Boy Harsher is an American

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

group, formed in 2013 in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

. Currently based in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

, the band consists of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller. The band has amassed a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

since their formation, and their song "Pain" has become an

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

. Matthews and Muller own and run the label Nude Club, which is exclusively devoted to Boy Harsher and related artists.

History

Knowing each other from

film school A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training ...

in Savannah, Muller and Matthews started the project Teen Dreamz in 2013, which acted as a precursor to Boy Harsher. The project consisted of Matthews performing her

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

pieces and Muller providing a musical backing. Throughout the year, Teen Dreamz's sound became more danceable, as Matthews's vocals developed into a more expressive singing style. The band renamed their project as Boy Harsher in 2014. Boy Harsher released its home-recorded debut EP, ''Lesser Man'' in the same year. Following their relocation to Massachusetts, the band recorded and released its debut album, ''Yr Body Is Nothing'' in 2016 on DKA Records. After the release of 2017's ''Country Girl'' EP, the band formed their Nude Club imprint in 2018, re-issuing their catalog. One of the first releases on Nude Club, "Pain II", is a reissue of their 2014 single with a remix by

The Soft Moon Luis Vasquez is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer credited for creating The Soft Moon in Oakland, California, The Soft Moon has been described as post-punk, darkwave, minimal wave and industrial rock. History The band was fo ...

. Their sophomore studio album, 2019's '' Careful'', was backed by an extended reissue of ''Country Girl'' as ''Country Girl Uncut''. In that year, a

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (''Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 2007 ...

of ''Careful'', titled ''Careful Remixes, etc.'' was also released; it featured remixes from

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

producers such as

Marcel Dettmann Marcel Dettmann (born 26 October 1977) is a German DJ, producer, and record label owner whom commentators have called "one of the most influential proponents of contemporary techno." Dettmann is a resident at the well-known Berlin nightclub Bergh ...

and Silent Servant. On April 10, 2020, Muller released his debut

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

, ''Machine Learning Experiments (Original Soundtrack)'', which featured original scores composed for two short adult films, ''Orgone Theory'' and ''Hydra''. The album was issued on Nude Club. In 2021, the band remixed the

Perfume Genius Michael Alden Hadreas (born September 25, 1981), better known by his stage name Perfume Genius, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Hadreas's music explores topics including sexuality, his personal struggle with Crohn's disease, do ...

song "Your Body Changes Everything." The remix was featured in the album, '' Immediately Remixes''. In January 2022, the band's directorial debut film, ''The Runner'', was released with an accompanying soundtrack. The short film starred

Kristina Esfandiari Kristina Esfandiari (born 4 March 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and producer who writes music and performs under the monikers Dalmatian, Miserable, and NGHTCRWLR, and with the bands King Woman and Sugar High. Early life Kristina Esfandia ...

. In January 2023, a US show was announced: the band will play at the Cruel World Festival in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on May 20, 2023.

Musical style, imagery and influences

Boy Harsher is often labeled as a

dark wave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

group, with influences ranging from early forms of

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

electronic body music Electronic body music (acronymized to EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe as an outgrowth of bo ...

. Paul Simpson of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

referred to the band's music as "dark, danceable

electro pop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a r ...

" that references

synth pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

and EBM. He has characterized Boy Harsher's music by its minimal beats and

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

textures, as well as by Matthews's dynamic vocals that depict "desire, fantasy, and loneliness." On his review for ''Careful'', Kevin Lozano of

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

listed the band as one of the acts that spearhead the

minimal synth Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on elect ...

scene along with

Essaie pas Essaie pas (French for "don't try") is a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2010. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the group consists of wife-and-husband duo Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. History The duo formed in the summer of 2010, re ...

, noting the "brisk drum machine loops,

oscillating Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum ...

synths, and Matthews’ haunting incantations" that permeate the album's sound. Lozano has previously described the band as "making

coldwave A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap, cold spell or Arctic Snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in tem ...

that could turn any space in that quiet town into a seedy nightclub." Michael Lawson of '' The Skinny'' thought that the band "straddled the middle ground between melancholic cold wave and regimented synth workouts." Boy Harsher draws heavily from

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking * ...

, theatrics and graphic design to tailor the band's visual imagery; Matthews and Muller both have a background in

filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

. They have likened the band to the movies ''

Body Heat Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

'' and '' Lost Highway'', latter of which was directed by

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

, a professed influence on the band. Matthews has expressed appreciation for various female vocalists, including

Nico Naftiran Intertrade Company Société à responsabilité limitée#In Switzerland, limited (NICO) is a Switzerland, Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC bu ...

