![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mikaela_davis.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe harp is an instrument most often associated with classical music; as a rule, its use in pop is generally limited to background orchestration in big productions. But clearly nobody explained that rule to Mikaela Davis: the pop vocalist not only plays the harp live onstage, but she writes songs on it.<\/p>\n
Davis takes advantage of the instrument\u2019s versatility to push the boundaries of pop convention. \u201cPeople mostly notice when I am pitch bending,\u201d she says, \u201cmaking the harp sound more like a sitar.\u201d While she sometimes plays solos, Davis views her role as a player similar to that of a rhythm guitarist. \u201cI see the harp as another instrument in the band,\u201d she says. \u201cNot necessarily the focal point.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Artists who rose to fame in the 1990s have made the biggest impression on Mikaela Davis. She names Ben Folds, Sufjan Stevens and Elliott Smith as some of her favorites. Davis\u2019 latest (and fifth) single is a cover of \u201cHalf Right,\u201d a song that originally appeared on Smith\u2019s posthumous 1996 album New Moon<\/i>. \u201cElliott got me interested in passing tones, more meaningful lyrics and fingerpicking ideas,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Davis readily admits that her chosen instrument is uncommon in a pop music context. But as soon as she discovered the harp during her third grade school year, she was hooked. She began taking lessons right away. \u201cI had every intention of becoming a full-time performer on harp, but not like this,\u201d she says. Her original goals were more traditional.<\/p>\n
She began writing music when she was only 12, and went on to earn a bachelors degree in music performance. But Davis didn\u2019t necessarily view songwriting as part of her career path. That changed after she graduated college. \u201cI decided not to go on to grad school after hooking up with my booking agency,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Davis\u2019 musical worldview became more expansive through playing the harp, and that sensibility informs her own contemplative and textured songwriting. \u201cBecause of playing the harp I discovered Alice Coltrane,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that led me to Ravi Shankar and middle eastern music.\u201d That influence shines through on \u201cPure Divine Love,\u201d a track on her new album, Delivery<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But that worldly, sophisticated perspective is tempered by her pop sensibility, honed years ago listening to Ben Folds Five\u2019s first album. \u201cI would rollerblade around my mom\u2019s neighborhood,\u201d Davis says, \u201clistening to it on repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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