Name: Harrison Lipton
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, producer
Recent release: Harrison Lipton 's new album Between Us There Runs a Tether is out via Amuse.  
Recommendations for New York, USA: Brancaccio’s has the best Italian sandwiches in Brooklyn. Joe’s the man, he’s a real old-school New Yorker and if you’re visiting NYC, you’d be remiss to leave without having at least one proper Italian sandwich.
Things I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about:
I’m really into the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. It’s a great way to blow off steam as a healthy distraction. I love the actual mechanics of the game itself––it’s much more about the gameplay than the artwork or lore to me. I play with my childhood best friend from time to time with our old cards and it’s a lot of fun.
I also think right now most of my brain space is being occupied by the existential anxiety over the state of this country and of the world, the maddening descent into a more deeply fascist state, the fear being instilled into students and educational institutions from speaking out or fighting back, the fear of deportations without due process. I’m worried about what the future holds. People are definitely talking about it, but we should be talking more, organizing more, fighting back more. Everything else seems to pale in comparison.

If you enjoyed this Harrison Lipton interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, tiktok, and bandcamp. 



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

I grew up in New York City, and when I was little, my dad would go play pickup basketball at NYU––imagine the rec specs, the 90s chunky basketball shoes.

When I was about 5 years old, one night he came back and said there was a gift for me under my pillow. I was so excited because I thought it was Star Wars Legos, but instead it was Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life on CD. I was gutted. I couldn’t play with a CD.

But it ended up being one of the best gifts I ever received, and it provided endless inspiration both sonically and through lyricism––I feel like Stevie’s talked about most for his insane vocal and keys chops, but he does it all: he plays drums, he’s a songwriter, a producer and an honest lyricist.



I credit that early musical experience with driving my curiosity to become a fully realized songwriter, producer

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

Lyrics for me are less about crafting a new world and more about capturing a moment, emotion or an experience in both a specific and personal way as well as in a more universal and relatable way.

Striking that balance is something I continue to strive for.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

When I was younger, I rarely listened to lyrics. It was only in my adult years that I started to pay attention to them.

Even in high school, some of my favorite artists were Radiohead, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Beach House––I listened more for the production and the emotionality behind the performances rather than for the lyrics. It took a bad breakup for me to really listen to lyrics and develop a newfound appreciation.

One song that comes to mind is “Chewing Cotton Wool” by The Japanese House. It makes me want to cry within the first 12 seconds. It’s so raw and real.



But at 0:23 when the lyrics start, they take a good song and make it great, and the harmony between the lyrics and the composition equal a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, lent them that power?

When I first heard “Left Side” by Eloise, it registered to me as a direct and honest retelling of the tumult of a relationship.



It felt almost like she was inside my head, putting concrete words to the vague shadows I had been running from; it lent me the clarity I needed to allow myself to move on.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

It’s interesting how us sentient meat-bags can wander around the world and feel a gut sense of emotion from a chord, a song, a sound––there’s something uncanny and mystical about how music can do that, and how it does so universally across cultures and across generations.

Music is a language in and of itself.

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

I actually have no idea. I think of them as completely separate art forms––while music can rely on aspects of poetry as it pertains to writing lyrics, the same could be said for film embodying aspects of photography; at the end of the day, I see them as different forms.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

I see music as a different language altogether.

When a writer combines great melody with great lyrics, even better things happen. It’s hard to describe, I guess it’s why so many people describe music as magic. Like the song by The Japanese House I referenced, the music and words work together to create something uniquely resonant and transcendent.

On my album Between Us There Runs a Tether, there’s a song called “Pillowtalker” that does that really well too (at least I think it does).



It’s a heartbreaking song, and I love how the instrumentation and melody drive home the lyrical message to create something that supersedes its parts.  

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Mostly love and loss, it’s very diaristic for me. If I’m going through something, it’ll unconsciously come out in lyrics seemingly via osmosis.

I’m in a happier place now and so I’m starting to feel more confident about branching out in terms of where I’m finding inspiration.

On the basis of a piece off Between Us There Runs a Tether, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

The first line of “Tether (feat. Yot Club)” was also the first I wrote: “I had a dream I could live forever / but when I woke you weren’t there”. It wasn’t literal, but it carried the weight of temporality and the fleeting nature of how all good things must go, all things must pass (thanks George Harrison), however you want to frame it.

I wanted to take that impressionistic phrase and pair it with something more concrete, so in the B section I try to put the listener in a specific place and time.

Then Ryan [Yot Club] comes in with a brilliant bridge section where he really crystallized the message of the song, and when we return to the third and final chorus when I sing “I had a dream I could live forever”, it now has a richer and deeper meaning.

Do you tend to start writing with what will be the first line of the finished lyrics? The chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

My writing process starts with chords and melody first, often on the iPhone voice memos app. I’ll sing something in, but it’s pure gibberish.

The lyrics come later once I figure out the melodic structure and the feeling it evokes.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

It doesn’t have to be consistent, it can be deliberately inconsistent too.

It doesn’t even have to be conscious either––some great albums have wildly inconsistent moments but it lends an air of realness and authenticity.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Going back to how I start writing songs, singing into the voice memos app, the melody is the dominant focus and the words secondary. Maybe I’ll capture a few fleeting words here or there, but it’s entirely based on how those vowels sound with the melody I’m creating.

I’ll try to then craft lyrics after the fact that adhere mostly to whatever vowels I sung initially.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

Not that I can think of right now, but if you wanted to take a crack at it I’d love to hear if you have any interesting analyses that I haven’t thought of!

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

While I do make a pretty good cup of coffee (pour-over is the way to go IMO), that feels more like a habit or ritual than a creative process.

I don’t strive for perfection with making coffee the same way I do with music––all the quiet moments of my day are consumed by thinking about music, or about production, or even how to get my music out there more and make new fans. That’s my obsession.

I could imagine that if my obsession was instead to make the perfect cup of coffee, there’d be considerable overlap as they both can be seen as an artisanal pursuit of mastery.