Terrorbird

Harlan combines elements from Appalachian folk and the British Invasion to create a sound that is uniquely American yet somehow remote.

Harlan's songs tell fractured stories wrapped around melodic synth hooks and AM radio guitar solos; a collision of styles that is strikingly modern but with genuine feeling that reaches back to a time when that sort of thing still mattered.

Harlan began when John Harlan Norris left his job at a Sotheby's warehouse in Spanish Harlem to spend recording music and painting in his native Kentucky. Norris then moved to Louisiana to pursue a MFA in painting.

When he wasn't in the painting studio, he was in the recording studio putting together The Still Beat - an entirely self-produced debut LP filled with lush guitars, keyboards, and Harlan's distinctive voice: a lazy vibrato that delivers razor sharp lyrics that are sometimes heartfelt and sometimes cruel.

Now, Norris has assembled a band that injects his songs with a new sense of energy and urgency. Harlan now also includes John Bossier, Scott Campbell, and Britt King. Harlan will be touring this spring in support of The Still Beat and are already in the process of recording a follow-up.