Meet Noah Harrington | Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Noah Harrington and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Noah, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Music first and foremost is about fostering community. When I founded my band “Acoustic Nomads” I wanted to create a group that would blend together music from all over the Americas, and still pay maintain a connection with the authentic American origins of each style individually.

Music around the Americas is incredibly diverse – think of how many different musical idioms have arisen over the past 100 years in the United States alone! Something not always visible immediately is how interlinked all of these different musical traditions are – and this is not just true in the United States, but also across borders and oceans. All of us on planet Earth are part of one and many communities. All of us use music to connect and share what is important to us.

In creating Acoustic Nomads, I knew I wanted to highlight diversity within “American Music”, to broaden the definition of what and whom “American” really encompasses, and shed light on the common cultural threads that bind us together as people.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Bass is often categorized as “the ensemble” instrument, and it’s true that our role in every ensemble is most analogous to the heartbeat or the “pulse” of the music.

I’ve inhabited this role in countless different musical styles from all over the world, and I always feel at my best when I can anchor the whole ensemble, even if it’s just in a duo, and let the other player(s) shine.

Amplifying the voices of others and being a supportive listener is at the heart of good bass playing. I find it to be similar in the projects I lead – I mostly want to create a platform for others to perform, even if I am the composer. They need to be like an extension of my self, and vice versa I become an extension of them. There’s something profoundly sacred about that kind of unity in presence.

The secret to my success so far has been saying yes to everything and then learning how to scale back and balance my commitments and time.

The music business is very difficult, because wages haven’t increased for musicians since the 1980’s, and even if they had there is huge depression of wages in the United States. Our income is tied to that of the middle class, so as the country prospers or falters so do artisans of every stripe. At the same time, the bottom fell out of the industry back in the 90’s when file sharing (later replaced by streaming) cut the cash flow into the music industry.

Artists are still expected to regularly produce high quality art, almost constantly like any other content creator. Now, however, almost all artists fund all of their efforts independently, with no support from studios, labels, companies, etc. It’s like being expected to buy a decent condition used car every year on a roughly $20,000/year income, which is not even certain.

Artists must be their own tour managers, booking agents, benefactors, healthcare specialists, recording engineers, the list goes on. It’s fun to embrace this jack-of-all-trades lifestyle, but it can be very overwhelming too. The bands that I play with almost always split the work as best, each member picking up tasks according to their area of greatest efficacy. But it’s a constant labor of love.

We artists certainly couldn’t do what we do without the audiences who come out to support live music or find a way to purchase their music rather than stream it. Bandcamp is an excellent medium for supporting your favorite musicians, because they ensure that a large cut of their sales goes directly to artists. This is unique as far as I can tell in the whole streaming economy, and should give music lovers everywhere something to think about as they turn on their favorite tunes.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love my city, Boston, and love many parts of it. I love especially the Brookline Reservoir, from which you can see stupendous views of the great foliage around Boston year-round. I also love the bakeries in Chinatown, as well as the many excellent museums in Boston. Of particular interest are the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardener, and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shoutout Maurizio Fiore Salas, my co-leader in Acoustic Nomads, for all of his hard work getting this project off the ground with me!

Also, Micah Nicol of The Ruta Beggars band, and G Rockwell of the band High Horse!

Website: https://www.acousticnomadsband.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acousticnomads/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acousticnomadsband

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@acousticnomadsband

Image Credits
Joni Lohr, Louise Bichan