Final Girl: The Survival Of girlpuppy
Few people can say they entered the pandemic never having been in a band, performed for a crowd, or recorded a song before while also coming out of it one of indie rock’s most auspicious, twinkling stars. But Atlanta’s Becca Harvey – the girl behind girlpuppy – certainly can, and unlike the isolation-induced hobbies many of us picked up, this one is here to stay.
Over the last two-and-a-half years, Harvey’s made a name for herself with her introspective, wistful anthems and candy-sweet, silky-soft voice. She just released her debut record ‘When I’m Alone’, a tear-stained, 12-track diary entry that finds healing in solitude. It’s a pastoral daydream and a deep breath of lush, mountain air that nods to the mountain escape it was recorded in.
Over Zoom, Harvey is set within an idyllic vignette. A white shirt with a massive frilly collar, not unlike a set of angel wings, drapes off her shoulders, and a ray of warm sunshine peeks in from the corner, washing her with a soft glow. She looks like how the album sounds – girlpuppy isn’t a facade or Harvey’s way of distancing herself from her music, it’s who she is. Fellow indie-pop-folk-rock darling Mitski said ‘Be The Cowboy’ and Harvey countered by “being the girlpuppy”.
Clash sat down with girlpuppy’s Becca Harvey to talk about being an overnight sensation, finding solace in the mountains of Tennessee, and the teen vampire-drama protagonist she embodied during the writing of ‘When I’m Alone’.
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Let’s take it back to April 2020. Did you plan on releasing ‘For You’ when you did, and how did making it even come about for you?
With the first single, I had never made music in a serious way before! The person I was dating at the time was a multi-instrumentalist, so I showed it to him to see if he would produce it. And then we kept putting it off. So when the pandemic happened, it kind of forced us to just work on it because there was nothing else to do! We made it and I wanted to release it immediately and I didn’t promote it or tell anyone I was releasing a song or anything. I didn’t have any release date in mind, I just put it out as soon as it was done and then told people.
How did it feel to put something into the world and have it met with so much success only to be stuck inside?
It just was weird because I had never played a show before at that point, and like it seemed hopeless. I was like, oh, this is a song that’s doing well for some reason, but there’s nothing I can like do about it from here. And playing live seemed so hopeless and just like everything seemed so hopeless that I was just like, I didn’t know anything. It just felt weird!
Did anything change for you after you finally got to play that first show? How did it feel to get this project offline and in front of people?
It was amazing. I was so nervous, like stomach sick. I never thought that I could even perform live. I’m such a naturally nervous person. And I was like, oh my god, I’m never gonna be able to do this. But after I did it for the first time, I was like, oh, I can do this. You get really nervous, but then it’s easy. I think it really showed me how much I love playing live and it shaped everything else. It changed the way that I make music because I wanna make music that’s fun to play live!
So for you, the energy that you’re feeling when you play live sort of shapes how you’re making your music?
Yeah! Because with ‘Swan’, they’re all really sad, slow, quiet songs. So playing them live, of course, it’s fun in its own special way, but I kind of love to rock out. I’m a rocker chick.
Do you think you’re ever gonna learn to play guitar so you can shred on a song?
On the next album, I wanna have like at least one song where I’m playing guitar just so I can play it on stage!
You’ve mentioned that writing songs in Atlanta is hard for you and that you like traveling. Where has been the most inspiring place for you to write?
I think New York is always easy for me to write in because something’s always happening, either here while I’m there or there while I’m there. Especially for the album, there’s a lot of New York inspiration. And also, where we recorded the album, Thornhill, Tennessee. I’ve never written so fast anywhere!
I think it was just the isolation of it, because we were in this AirBNB on top of a mountain, 45-minutes from everything, and we were kind of locked in, forced to make music. If I’m just home, I’m not sitting down for an hour and trying to write a song every day, it’s not gonna happen for me. But when I feel forced, I have to write a song in an hour to start working on another song.
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Let’s talk about your debut album, ‘When I’m Alone’. How are you feeling? What’s going on in your head?
I’m very excited. More than anything, I’m excited. A little bit nervous, but I’m so proud of my album, which is nice to say. I hope I don’t sound egotistical or whatever, but when I listen to it now, there’s nothing I could have done differently. This is exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. And it’s exactly how I wanted my album to sound. And I feel very lucky that I was able to make something that I enjoy so much. It’s always weird to put out something and see how people react, but I’m more excited than anything.
You’re new to the scene, and you’ve already collaborated with multiple well-respected musicians – Sam Acchione (Alex G) and Henry Stoehr (Slow Pulp) on this record and Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) on your first two singles. Have you picked anything up from working with them?
I feel super lucky just because these are all people that I was such a huge fan of. I love Phoebe, I love Alex G, I love Slow Pulp. I just feel incredibly lucky, first of all, to have worked with them. Any person you collaborate with, you learn something that you didn’t know before.
I think especially with Sam and Henry, I’ve never felt so heard or listened to in a music setting. Pretty much every single lyric, besides maybe two, was written by me, which is something that I didn’t have on ‘Swan’. I’m proud of ‘Swan’, Marshall’s so talented and such a good songwriter and I feel very lucky that we were able to collab, but it was special to have written it entirely by myself!
It has to be so validating knowing that these people you admire so much are so trusting of your vision and eager to work with you!
I feel very, very lucky. Just very honoured. I can’t even believe that they wanted to do that with me. Like, I can’t, I can’t wrap my brain around it.
If you could distill the album into just a few words or one succinct thought, what would you say?
The Twilight: New Moon scene where Bella is looking out the window and all the months go by!
That is so good! Last question: What can we expect from you next?
Going on tour with Hovvdy! So that’s happening. I’m playing a show in New York on November 18th. After that, hopefully more touring and more shows!
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‘When I’m Alone’ is out now.
Words: Bella Savignano
