Harv has envisioned today for years. The producer-songwriter — identified for his work with artists like Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Normani — is launching a solo profession along with his debut single, “Losses,” he solely reveals to Billboard.
Due out Friday (Jan. 27) via Vary Music Companions, “Losses,” that includes Kyle, is the end result of a long-held perception and affected person pursuit. “You don’t care in regards to the losses / Losses, yeah, the losses / You say you bought too many choices,” Kyle sings on the ethereal, silky single. And as Kyle dissects a love misplaced, Harv instructions the bass and drums — he has completed this without end, lengthy earlier than he turned Bieber’s bassist in 2009, however the digital camera angle has shifted.
“I don’t need to get too distant from letting the world know that I’m truly a musician,” the artist born Bernard Harvey tells Billboard. “I would like the 12-year-old child that wishes to play bass to have a look at ‘Losses’ like, ‘Oh, that’s what I need to do.’”
Rising up in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Harv relentlessly practiced the bass, cello and piano — fueled at dwelling by his mom, a pianist and minister of music at Corinthian Baptist Church, in addition to by “old-school heroes” like Prince and Rick James. Harv vividly recollects attending a Future’s Little one live performance at 15 years outdated, however not due to Beyoncé. “It’s me and my brother versus 20,000 ladies screaming for Future’s Little one, who’re wonderful, however me and my brother had been locked in on the band,” he recollects. “Each time the bass participant did one thing, I used to be identical to, ‘Whoa.’”
Harv proclaimed at his highschool lunch desk that he’d in the future play in entrance of 90,000 individuals, after which slowly stacked his wins, from a music know-how scholarship for Alabama State College to his first main placement on Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade” as soon as he’d moved to Atlanta, the place he was launched to Bieber in 2009. Since then, Harv has toured the world a number of instances over with Bieber and We The Band — “If you wish to be the very best, you gotta put your self round the very best,” he says of his arena-ready bass work — whereas progressively transitioning to producing and songwriting.
After contributing to a handful of Bieber album tracks, in addition to to songs by artists like Omarion and Sevyn Streeter, Harv’s co-production credit score on Bieber’s Grammy-nominated No. 1 smash “Peaches,” that includes Daniel Caesar and Giveon, felt like a last puzzle piece in 2021. “I management what I need to do with my music now, versus popping out prematurely and never having the respect or the legs,” he says. “It’s the proper time proper now.”
In early 2022, an unassuming six-hour studio session with Kyle led to “Losses.” That evening, Harv performed the observe for his spouse, Felisha, and two months later, he chosen it as his debut single. “If you hearken to ‘Losses,’ instantly, you assume [of] a relationship the place it’s possible you’ll give greater than you’re receiving,” he says. “It’s not reciprocated, and the particular person doesn’t care about you dropping, however it may be something in life. Musicians undergo loads. We put our all in, and [in] this music enterprise, generally it doesn’t provide the identical factor that you simply put into it.”
He plans to take the identical natural method to his solo profession shifting ahead, as a way to establish which classes will generate the very best songs with out putting pointless stress on outcomes. “You may have a couple of good songs, however I need to have a protracted profession,” says Harv. “I need to be 50 and have individuals have a look at me how they have a look at Quincy Jones. Like, ‘Oh, he’s a kind of guys. He’s not simply right here for a summer time.’ No, I’m right here for the lengthy haul.”
