Singer/songwriter Harriette has announced her signing to AWAL Recordings. The 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 with it’s 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. She 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.”

When you try to rebel against things that are meant to be, the universe will find a way of sending things right back at you—at least that was Harriette’s teenage experience. “My parents always said I should do music, but I hate authority,” she laughs. Growing up in Texas as a tall blonde with a guitar and a penchant for twang, she just refused to fall into a stereotype—even if she was passionate about the craft and writing songs for herself. Instead of studying music, Harriette headed off to New York City to study art at Parsons. But when the COVID pandemic sent her back home and a snippet of music she offhandedly posted to TikTok went viral, she figured it was time to accept that a life in music was inevitable. I Heart the Internet exemplifies that beguiling, lowslung ease and insistent sense of self, witty modernist barbs and open-hearted confessions swimming through honeyed, country-adjacent indie pop.

“I didn’t think country was my brand, but then anytime people heard me play they’d tell me it was,” Harriette smiles, the Texas orbit retaining a pull even now that she’s moved back to Brooklyn. Growing up equally obsessed with the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow as Taylor Swift and Hillary Duff, she explains, the place where Southern warmth meets pop guile has always been a sweet spot. She replicates that duality perfectly on “Fucking Married”, a track where she processes the news that her teenage sweetheart got married just a few years after their high school graduation. “I wish you the best, but that sounds like shit/ And I’m so glad that I’m not it/ Cause I’m so cute, I’m twenty-two/ And I’ve got so much left to do,” she sings, chased by pitch-perfect wordless harmonies and twanging guitar.

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.”

“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.

Harriette
I Heart the Internet
Track Listing
AWAL Recordings

I Heart the Internet
Johnny got it right
Fucking Married
Lying Is Cute
Black and Blue
bc i love you
Goodbye Texas
Sunday