Truth or Dare

Dior jacket & trousers, Dolce & Gabbana shirt & tie, Harrison’s own sunglasses & shoes

That gravitational pull led him from Portland – a place he describes as where “young people go to retire” – to New York, where everything is in constant motion. “The speed with which things open and close here is insane,” he explains. “There’ll be a new bar and for three months it’s the place. Then suddenly, it’s gone. You do it all over again somewhere else.” For Harrison, who has since become a defining figure in the city’s indie music and nightlife scene, this impermanence is part of the appeal. The evolution, the reinvention – it mirrors his own approach to music, where structure is less important than instinct.

He is a provocateur by nature, an artist who thrives in liminal spaces, in the tension between chaos and control. It’s impossible to talk about recent New York nightlife without mentioning Harrison’s role in it. His events, particularly the Met Gala afterparties and his Freakquencies club nights, have become essential to the downtown scene, a blend of rock-and-roll nihilism and disco euphoria. He sees nightlife as more than just a place to party – it’s a cultural ecosystem, an incubator for ideas and movements that inevitably find their way into mainstream consciousness.

Despite his deep integration into the city’s creative underbelly, Harrison remains wary of its mythology. “New York has this self-mythologising thing,” he says. “It’s funny because, in real life, it’s just people drinking natural wine and hanging out. But then the internet gets a hold of it and suddenly it’s this grand cultural movement. People love to project onto New York.” That love-hate relationship with the city informs his debut album, What’s Wrong With New York? – a title that reads like both a challenge and an inside joke. “I thought it was funny,” he says, grinning. “It’s a double entendre. Nothing’s wrong with it, but also, everything is.”

Harrison’s sound exists in the liminal space between rock and electronic music. He isn’t nostalgic, but he understands the weight of reference. He cites LCD Soundsystem and Animal Collective as formative influences – artists who deconstructed and reassembled pop music with an experimental approach. “I love music that makes you move,” he says. “Big drums, deep bass – it has to be physical.” His songwriting process is similarly fluid. “Sometimes it’s an idea that comes to me in the shower. Sometimes a song is done in 15 minutes. Other times, it takes a year for something to click.” He describes his work as equal parts structure and intuition, a blend of controlled chaos. “I want the music to feel raw, like it’s happening in real time.”

Dior jacket, shirt & tie, Omega watch

Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello jacket, shirt & tie, Harrison’s own sunglasses

In terms of his influences, he’s found himself drawn to artists who blur the lines between rock, dance, and performance. There’s the obvious nod to the electronic innovations of LCD Soundsystem, but he also cites the theatricality of icons like David Bowie and Lou Reed. Animal Collective is also an inspiration. “They repeatedly blew my mind in terms of deconstructing and constructing pop music. Very few people will formally experiment in that way where the music is just so destroyed or sections will just start repeating for no reason. That really just rocked my whole world.”

His own cool, though, is distinctly self-aware. He embraces the contradictions, the push and pull of artistry and persona. He doesn’t take himself too seriously but is meticulous in his craft. His confidence is evident, but so is a certain insouciance. “I had a photo from the 70s where the colours are beautiful and it’s very sculptural looking,” he tells me. “I wanted to recreate that in a modern fashion with people from my life, so I had a couple of friends come to the studio and make these body sculptures that I thought were cool. It was sort of shocking when it came out that fringe right-wing groups blew it up into a scandal. It just blew my mind that some people are out there living in a bizarre backward land of extreme conservatism. But anyway, I’m proud of it. I think it looks great. And we’re re-issuing it for Record Store Day!”

As we wrap up, I ask him if he ever sees himself stepping outside of his current sound and exploring other genres. He doesn’t hesitate. “Everything I do next is going to be a surprise to someone. Some people will love it, some people won’t. But there’s no way I’m doing the same thing twice.”

Dior coat, jacket, Dolce & Gabbana shirt & tie,  Harrison’s own sunglasses