Harkin announces new album 'Honeymoon Suite'; watch the "Body Clock" video
Harkin, the solo project of multi instrumentalist Katie Harkin, will release new album Honeymoon Suite on June 17 via Hand Mirror. The album was made during lockdown and finds Katie — who used to front Sky Larkin and has collaborated and played live with Sleater-Kinney, Dua Lipa, Wild Beasts and more — self-producing for the first time, and heading in a decidedly more electronic direction than her debut album. The album also features brass by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) and Aaron Roche (Lower Dens, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Flock of Dimes), slide guitar by J.R. Bohannon (Torres) and backing vocals by Sophie Galpin (Soft Lad, Self Esteem).
“I’ve worked in all manner of studios and assumed many different roles in music making,” Harkin says. “I had thousands of flight hours but I had still never been the pilot. Owning the role of producer was more of a mental block than anything else, but circumstance dissolved that intimidation. Working on Ashley’s soundtrack early in the pandemic gave me the confidence to continue producing my own solo work. I won a grant from the PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund which would cover the mixing and mastering if I could be self-sufficient in recording. It felt like the quest I needed to push me into discovering this new direction.”
The first single from the album is the sleek, alluring and ethereal “Body Clock.” We’ve got the premiere of its video, which was directed by Pastel Castle and puts Harkin in the world of an 8-bit fantasy-adventure video game. “I was a big fan of Pastel Castle’s work and felt like this song would be a perfect fit,” Katie says. “I wrote and recorded it during lockdown in a flat with no outdoor space. My brother loaned me a Nintendo Switch and I found solace in games with large maps to explore. Songwriting and gameplay can both have the power to transport and the video Pastel Castle has created takes me on a beautiful and perilous quest.”
Watch the video below.
Honeymoon Suite:
1. Body Clock
2. New Day
3. Here Again
4. Matchless Lighting
5. (Give Me) The Streets of Leeds
6. Mt. Merino
7. Talk Of The Town
8. To Make Her Smile
9. Listening Out
10. Driving Down A Flight Of Stairs
