When you hear Dana Harper, you just immediately feel like she’s singing from a place of full, unwavering honesty. The Dallas, TX-based artist caught some big waves of attention with her appearance of Season 11 of The Voice, and since then she’s been continuing to hone in her craft, one vulnerable note at a time. We got the chance to chat with Dana Harper for our newest series, The Palette, a place for artists to share a few of their influences. Here’s what speaks to Dana Harper…
1. The kind of Acoustic Soul where the heart gets poured out.
Dana Harper: I didn’t grow up in church—well that’s not true, I didn’t grow up singing in church, I’ll say that. A lot of times when people see me, judging a book by its cover, they’re like ‘oh I bet you can sing down some gospel music,’ and I could, but that’s not necessarily where my vocal influence came from.
I grew up listening to a lot of folk and acoustic soul–India Arie, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Tracy Chapman–once I realized music was something I could do, I don’t even call it a career, it’s just my life. The guitar is a huge influence in my music. India Arie and Lauryn Hill are two of the most amazing acoustic soul artists I study and look up to. Everything from their writing and the way they’re so vulnerable, unzipped their chest and just poured their heart out in the music they created.
2. The feel of ‘90s music.
One of my big influences is the 90s, I don’t think that I realized that until more recently. As I write and when I sing and listen to myself back, I’m like that was such a ‘90s lick, or such a ‘90s run. There’s just something about the way that people were creating music in the 90s that really resonates. Definitely the 90s, especially on the love song side of things.
3. India Arie’s “Talk To Her”.
I was in the car with my cousins and two of my aunties. I remember listening to that song, we were sitting in a parking lot and someone had gone into a store but all the kids were sitting in the car and the doors were open and we were in a mini-van. I remember crying listening to that song. After that, I burned a hole in that CD, I listened to it so much. I think that was like when I was like, I like this a lot, I wanna do this, I want to know how to do this.
4. The squeak of the guitar strings.
I think when I first realized music was what I wanted to do, or something that I loved, and wanted to dig deeper into. I was probably 9 or 10, when it was serious. I was always around the house dancing and all these things, but I was probably about 9 or 10 when I was like, I want to do this. I can’t remember what song it was, but you know the squeak on a guitar, when someone’s playing and there’s a squeak on the strings? That is like, one of my favorite sounds in the world. I can literally, Sometimes I’ll have my guitar and do that, it’s soothing to me.
There was something for me about the simplicity about hearing artists like India or John Mayer be able to create these worlds with just their voice and the guitar. It was not overproduced, there was not a lot of other things going on. The guitar is like another voice, another singer. I think it’s the simplicity and honesty of being able to pull so much from just these two things and marry them together.
5. The vulnerability of love.
Most of the songs that I write are about love. Right now I’m in a space of exploring myself and who I really am outside of all the things that have been programmed inside of me, the things other people have told me about myself—at 32 years old, just now doing this.
I write a lot of songs about love, love lost, or love that I would like to cultivate, or that I’m experiencing in the present. It’s endless. I don’t think you can ever stop writing about it. It’s such a vulnerable space, and I think that’s what I love about it. My favorite songs have always been from a very vulnerable space. As I mentioned before about the guitar and the voice, it’s a very vulnerable space, there’s not a lot of other instruments drowning out the lyrics.
Revisit Dana Harper’s performance of “Daydreaming” at Sofar Dallas:
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Interview by Sofar Editorial Team
