Harrison Reid, better known as ‘Harris’ to those in the UK garage sphere, is a twenty year old York based DJ and producer who has accumulated 350k listens on Soundcloud for his first release ‘In The Rave’. More impressive still is that the song released under ‘Shellout Sessions’, a label he co-owns and manages. After ten months since his debut hit, along with playing multiple successful events throughout twenty twenty three, I’m eager to explore how this all came about as well as what’s to come.
‘I’d say I’ve always been musical.’ Harrison told me without missing a beat. He started devoting his time and energy into producing music while doing his GCSE course during school, before this however he’d played the piano for many years. To begin with he created house music, only finding garage on a whim with his schoolmate PJ Statham, another York based DJ and Producer who at the time was beginning his own success story. Harris sighted finding Conducta’s Keep Hush set on YouTube as the definitive moment he knew he wanted to make garage music. ‘I remember watching it with PJ and we were both like “this is the sickest thing I’ve ever seen” and from then we just started getting into garage.’
The London based head of Kiwi Rekords ‘Conducta’ may have been an introduction to the scene but Harris credits artists like ‘Gemi’ and ‘Sammy Virji’ as inspirations to begin creating.
After two years of both production and learning to DJ, York’s Ziggys bar and nightclub saw Harrison’s debut set. ‘I got up and was really excited – nervous too but in a good way, it was a good night.’ He continued to recount, ‘if you know your music and you know what the reactions will be like from the crowd, there’s no reason to be nervous.’ The set was a full circle moment as he went back to back with longtime friend, collaborator and previously mentioned PJ, years after finding garage together.
Their continued friendship and musical association lead to the creation of their own label and events company named ‘Shellout Sessions’. In part this was also a response to their shared dissatisfaction with York’s nightlife and their having to travel to do sets.
‘We thought instead of having to go out to other cities like Leeds or Newcastle we’d much rather have our own events that we control.’
Speaking about the role he plays in Shellout Sessions Harrison explained, ‘I obviously DJ at all the events we throw. I help organise the venue, do promotion like put posters up, contact residents to let them know what the situation is… just day to day running really.’
His main role however is finding the artists that will get their music released through the label, sorting through submissions and deciding what fits their brand.
Just as the other music he cultivates for the label, ‘In The Rave’ released under Shellout Sessions on the 6th of January this year to large success. When asked about the creation of the song he explained ‘Originally I was listening to my Spotify playlist and that Katy B tune came on, ‘lights on’, and I just thought “these vocals go hard”’. While the original is a 2010 pop single from Katy B’s debut album ‘On a Mission’, it was decided here that a garage remix would be fitting. ‘I remember looking at Soundcloud to see if anyone else had done it’ he continued, ‘and nobody had so I got a one shot off splice and I made a melody with that, put the vocals over the top, made the bass for it as well but then I couldn’t figure out what to do with the drums.’ To fix the issue he consulted with PJ who sent him over some samples to use for the drums.
‘He added his own little touch to it.’
Ironically, considering the success of the song, he originally didn’t want to release it. ‘I didn’t think it was very good but PJ told me ‘you need to put this tune out’ and so I thought “why not?”’ This led to thousands of listens on SoundCloud and in clubs, becoming a welcome surprise. While the quality of the music, as well as the right marketing and a bit of luck can all make for a songs success, another factor has become important for smaller artists. ‘I think TikTok is a really good tool for garage at the moment’ Harris confessed, ‘the thing that helped my tune blow up was TikTok streaming.’
For some, TikTok has been an opportunity at a big break, garnering them an audience as the algorithm promotes their sound to a degree they could never have afforded through traditional mediums of music marketing. While Harris and Shellout Sessions exemplify this, ‘In The Rave’ does highlight an issue too. ‘Because people would re upload [In the Rave] and then others would make TikToks with that sound, I didn’t have any ownership. People reuploading meant that they had it for themselves and in a sense that’s kind of a bad thing.’ Harrison had no credited connection to the song once it was placed onto TikTok by a third party, making it difficult for those who would want to find the artist behind it. ‘It did annoy me a little bit because I’d be in the comment section asking for credit and get none.’
Ultimately, while not to undermine the importance of this issue, the success on TikTok did positively impact the number of streams in this case. Despite this, Harrison has fallen out of love with his first hit for a different and far simpler reason. ‘It’s a good tune but I’m sick to death of hearing it. I don’t even play it out at my sets anymore.’
It seems that a focus on releasing new music is imminent for Harris in 2024, stating ‘I’ve got a couple of tunes I’m sitting on at the moment, I’ll play them out and give them a bit of promotion, then they should be out next year.’
There’s plenty to keep an eye on between his personal releases, sets across the North and the events he’ll be co- running for Shellout Sessions. Next up, you can see Harrison play on the 17th January at the Shellout Sessions x Cribb event happening at Blue Box in York.
Buy your ticket here: https://www.fatsoma.com/e/8ofrrgib/shellout-sessions-x-cribb-presents-scruz
And stream ‘In The Rave’, along with Shellout Session’s other releases here: https://soundcloud.com/shell-out-session/harris-in-the-rave-free-download
For updates on Blind in One Ear, Deaf in One Eye follow @blindinoneeardeafinoneeye on Instagram
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