, Circuit des Yeux, Alison Lewis of

Linea Aspera The linea aspera ( la, rough line) is a ridge of roughened surface on the posterior surface of the shaft of the femur. It is the site of attachments of muscles and the intermuscular septum. Its margins diverge above and below. The linea asper ...

Chelsea Wolfe Chelsea Joy Wolfe (born November 14, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Her work has blended elements of gothic rock, doom metal, and folk music. Raised in Northern California with a country musician father, Wolfe began writin ...

and

Zola Jesus Nika Roza Danilova (born Nicole Rose Hummel; April 11, 1989), known professionally by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her music has been noted for combining elements of electronic, industrial, ...

, whereas Muller named

Sleep Chamber Sleep Chamber is an American industrial band fronted by John Zewizz. The band is known for using S&M, bondage and magic imagery on their artwork, during their performances, and within their lyrics. Formed in 1981 by high school friends Zewizz, ...

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

DAF Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...

and

Yello Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983. Their sound is often charac ...

as early musical influences on Boy Harsher. Gearwise, Muller mostly employs synthesizers and samplers, stating that he "tries and borrows as much nstruments/nowiki> as he can for recording." On the band's minimal instrumentation, he said: "I’m obsessed with how successful the minimalism is with

80s music : ''For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89'' This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s. The 1980s saw the emergence of ...

. It’s really a masterclass of what can be done with a drum machine and a couple of synths." A "half-functioning"

Roland Juno-106 The Roland Juno-106 is a synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in February 1984. Features The Juno-106 is a polyphonic synthesizer with six voices. It is an analog synthesizer but with digitally controlled oscillators and chorus effects ...

was used extensively on ''Lesser Man'' EP; their live set features synth lines sampled into an

Akai MPC The Akai MPC (originally MIDI Production Center, now Music Production Center) is a series of music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine sampling and sequencing functions, allowing users to record portions of sound, modif ...

, as well as

backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live music ...

Discography

;Studio albums * ''Yr Body Is Nothing'' (2016) * '' Careful'' (2019) * ''Country Girl Uncut '' (2019) * ''The Runner (Original Soundtrack)'' (2022) ;EPs * ''Lesser Man'' (2014) * ''Pain'' (2015) * ''Country Girl EP'' (2017) ;Singles * "Motion" (2017) * "Country Girl" (2017) * "Run" (2017) * "Pain II" (2018) * "Pain" (

Remix) (2018) * "Face the Fire" (2018) * "Fate" (2018) * "LA" (2019) * "R.O.V. (New Beat Edit) // Part Time Punks Session" (2020) ;Remix album * ''Careful Remixes, etc.'' (2019) ;Music videos * "Deep Well" (2016; dir. Zach Hart) * "Motion" (2017; dir. MJ Bernier) * "Country Girl" (2017; dir. Jae Matthews) * "Last Days" (2018; dir. Augustus Muller) * "Face the Fire" (2018; dir. Augustus Muller and Jae Matthews) *"Fate" (2018; dir. Bryan M. Ferguson) * "LA" (2019; dir. Kathleen Dycaico and Jill Ferraro) * "Come Closer" (2019; dir. Muted Widows) * "Send Me a Vision" (2019; dir. Augustus Muller) * "Electric" (2020; dir. Idan Barazani)

In popular culture

Film

* The 2022 indie horror film ''

Terrifier 2 ''Terrifier 2'' is a 2022 American slasher film written, directed, edited and produced by Damien Leone. A sequel to ''Terrifier'' (2016), it is the third feature-length film to feature Art the Clown. It features the return of David Howard Thor ...

'' directed by

Damien Leone Damien Leone is a film director, screenwriter, and film producer known for writing and directing ''All Hallows' Eve'' (2013), ''Terrifier'' (2016), and ''Terrifier 2'' (2022), each of which feature his character Art the Clown Art the Clown is ...

features the track "Pain" from the 2014's EP ''Lesser Man''. It appears at 1h24'42", during the party scene. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10403420/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

References

External links

*
Boy Harsher
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Nude Club Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy Harsher 2013 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) American dark wave musical groups American industrial music groups American musical duos American synth-pop groups Cold wave groups Electronic music duos Electronic music groups from Georgia (U.S. state) Electropop groups Minimal wave groups Musical groups established in 2013 Musical groups from Savannah, Georgia