp Harness,” was arranged by Harness live off the floor in a one-day session at Toronto’s Revolution Recording owned by João Carvalho (Arkells, Lights, Royal Wood).
Special guests on the album include Harness’ pal/bandmate/ renowned jazz pianist-arranger Tania Gill (Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Anthony Braxton).
Harness is also joined by bassist Mike Smith (Jim Vivian, Dave Young), sax player Brodie West (Broken Social Scene, Evan Cartwright), and drummer Sean Lancaric (The Wilderness of Manitoba).
The album is an alt-folk-rock occasionally jazz-tinted candid snapshot of today’s world for better but mostly worse from wry, right to the point Dylanesque opener “Hard Life” to all too familiar Lennonish roots waltz “Insomnia Lullabye.”
Harness has been writing for years.
When it comes to crafting his song-stories, he has self-imposed criteria.
“I keep it organic,” he notes. “Either the stuff comes to me or it doesn’t. Then after that either I remember it or I don’t. I hardly write anything down. Sometimes I tape stuff but if I remember it that means it is good. It is part of life and everything. But if I forget it is meant to be forgotten. I let it go.
“All of the best songs — they come at the same time,” he muses.
“It really is like that for me. Some of the songs I make up in my head — the melody and everything. I get behind the guitar and the piano and try to figure out what the chords are. Some of them just come out of a life thing every day. I seem to need to do that and I guess it is a form of mediation or something
and then I play.
“You know if some songs come out and you get something happening — you develop it if you want to develop it. I do not try and force anything into happening because, for me, that is the kiss of death,” he admits with a laugh. “It is contrived and forced. I cannot do it and I hate it! It does not feel real or honest.
It usually turns out sh-tty anyway.”
Harness’s songs are about the mess of life — verbal jazz like a George F. Walker play.
“That’s what you want,” he says.
“For me, that is my thing because you are keeping it really spontaneous. In some ways, the first thought is the best thought — like Jack Kerouac said. That seems to preserve the life of it,” adds Harness, also an author with an innovative, cinematic turn of phrase.
Harness’s non-fiction bibliography includes film analysis “The Art of Laurel and Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the Films” (2006) and “The Art of Charlie Chaplin” (2007).
His first acclaimed fiction novel, “Wigford Rememberies,” was published in 2016 by British Columbia’s revered Nightwood Editions (Rodney DeCroo, Greta Guzek).
Harness is excited about the release of his next book “The Abandoned,” also through Nightwood which he will have with him on tour.
He still plays his old Takamine acoustic given to him by his wife.
“For some people, it is not that cool of a guitar like a Gibson or some damn thing,” he drawls. “So it’s 20 or 25 years old now. There are dents where people have thrown crap at me on stage. Only every so often do you end up in a place like that!” he adds with a laugh.
“I am going to try and play stuff from all of the records — not everything but revisit songs that hold up. I have the new stuff and a lot of faves to draw upon.”