HAARM - Take Me Away
The Liverpool trio HAARM were born in 2016 in an underground tequila bar at 4am, and they are Chris McIntosh (guitar/vocals), Jen Davies (keys/vocals) and Olly Gorman (drums), the trio began work immediately on writing and recording a set of songs with strong emphasis on melody and groove, all centered around Jen and Chris’ dual lush vocals.
Debut single Foxglove was followed by a second release, In the Wild, which between them they garnered 400,000 streams on Spotify, which led to multiple plays on BBC Radio 1 (Huw Stephens/Phil Taggart) and being added to the Xposure Playlist at Radio X.
The band supported Bloc Party during their February tour in 2017, culminating with two dates at esteemed London venue The Roundhouse. In May 2017, the band were selected by BBC Introducing to play Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hull and were introduced onstage by Huw Stephens.
Their 2018 single Box of Bones was selected as the soundtrack for Sky Atlantic promo in the summer of 2018 which was broadcast across the Sky TV network, and in August 2018 the band were chosen as the sound of BT Sport’s 2018/19 Premiership Football coverage with their version of Manchester band Everything Everything’s song, I Believe It Now.
Autumn 2018 saw the release of the band’s heart-wrenching single, Better Friend, which received support from Nemone on the BBC6 Music Breakfast show, with the official music video directed by acclaimed film director, Daniel Fitzsimmons.
Since then things have continued to go from strength to strength for HAARM with the band landing a high profile sync on Netflix Japan reality TV show Terrace House, and in January 2020 the band’s version of The Meters Hand Clapping Song was selected by BT Sport to soundtrack their Premier League Tonight show.
In addition to TV and radio exposure, their music has received press support from The Independent, Q Magazine, Clash, DIY, Indie Shuffle and The Skinny to name a few.
Their new single Take Me Away was released today, Friday 17 April 2020 and is a little different to their previous releases. They are renowned for dark sombre pop tunes but this time around they have gone for a more upbeat vibe.
Jen Davis explains the change in style:
We’ve predominantly written more melancholy songs in the past. Our lyrics are usually centred around themes of isolation, self-destruction, failed relationship, all a little too close to home at the moment. Take Me Away is intended as a moment of euphoria; a release from those thoughts. Of course, we wrote it several months ago now, but it feels more important than ever to have written something uplifting in the current situation.
Take Me Away is an absolutely pleasure on the ears, a very bold summery blast, underpinned by steel drums, dreamy keys and a guitar riff which gives this song the ultimate feel good vibe. As always the vocals of Jen and Chris mesh beautifully together.
Lyrically this is clever, I love the opening lines “I lie awake in the nighttime, I’m hanging on by a thread, I’ve been waiting for something to happen, to satisfy the longing in my head” it may very well describe the disturbed sleep patterns that seem to be commonplace just now, if any of the commentary I read on social media is true.
And I’m sure the singalong chorus “I want you to take me away, take me away, take me away, c’mon and take me away, take me away, take me away” echoes everyone’s sentiments just now.
And that’s exactly what Take Me Away does, it’s just over four mins of beautiful breezy feel good pop, that will take you to the beach, the club, the mountains or wherever you want to go, it’s a bloody brilliant tune get it listened to now !
Give Take Me Away a stream now -
https://open.spotify.com/album/3cpz0BluueTFuglaB2Wp0Z?si=eEyRUlIQSPqjFwMD6jsxAg
HAARM have now released the lockdown video for Take Me Away, it’s a beautifully choreographed sunset ode to the joy of the union between music, movement, and the outdoors, the focus is on the moment of freedom that we all experience once a day during the lockdown, and how we can seize this opportunity to express ourselves creatively, despite the limitations.
The video was directed by the band’s long-time artistic collaborator, Peter Michael who described his vision for the film as capturing “one walk to take you away”, and features dancer/choreographer Yos Clark.
Commenting on the idea, the band said:
We had planned to film the video for Take Me Away a few weeks ago, but of course we had to push that back since we're all stuck at home. In the meantime, our good friend, long-term photographer/videographer and all round insanely talented human being Peter Michael, who was going to direct the video anyway, asked his housemate (who just so happens the wonderfully talented dancer Yos Clarke) if he fancied putting on in his headphones, popping on the song and going for his one walk a day—this is what happened.
As an extension of the video, the band are now calling upon dancers (whether professional or not) to submit their own lockdown dance videos for Take Me Away to haarmband@gmail.com so they can share the best ones on their social media accounts. The band said:
Anything goes, it's just about the expression of freedom.
The official video can be watched below:
HAARM can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/haarmband/