HARKNESS is a self-produced psychedelic rock musician based in Toronto, Canada. Harkness focuses on real instrumentation to create deeply human sonic scapes with a fresh modern pop aesthetic.
MW: Welcome Harkness to Maple Wow. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your musical background.
HARKNESS: I’m a Canadian, born to two musician parents. Right out of the womb, I was immersed in music—everything from The Carpenters to Big Band. My dad, who had his own group, the Al Harkness Orchestra, played every weekend until I was about 14 and wrote his own arrangements. That really planted a lot of seeds for what I do now. He was an appreciator of jazz, classical, and even had a cover band that played 70s hits like Stevie Wonder and Chicago.
My initial training came from my mom, the local piano teacher, who taught all of us siblings. But the most formative influence was my older brother. He was the genius of the family—an incredible piano player who chose film instead of music. He was always five steps ahead of me, pulling me up and teaching me what he was learning. It took everything in my power to keep up with him, and that was crucial to my development.The Professional Start and Progressive Path
MW: When did you start playing music professionally?
HARKNESS: I got serious about playing guitar at 13. A few years later, I told my dad that this was what I wanted to do with my life. He warned me that the majority of musicians try and fail—something like “99.9 don’t make it”—but he encouraged me to go for it. I would say I was 15 or 16 when we played our first gig in a bar, which required my mom to write a note. We started playing bars around Toronto, and then went on the road when I was 17.
MW: Your music is characterized as progressive/avant-garde. What led you down that path instead of a more conventional pop or rock one?
HARKNESS: A huge part of it was my dad’s record collection and the concerts he took us to very regularly from the age of five. We saw Count Basie, Buddy Rich, and also classical concerts like Beethoven. He had such a wide palette. When I was ten and we saw Jaws, he pointed out that the iconic score was “ripped off by Stravinsky” and his work The Rite of Spring. We’d go home and listen to this incredible, bombastic, ornate music. At ten, I was listening to The Beatles, Stravinsky, and Miles Davis simultaneously. It was a really effortless, natural outcome of my father’s influence. I also think having super talented friends and being surrounded by like-minded guys who pushed each other for years helped a lot.The Birth of Harkness
MW: What was the process that led to forming Harkness as your project?
HARKNESS: I had written music with a friend, Andy, that we were so confident about. We formed a rock opera called The Donny Parker Story and went to the UK for seven years to try and make it, but we got rejected by every single record label. We kept knocking on doors and playing gigs, but I began feeling like I was compromising too much, writing really simple, poppy things.
When I woke up to the fact that life is too short for anything but the bull’s eye, I knew what I had to do. I was hearing the songs we were doing as a power trio in an orchestrated way, and I thought, “I have to do this.” I came back to Canada, and having access to my own studio at my parents’ house, everything just went “click.” I’ve been woodshedding for decades now, doing exactly how I hear it. It’s like a colour-by-numbers thing—I know the instrumentation I want, and I just do it.
Coming back to Canada was an unbelievably positive experience. One of my first jobs was as an usher at Roy Thomson Hall with the Toronto Symphony, where I got paid to listen to Beethoven and others for years. Canada was just like coming back to the womb.
Harkness: “Ciao To The Beauty” video
MW: Since releasing your albums, there’s been a worldwide discovery of your music. Tell us about that.
HARKNESS: I had spent about 12 years just making music without considering releasing it. When I finally decided to put it out, it was in the climate of social media and COVID. Immediately, my music was reaching people in Poland, Russia, Germany, and Brazil simultaneously. I started getting lovely DMs from all across the world. I received all sorts of messages, including ones from people on death’s door saying my music saved them or that it helped them overcome depression. It was wild!
MW: You now have a documentary out about your musical career on CBC titled “Harkness“. How did the CBC documentary come about?
HARKNESS: It was the good fortune of meeting Maria Markina, the director. We worked together. She was taking her documentary Masters, and when she found out I was a musician, she suggested a small school project on me. When she came over, saw my instruments, my drawings, and my basement studio, she realized, “There’s a bigger film here.” We committed to making The Harkness Documentary regardless of external help.
She entered the small five-minute piece into the Breakthrough Program in Ontario, and suddenly established producers, directors, and editors in the industry started seeing it. One producer said he wanted to make the film, and he contacted the CBC. They loved what they saw, which led to CBC commissioning the film. We got very, very lucky, and it was all Canadian, homegrown.
MW: To wrap up, you have a performance this November in Toronto. What will you be showcasing?
HARKNESS: I’m now playing with a phenomenal young drummer, which is something I’ve wanted for a long time after doing a solo act. My goal is to take people into a small room and “blow the roofs off of their souls and the ceiling!” It’s going to be one special night of life. We’ll be presenting songs from both of my albums, The Occasion and Ciao To The Beauty, and we’re extending and stretching the arrangements to make things creative. It’s going to be a killer show.
See Harkness live at the Monarch with Get Alongs:
Where to Checkout Harkness:
- Web: https://www.harknessmusic.com/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1YT5B8pg7HLD6hxMrzErG9
- Harkness Documentary: https://gem.cbc.ca/harkness
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@harknessmfa6215
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harknessmfa/