She could have dropped it all to spite her ex, but Har’Monique knew better than to let a broken heart take control of her future. With that, she powered through and now is ready to take on and take over the music industry. Our chat started with a career a world away from music, and from there we talked about the ex, the music, and the future with Har’Monique.
Kendra: Before music entered your life several years ago, what were you focused on careerwise?
Har’Monique: I went to school for early childhood education, but there was some strange mix-up where I ended up taking courses geared towards teaching high school kids and I was like yeah, no thank you. So I paused that but I believe I was already working on my first album around that time so the decision to follow my passion was a no-brainer at that point.
Kendra: Was music something you’d thought about in the back of your head before then, or had singing and performing not even crossed your mind until then?
Har’Monique: I never really thought about making music a reality at all until I met my ex. He went to school for audio engineering and needed a voice to practice on so we worked together. I started writing and creating original music and that was my first time stepping into a booth and I believe I was around 21 at that point.
Kendra: Then two years ago you put a pin in it and took a break from creating. It wasn’t until February 2021 that you decided it was time to come back and do your thing. Was that at all inspired by this sort of “live life like it’s your last’ deal that COVID pushed in our faces?
Har’Monique: It’s funny you mention that because everyone had the worst year of their lives with Covid and it was around the same time my life changed forever as well. I found out that my man of 7.5 years had been cheating on me and everyone in our small town knew about it when I had made the move back upstate from Brooklyn, and it sent me in a downward spiral to be honest.
You know the backstory and how I attributed a lot of my success in music to him or my newly discovered passion for it, so it only felt right that if we weren’t together that I quit music altogether. But something just kept drawing me back and whenever anyone heard my music they were always like, “Girl you better not quit you better not let him take/steal your passion and joy not when it’s this good” So it kind of encouraged me to keep moving forward even though I wanted to just throw it all away to spite him because I am a very spiteful and petty person when I am wronged. But yeah, it was a collection of reasons that made me come back and first and foremost it will always be that this is what I believe I was put here to do.
Kendra: Now you’re back at it and your self-titled debut drops in mid-October. Being a Brooklyn-based artist, what spot out there would you say your debut best represents as far as aesthetics and style?
Har’Monique: I am Brooklyn-based and raised, but I can’t say I get out as much as I should. I am way too busy working around the clock to stop and smell the roses. But I do love the energy and the realness that blankets the city. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air and I do have a song called “NY weather” further describing my love for New York from Brooklyn to upstate, all soon to come!
Kendra: Lastly, with the album out in October, can you let us know what else you may have on the horizon as we wrap up 2021 and head into 2022?
Har’Monique: Well, as you know this is the first body of work I am finally presenting to the world, so I’m working on making sure this album captures my sound entirely so no one is left to assume that I only sound this way or I only sound that way because I know a lot of artists say it but I hate being put in a box. So I’m coming hard with this album and as soon as that drops I’m jumping right into the studio to start working on my next. So far I have eight fully completed bodies of work, so my main concern at this point is hitting the studio as often as I can to get it all down as well as finding the right people to work with to bring that sound to life.
