John Harvie has signed to FRKST and Elektra Entertainment, Consequence can exclusively announce today (June 29th). Harvie has also dropped a new song, “Beauty In The Bad Things.” Get a first listen below.
Like many of his contemporaries, Harvie first found quick and unexpected success thanks to a viral TikTok moment — which, in this case, features the Louisville native accidentally coughing his way through Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Goin’ Down.” What followed was a TikTok audience as invested in 2000s emo and pop-punk as Harvie himself.
His debut single, the sardonic, edgy “Bleach (On the Rocks)” was quickly obsessed over by fans artists alike. The song finds Harvie, 22, locking into his inner Brendon Urie, as he’ll readily admit via his TikTok, and boasts dramatic, cathartic lines like, “You say sorry and you want us to fix what’s wrong/ But I think I’d rather dye all my insides blonde.”
Of the established artists to take notice was Johnny Stevens of Highly Suspect, who quickly signed him to his record label, FRKST, in conjunction with 300 Entertainment.
“John has one of those voices that comes around only once or twice every decade,” Stevens tells Consequence. “But, beyond that, he has a story to tell and it’s real. John speaks for everyone who graduated high school and thought, ‘What’s next?’”
“I’m extremely amped to be a part of the 300/Elektra/FRKST family,” Harvie adds. “They really care about music and the artistic process, [which] really drew me towards them. I’m so excited to put out my first full length album and tell everybody my story.”
“Beauty In The Bad Things” was written during a period when Harvie was feeling stress and burnout around getting his music career off the ground, as he explains to Consequence. “I was [in] in a weird/difficult spot in my life, and two of my great friends — Charlotte Sands and Danen Reed Rector — were able to let me come into the [studio] session vulnerable, and open up about what was going on,” he says. “I explained everything, from the pressure of me just recently signing and trying to perform well in my job, to financially supporting my friends on my team and making friends and family around me proud, as well as myself. I had written the words ‘there’s beauty in the bad things’ in my notes, and we decided to use that as the theme for the song.
“I hope it hits people as hard as it hits me,” he continues, “and others can be honest with themselves about being in a spot in life where they don’t feel like themselves.”
“The way John is able to weave his words to paint a picture sucks you in. It doesn’t matter what background you come from, you’re instantly transported to HIS world and it plays like your favorite HBO series,” Stevens says. “When you listen to what John is saying, you get to escape your own life for a minute and stand in his shoes.”
Next, Harvie promises tour dates and a debut album are on the horizon. “I feel like this record is going to stand out because of its unique take on the current rock sound and the authenticity,” he says. “It’s an album that will be the soundtrack to whatever season of life you are in.”
In the meantime, check out “Beauty In The Bad Things” below.