Sarah Harmer: Singing With A Purpose

Sarah Harmer greets me with a warm smile while wearing a snug beige sweater and a pair of vibrant green shoes. As I set up my equipment for the interview, I notice the mellow ambiance floating about. In a dimly lit room Harmer is comfortably settled with her legs curled up on the couch.

 

When we think of famous musicians, we often imagine glamour, lights and a world that we cannot in any way relate to. With Harmer, it's different. She's the all-round Canadian. She is a Canadian singer-songwriter and staunch activist for environmental rights. Her musical interest was spiked when her sister took her to the scarcely-known (back then) Tragically Hip concerts. A philosophy and women's studies major at Queen's University, Harmer's music and character are homegrown. Harmer runs the Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL), an organization which campaigned to protect the Niagara Escarpment.

 

In her latest album, Oh Little Fire, warm sounds are found in Little Match and I'm On a Mountain. Her Itunes-only bonus tracks include New Loneliness - a wonderful song to wind down to. Why have a listen? Sarah's dulcet tones exude a tone bordering the edge of a soft, but warm huskiness. Her music will remind you of the many natural Canadian elements in our lives. It was wonderful to sit down with Harmer, where she talked about her new album, involvement with PERL and the direction her music might take in the future.

 

YT: Oh Little Fire was your first full-length album in five years. What has been occupying your time between albums?

SH: Well, I've been playing drums in a band for a couple of years in Kingston where I live. I've been working on a land conservation issue in the Niagara Escarpment – with PERL. I've been playing music here and there. I renovated a house. I'm a demolition expert now. That's what I've been up to. I was always musically involved. I was always still making music, but I simply wasn't touring outside of summer festivals or local shows. I definitely still played fundraisers and solo shows. You know, I read this book called Heat by George Monbiot. It's all about climate change and global warming. It really made the case for trying to lower your impact in terms of travelling. I was reading it while I was in the UK, and I realized that there are so many great artists in the UK who can entertain in the UK without me needing to come. My ambition changed a bit when I realized that I was using more energy that I should be. I try to focus more on my local area in souther Ontario. I'm eight hours away from Chicago. I can drive to so many great centers. I'm trying to re-align my concept of music-making. Of course, here I am all the way on the West Coast, which is quite the distance.

 

YT: Your latest album has such a rich and comfortable texture. What were the influences behind this album and what do you want people to feel when they listen to your songs?

SH: I want them to be moved in whatever way. We're all the leads of our own lives. The way that you interpret a song is based on your experience and what it might trigger with what you thought before or what you experienced before. I hope that my music feels that it can be malleable enough for you and different for someone else – but still moving. I really love it when I get into my car and put on a CD and it just can really take me out of a certain repetitive frame of mind that I want to shake. I want my music to be similar to that – a positive escape.

 

YT: What is the philosophy behind your music?

SH: I don't really set about when I write songs – to write about any particular theme. I don't have much of a game plan into writing or making a song. I just respond to things that I observe, and what I get struck by or inspired by. I want my music to make people feel good. There's a lot of contenders in sentiment on the album that hopefully make people feel that they have company in their tougher times or emotional difficulties – there can be some consolation in the songs.

 

YT: There are quite a few allusions to nature (Oleander/The Mountain/Escarpment Blues). How has the environment played a part in your lyric writing?

SH: Escarpment Blues is about the tale of what was going on in Mount Nemo. That's the most obvious linking of my two worlds: music and social work. The natural world really inspires – it really is everything. I would say that as someone who relies entirely on clean water and clean air, my music has to rely on the environment – as does your career. We can't seperate the fact that we are nature or part of the natural world. That stuff is more overtly seen in many of my songs, and more generally makes it way into other songs.

 

YT: Tell me more about your environmental organization, PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land)?

SH: PERL is a local environmental organization. We're pretty old-school and we stuff mailboxes with notices for meetings. At our local church, we have volunteers to start this committee because this proposal to blast a hole in the middle of a whole biosphere reserve in southern Ontario – part of the Niagara Escarpment. It was a result of people realizing that if they didn't get involved, a lot of the details would be overlooked and the tendency for large trans-nationals to muscle their way through the system with high-scale lobbying. It is very much the status quo in history for them to tell the government what it's going to be. However, as citizens we are the government. It's very important to recognize that our democracy rests on our actions and engagement. Once we started reviewing this massive oil proposal – we realized that they had overlooked huge areas. They didn't map certain areas, they didn't preserve certain wetlands that were clearly obvious; it wasn't in their best interest to highlight the ecological importance of this area that they wanted to destroy. It was our responsibility as citizens there to get out there. It made me realize how many gaps there are out there, and how much of a world there is for people – individuals - who have never had any experience to get involved. Once you start to commit and to develop relationships with local governments – it becomes very inspiring. 

 

YT: As a Canadian singer, do you hope to expand to an international market or to the U.S. market?

SH: It's always kind of like a dangling carrot that I'm encouraged by, or tempted by. I've toured the UK. I like local. I'm trying to focus in closer to home.

YT: Which direction are you hoping to move your music career in?

SH: Perhaps some classical and more jazz touches on my music. I love singing, I always want to be able to sing until I plain croak. I hope that my songs continue to do well. I want to keep writing songs – that's probably the most satisfying part for me. Other plans musically; I plan on following the muse. This is my short-term plan, nothing specific.