Harrison Patrick Smith’s debut album as The Dare, What’s Unsuitable With New York, fuses pop, rock and electro, and his music has drawn comparisons to the sounds of New York within the 2000s.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Harrison Patrick Smith has a glance – black go well with, white shirt, skinny tie, sun shades. When he places it on, he turns into The Dare.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GOOD TIME”)
THE DARE: (Singing) Oh, let’s have some enjoyable tonight. Oh, let’s have some enjoyable tonight.
SHAPIRO: The Dare is his solo music challenge. He is the singer and producer, and he makes a sort of raunchy get together music that pulls comparisons to LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, Justice and different such artists of the early 2000s. Smith’s debut album as The Dare is out now, and NPR’s Kai McNamee went to see him carry out.
KAI MCNAMEE, BYLINE: For Katherine Noble, the enchantment of The Dare is straightforward – the music, the look, the entire vibe. It is simply enjoyable.
KATHERINE NOBLE: And I really feel like he simply form of, like, acts, that is just like the, you understand what? I wish to exit. I wish to get together. I wish to have enjoyable. I wish to be just a little evil with it (laughter).
MCNAMEE: Noble and her good friend Madison Jarvis made a two-hour drive for this Wednesday night time present in Washington, D.C. They’re each 23 years previous, however Jarvis says the music reminds her of a bygone period.
MADISON JARVIS: That is, like, how I imagined music sounding once I was youthful. And so now that I get to exit and get together to it, I am like, OK, yeah, that is what’s up.
MCNAMEE: Is there a music that you simply’re, like, dying to listen to?
JARVIS: I like “Fragrance” rather a lot.
MCNAMEE: How does “Fragrance” go?
KATHERINE NOBLE AND MADISON JARVIS: (Singing) That is my fragrance. It is 5.99.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PERFUME”)
THE DARE: (Singing) I spray it in my mouth, and the style is divine. It is erotic.
MCNAMEE: For Harrison Patrick Smith, taking part in to a crowd screaming his lyrics is a comparatively new expertise.
HARRISON PATRICK SMITH: As a result of for a very long time, I have been taking part in exhibits with out having a lot music launched.
MCNAMEE: He is performed music most of his life, beginning when his dad and mom put a violin in his palms at age 4. He is been in varied bands and launched his personal music below the identify Turtlenecked, nevertheless it wasn’t till summer season 2022 that Smith went completely viral.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GIRLS”)
THE DARE: (Singing) I like the ladies that do medicine, ladies with cigarettes behind the membership, ladies that hate cops and purchase weapons.
MCNAMEE: When the only “Ladies” launched Smith to web stardom, he was nonetheless working instead trainer in New York. Then this summer season Smith’s fame solely snowballed when he produced “Guess” with Charli XCX.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GUESS”)
CHARLI XCX: (Singing) You wish to guess the colour of my underwear. You need you wish to know what I obtained happening down there.
SMITH: “Guess,” for instance, I feel appears like Mr. Oizo at occasions, to me. Like…
MCNAMEE: Smith’s music pulls from a variety of influences throughout genres.
SMITH: DJ Mehdi, The Rapture and Chicks on Velocity. Or there’s Felix da Housecat and…
ROMIL HEMNANI: He form of has, like, an encyclopedic information on music – like, every thing from, like, the ’50s and ’60s until now.
MCNAMEE: Producer Romil Hemnani labored with Smith on the music “Elevation.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ELEVATION”)
THE DARE: (Singing) I feel my enamel are falling out, like in a dream of mine.
HEMNANI: When he got here to the studio and he simply, like, began selecting up each instrument and shredding, I used to be like, rattling. Individuals do not know, like, you are form of a machine. Like, you may write the music. You will report it. You will produce it. You will play all of the devices.
MCNAMEE: The music is commonly in comparison with dance punk bands from New York 20 or so years in the past like The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem.
(SOUNDBITE OF LCD SOUNDSYSTEM SONG, “DAFT PUNK IS PLAYING AT MY HOUSE”)
MCNAMEE: Smith is 28 years previous and wasn’t really round for that point, however his signature outfit does hearken again to that period, and he does say he is impressed by it.
SMITH: It simply felt uncooked and, like, cool and horny and just a little bit unattainable. However I feel, like, folks need – they’re lacking just a little little bit of that feeling proper now.
JUSTINE DELANEY: It was a loud, soiled, unimaginable, magical expertise.
MCNAMEE: Justine D, full identify Justine Delaney, was a serious DJ in 2000s New York nightlife. She says that earlier than social media and smartphones, folks actually did get together tougher, with out concern of something being recorded.
DELANEY: Individuals have been simply, I feel for lack of a greater time period, going just a little nuts. And that is from sexual experimentation, experimentation along with your style sense.
MCNAMEE: Smith thinks that one of many causes his music is taking off proper now’s that after COVID isolation, folks miss going nuts. He says he is exhausted by the web and social media.
SMITH: That is a part of the entire thesis of The Dare. I simply assume folks ought to get out extra and go dancing extra and make music with different folks in actual life extra.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU’RE INVITED”)
THE DARE: (Singing) You are invited to my get together.
MCNAMEE: At its coronary heart, he says The Dare is an invite for folks to specific their pent-up vitality and get out of the home. Kai McNamee, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU’RE INVITED”)
THE DARE: (Singing) You are still invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. You are invited. (Vocalizing).
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