Singer-songwriter Harriette has announced that she has signed to AWAL Recordings. The Texas-born but Brooklyn-based artist (who records and performs as “Harriette”) has also announced the April 27 release of her debut EP, I Heart the Internet and shares another taste via its’ newest single “Goodbye Texas” which embraces a Western dancefloor glow as she ironically examines her lack of place in her home state—a concern that hit close to home after the political contests of the last few years drove friends and families apart.

Harriette says, “I wrote ‘Goodbye Texas’ two years ago as I was driving out of Texas after Christmas. I lived there for 18 years and always felt like I stuck out. As I got older it seemed like everything I wanted to achieve was going to happen elsewhere. It came to a point where I really needed to take some space from being home and this song was my key to the door out.” She continues, The song was surprisingly easy to write, it felt like everything I wanted to say came out so naturally. It was easy to recall what I have always admired about the state – the sunsets, wide open spaces, bluebonnets and yellow roses. But just like the song explains, the sunsets became too hot, the spaces weren’t green anymore and I felt like the bluebonnets had forgotten my name.”

After gaining a surprise fanbase and acclaim for her TikTok post of a breakup song called “at least i’m pretty” in 2021, Harriette set to work exploring where music could take her. “At first I was like, “I guess I’ll just be a TikToker,’” she says. The Texan dropped out of the college she’d enrolled in (“I was failing anyways,” she smirks), and began to post more music and make connections with other musicians and producers. Eventually she connected with Toronto-based producer Sam Jackson Willows, and the two quickly made plans to record a few tracks. “I was so glad to work with someone my age so that I could just ask stupid questions, try random ideas, and just speak my mind,” Harriette says. “It was a very trusting, open space.” 

That environment clearly pays off on I Heart the Internet, a set of songs fueled by personal experience and completely natural in their disposition; Harriette’s best lines feel simultaneously whip-smart in their writing and as though you’re listening to a friend explain their latest personal drama. The acoustic-strummed “I Heart the Internet” hits that mark, a Clairo-via-Nashville tune that builds phone dialing into its musical structure. “If I knew how to make my bed, I wouldn’t sleep so close to the edge,” she drips, her cotton candy vocals floating over a rubber band bass and a wash of crystalline slide guitar. The track’s exploration of presenting life one way and living it another, of the gap between the internet self and reality, resonates especially deeply after years of extended pandemic web-based interaction. “That song feels like the heart of the project, this self-reflection about this situation we were all in,” Harriette says. “It’s a good perspective on my age, myself, what life was like in that moment.”

“Growing up, I felt like I needed to go along with the wave, but rebelling and moving away made me question my motivation,” Harriette says. “And what I realized was that, since I was a kid, whenever I felt overly emotional or faced any change, I just needed to sit alone with my guitar. I realized I didn’t need to rebel, to turn my nose up without thinking. Writing these songs, I learned who I was.” One listen to the record, and it’s immediately clear who Harriette is and the depths of emotion and cunning songwriting she has to offer. As a debut project, I Heart the Internet offers listeners a conversation with a new friend, one full of razor wit and tenderness, an intimacy and sense of home even as the rest of the world changes and pulls away.

Photo Courtesy: Muriel Margaret