LA Music Review | Art, stories and advice
Ethereal, full of grace, and absolutely comforting!
Hi Ruth, welcome to LA Music Review! Tell us a little bit about you and your music.
Ruth A Harris is a singer, songwriter, and self-producer who lives in Birmingham, UK with her husband and two teenage children. She has been on a unexpected journey of exploring her skills as a musician, songwriter, and producer having returned to all things music around five years ago after a long time away. She will be forever grateful that she joined her community choir, which helped reignite her passion and love for creating and performing music.
Start streaming “Don’t Be An Island” here:
Ruth aims to write and produce songs that are genuine, rooted in the dirt and grit of everyday life, and that feels authentic.
Often described by others as ethereal, haunting, calming & healing, she hopes that her songs will bring a chink of light into the places that are otherwise dark.
Congrats on the release! What was your inspiration when you were writing this project?
Released on May 16, 2023. “Don’t Be An Island” is my first release of 2023. This EP is accompanied by four other songs that I’ve written and released in the past two years.
Through this song, I hope to highlight the realities of life and in particular, mental health and the need for community.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about mental health and how we all go through times when we are mentally unhealthy. It’s a part of life, along with physical ill-health. I also noticed that when I am feeling low, anxious, or worried, I feel isolated. It’s easy to push others away instead of what we need to do – to reach out. I noticed this tendency in others too. We have no idea what’s going on inside another person’s head.
Thoughts not shared and articulated can get bigger and become this mental mountain inside our heads that goes unchallenged. I wanted to capture this in the song.
What is your vision for this song?
I wanted to write to myself or anyone else who needs it. We all need community and connection. Sometimes, even though we might feel useless, we can be the person who can make a big impact difference to someone else’s life.
What is your favorite part of this body of work?
I love the last chorus! My aim was for it to go from 0–100 in a couple of seconds, with an explosion of sound. Not quite sure if that’s been achieved but I loved how that part turned out.
Anything else we should know about it? Future releases?
I’m looking for opportunities to play my music to live audiences locally. I really enjoy those opportunities I get. This year has seen me branch out into co-writing songs too, so I’m excited to see what comes from them. Either way, I’m hoping to release a song called “Run To Me” later this year as a solo release.
Connect with Ruth A Harris:
