Harasim’s premature retirement from music came after a contemplative year. He’s driven and inspired to create music at the highest level by the relationships he forms with artists, getting to know “them on a very personal level musically and as a human being down to their core.” Over time, he found that the business of music was making him into someone he did not want to become.
The Detroit-based Harasim explained, “Near the end of that chapter before I retired, I found myself taking production jobs just for financial gain. I had lost the love and romanticism that making the music and molding the artist entails. That helped me make the decision to unplug, turn off my speakers, and step away.”
So, Harasim exited the business.
“I looked back on all that was sacrificed over a span of sixteen successful years and made a life-altering decision that would ultimately leave me a better person, a mentally healthy person and, most importantly, someone who would once again enjoy music and its delicate creation process, even if just as a fan,” said Harasim, who earned a Grammy nomination for his work on star saxophonist Dave Koz’s “Hello Tomorrow” album.
Harasim, who also charted as a solo artist and produced records for Steve Oliver, Vandell Andrew, Nils, Phil Denny, Lin Rountree, Darren Rahn, Rob Tardik, and Elizabeth Mis, was certain that his retirement from music was going to be permanent, that it wasn’t just a sabbatical. He found that the higher up he went in the industry, the lonelier the business became. And he longed for genuine connection and authenticity.
“The music business is lonely for the producer, especially one with any type of real credentials. I wanted to smile and laugh again for real, not for a photo op, not to sell myself to someone. I needed and yearned for actual happiness and a genuine connection with a decent human being on a musical level and, more importantly, on a moral and ethical level,” admitted Harasim.
During his time away from music, Harasim nurtured his healing and recalibrated his life outside of the recording studio. Over the years, he got repeated calls from Stone, another Detroit-based musician, who tried to convince Harasim to work with him.
“My heart, soul, and mind needed time away. I believe when you’re born to do a specific thing, no matter the steps taken to extinguish the burn and fire in the chest, it will always bubble to the top. After many calls over the past five or six years, I was ready to take a gamble with Nick,” Harasim said.
Harasim is resurrected as a producer and songwriter, and the time away allowed him to reset his mindset, reigniting his passion for music that never really left.
“In doing my best to put the fire out, the fire was smoldering and now it’s raging once again. At this point, restarting my music career, enjoying the process is what’s most important to me and I’m deeply in love all over again. Taking the time to heal and remembering who I am, while listening to my gut instinct, has brought me out of retirement. I could say it was as easy as picking up the phone at just the right time, but coming back would’ve been out of the question without circling back to being who I dared not become,” said the refreshed Harasim.
Having spent years out of the music business, Harasim now feels that he is in control of how he does business as well as with whom he works. Teaming with Stone has been revitalizing for the producer.
“This time around, I’m fortunate enough in life to work with who I choose. Nick checked every box on the lengthy list of criteria: motivated, driven to succeed, takes constructive criticism, works to be better, and, most importantly, even with all the above qualities, if he weren’t an amazing human being, we wouldn’t be working together on an unbelievable album. Ultimately, it took a great person and an excellent musician to make the decision to come back easy,” said Harasim who is deep into the recording process with Stone for an album they plan to release early next year.
Another reason that Harasim was drawn to produce Stone is that they are making a full-length album together in a music industry that currently favors releasing singles for Spotify. Recording a unified collection of music with an artist is his preference for a number of reasons.
“Today’s market is largely singles based, but I prefer to make an album that tells a story with each track being a chapter of that book. It seems artists are chasing the single, not the album. When the album is finally put together, it consists of a little of this and a little of that, nothing that takes the listener on a cohesive journey. It’s more or less a compilation of different producers and soundscapes, and nothing that flows,” stated Harasim.
While he loves adding vocalists into the mix, Harasim will continue to primarily focus on making contemporary jazz instrumental music saying, “My mind gravitates to the chillness and vibe the genre creates.”
Now that he is back and comfortably ensconced in the producer’s chair, will Harasim also return to writing and producing music for himself as an artist?
“Let’s see what the future holds. This is always on my mind, and I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t. Here’s the problem lately: I’ll write something for myself, and then I give those songs to Nick!”
No comments:
Post a Comment