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Music

Harrison

HARRISON opening for COM TRUISE and SURVIVE at CODA (794 Bathurst), Thursday (September 18), 9 pm. $13. TW.

About two and a half years ago, a charmingly earnest email came my way from an aspiring 17-year-old Toronto musician named Harrison, who specialized in what he called “future funk.”

But unlike other novice musicians looking for coverage, the artist – whose real name is Harrison Robinson – had a SoundCloud page full of surprisingly high-quality slow house and moody hip-hop tracks that already had an impressive amount of plays. Too bad the fact that he was underage and suffered from intense stage fright meant he had no gigs at the time to build a story around.

Since then, Robinson’s gradually overcome his nerves and started performing regularly. His internet fan base continues to grow at an impressive rate: a song he posted just three months ago has passed 70,000 listens, while a remix from six months ago has over 120,000.

He’s not so impressed by his internet stats, though.

“You can have lots of SoundCloud plays, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re anything,” Robinson says.

“I couldn’t tell you where [the attention] is coming from. No one reached out to me and told me they were writing about me. I can see the statistics of where the plays are coming from, and a lot of them are from Japan. That could be legitimate plays, or some of it might be bots. I swear I didn’t pay for any bots, though!”

But that internet momentum has translated into something more tangible: he’s just signed a contract with Last Gang to put out his official debut album. Releasing on an established label means he’ll have to drastically cut back on sampling, but changes in the internet economy had already pushed him in that direction.

“Because SoundCloud is monetizing now, they’ve been taking things down like crazy. I love sampling funk, but if I’m going to get in trouble for it I’m not going to do it.”

Not to worry, though. Robinson’s older stuff will always have a home, and you might still be able to get your hands on it.

“I do still have a folder of all my funk edits that I’ll just give to people.”

benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles

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