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EH: I have done that if I'm out walking and I come up with a lyric that has a melody, I will put that
on my phone, but I've become a producer so I'm really good at the software on my computer so I'll
actually go on there and write a guitar part, sometimes I'll write a bass part or harmony vocals.
BiTS: Do I take it, Erin, that the electric band is now defunct? Are you going to resurrect that
again?
EH: We are, I don't know that it's going to still be
called the Delta Swingers because, and this is a
strange technical thing, in the world of Spotify, if
you have a band name with your name in it, and
then you have another band name with another
name at the end of it, it makes two separate
artists. On Spotify, I'm Erin Harpe and that's
where this album is and also my first album, Blues
Roots, and then Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers
has three albums and then there's another album
called Erin and Neil Harpe, which is me and my
dad. We did one album together, so it makes it
hard for listeners to find all the stuff that one
artist does, so I'm planning to do more electric
stuff, but at the moment we do have some people
that we work with, but we can't really rehearse,
we can't really play, so I'll start producing some
stuff on my own here in my studio and see where that goes. The next album is likely to be a mix of
acoustic and electric.
BiTS: You're not going to do a Christmas album this year? You've done a few I think.
EH: We've done one and then we put it out the next year on vinyl, so we have it on CD and vinyl
now. No, I'm not quite ready to do another. I don't have a lot of Christmas songs, I just thought that
would be fun to just do and say I've done it [chuckles].
BiTS: I must admit until I started researching you for this interview, I didn't know you'd done a
Christmas record, but I always do a Christmas show which is blocked full of the Christmas blues
and music, so it's going to be there next time around [laughing].
EH: Well the reason that I wanted to do a Christmas album too, was that when I was a kid, one of
my dad's friends, actually maybe you know Rick Franklin. Do you know him?
BiTS: I do.
EH: He was in a band with my dad when I was growing up and we saw him all the time and he
would make these great mix tapes, and he made a Christmas mix tape that I just loved, so I got
inspired by that. I think I ended up doing some of the songs that were actually on that, but he was
making mix tapes, not just Christmas ones because I know there's good Christmas music out there,
but there's also a lot that I don't like at all. The stuff you hear at the malls, the things you hear at
the grocery store.
BiTS: Some of the music is absolutely appalling.
EH: Yes, exactly. A good way to put it.