![]() ![]() So I kind of grew up thinking that that was, like, a normal thing to have around the house until I got a little bit older. Even before that, you know, like in the womb, my mom was playing with the orchestra. My mom is a harpist and so there were just harps in my life since I was born. Mary Lattimore Yeah, I started playing the harp when I was 11. Can you talk a bit about how you kind of picked up the harp and first started to learn it? Lulu Smyth I’d love to kind of go back to the beginning and talk about how you got here, because the harp is sort of notoriously niche as an instrument and quite hard to learn. The harp, even one string, just sounds beautiful on its own, just, like, plucked in a gentle way. Mary Lattimore I mean, I use a lot of them, but to make a lovely melody, you don’t have to use very many of these strings. Lulu Smyth Yeah, I was going to say, like, how many of those 47 strings are you sort of using? I feel like the cool thing is that, you know, people think that it’s very complicated to learn it but to me, the cool thing is that you can make it sound beautiful just by playing, like three strings. And, you know, you use, you don’t use your pinky fingers, you use eight fingers to play and you kind of hold your elbows up and you lean it back on your shoulder. I kind of wheel it around on a little cart, on a little trolley. Yeah, it’s a concert grand metal harp that I play. Mary Lattimore Yeah, it’s, there are 47 strings on the one that I play, which is like the biggest one. So to introduce you to our listeners, can you just tell us what it’s like playing the harp? It seems like this huge, unwieldy thing. I’m Lulu Smyth, in for Lilah Raptopoulos. So I’ve invited her on the show to share some of her music and to talk us through how she became a harp-playing indie musician. Lulu Smyth Right now, Mary’s on tour for her newest solo album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, which comes out today. You know what I’m saying? I mean, I’m sure that there was like some melody that felt like it was really connected to the sky, raining down ashes. Mary Lattimore I can’t remember exactly what I did, but I know that it must have collected some kind of sounds that felt like for that day only. ![]() And those loops are almost like musical snowflakes. When she’s playing, she’s going through repeating loops which are like variations on the same melody over and over. ![]() Lulu Smyth That’s Mary talking to me recently from her home in Los Angeles. It was so interesting and so fun, but also so dark. Mary Lattimore It was so hot and ashes were raining down and playing this ancient wooden instrument for these amazing people that were just like enduring the heat and the fires. And there were these huge wildfires happening nearby. I actually once saw Mary at a concert in Athens in Greece. She’s toured with the pop duo Beach House, and she’s recorded with singer songwriters like Kurt Vile and Thurston Moore. And playing this huge ancient instrument in a modern setting is kind of her jam. I even know the musician that’s on the harp here is named Mary Lattimore. Lulu Smyth If you really tune in and listen closely, you can hear the melodic strumming. Like, listen to the song ‘Shadow’ by Kesha. What instrument you’re probably not thinking of is the harp, but it’s there more often than you might think. You’re probably imagining guitars, drums, maybe a keyboard. Lulu Smyth Think about a back-up band for a modern pop musician. This is an audio transcript of the FT Weekend podcast episode: ‘ How harpist Mary Lattimore went pop ’ Lulu Smyth Jump to comments section Print this page ![]()
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