Q&A: Harrison Lipton’s “Sagittarius” Tells the Story of a Harmonious Yet Infernus Love
COMBINING FIRE AND AIR ELEMENTS CAN BE HARMONIOUS AND DYNAMIC — but it can also be explosive and cyclonic. Regardless of your zodiac sign, it is always painful when a relationship that was once so filled with an unbending love breaks apart right where you stand — it feels as if your world is falling apart. Everyone has different ways of dealing with their feelings about an ending relationship, but Harrison Lipton, 28-year-old singer-songwriter and producer who is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, found therapy in writing a song about his experience.
Lipton's new single, “Sagittarius,” shares the singer-songwriter’s experience of a relationship that “started off as a deeply loving romance [that] turned into something messy and difficult.” The track is a euphoric blend of R&B, indie rock, and psychedelic soul. As the lyrics declare the toxic dynamics of the relationship, they are counteracted by the phrase “Ooh, I love your fire.”
Some of Lipton’s early childhood memories of music consist of Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and gospel music, which his father introduced him to. This sparked his love for R&B that is incorporated into his sound today. With his soulful vocals and stellar production, Lipton creates a unique sound that's true to him and never disappoints his listeners.
Read down below to get to know Lipton and the story behind his new single, “Sagittarius.”
LUNA: Hey Harrison! It's great to meet ya! Tell us about yourself.
LIPTON: First of all, it’s great to meet you too! I have been making music pretty much my entire life. I grew up singing gospel music when I was younger, which is kind of how I learned how to sing, and it's pretty amazing. I opened for Mavis Staples when I was 13. I grew up doing all that stuff. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with music and what my career path would look like, but I think what's really exciting about right now [is that] I feel really good about this song. I put out a song in the summer called “Speedracer” and made a music video for it, which was great. I'm a producer and a writer, and I play a bunch of instruments. I came from this background of growing up listening to gospel music and being really into R&B. When I moved to Connecticut, [a lot of my classmates] were really into punk music. It was cool, but I was like, “Do you guys listen to Stevie Wonder?”(laughs). Like, where was my mind at as a middle schooler, you know?
LUNA: I love Stevie Wonder! Triggered some good childhood memories right there.
LIPTON: Yeah, it was the first CD I ever owned in my life. I grew up in New York, and I remember my dad came back from playing pickup basketball and he was like, “Hey, there's a present for you under your pillow!” And I was probably five years old at the time; my thought process at that moment was, “Oh my god, yes! A Star Wars Lego! Let's go and pick it up!” And it's Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder. I was so disappointed as a 5-year-old kid. I thought, “Oh man… it's just some CD.” Turns out it was the most influential thing in my entire life. Just knowing I grew up listening to that completely changed the way my brain works. It was such an influential record for me. It's not like I think my music sounds like Stevie at all. It's just that's the stuff that I have loved listening to. And I have loved taking an R&B approach because it's just what feels natural to me.
LUNA: That’s such a sweet memory! It’s always nice to hear who or what inspires one to start their musical journey! Congrats on the release of your single “Sagittarius,” by the way — can you tell us the story behind it?
LIPTON: I started writing “Sagittarius” when I was dating someone for a while. We met during the pandemic, we ended up moving to Los Angeles together, and things fell apart. There were moments when it looked like we might get back together and we continued talking. I feel like it's one of those positions that people just tend to be in when it comes to relationships. When you're in a serious relationship with someone and then you break up, there’s that weird ground where you're still talking but you know that you have to be separate, but you're so attached to that person and you're trying to figure out your attachment to them… “Sagittarius” came out of that place. That place where a toxic thing is going on. You're really attracted to this person, but you're just gonna get burned. So that's kind of why I used the fire metaphors. I started writing this song when she came to New York. I was just writing it in my room on my guitar and [was] thinking about how she's a Sagittarius and I'm a Libra. I'm an air sign, and when you combine that air with that fire, it's just like an inferno.
LUNA: What was the creative process behind the track?
LIPTON: I started writing it on guitar, which is not my usual route. I usually start writing things on keys. So I was writing it on guitar and I was in my head thinking about how I was newly moved to Brooklyn. Being in this kind of cold, gray room in early spring/late winter, I just started writing the chords. I work on Ableton and I have a little studio setup here. My roommates are both musicians as well, so it's a nice musical household (laughs). I started flushing out the track, and I wanted the drums to feel really big. I wanted to get this epic feeling with it and I wanted the song to bloom into an epic feeling. With the guitar that comes in, it's on fire! You hear it on the bridge. I wanted it to feel a certain way and it was really cool to work on it steadily over time.
I enlisted the help of my roommates and other people that I knew. My roommate Santiago Coto mixed it and helped bring it to life. I tend to try to do it all myself, but, you know, we all need help. Sometimes it was cool to bring other people in, get their input, and craft a song that feels a certain way. So it's not just all emotion first. There's an emotional element, but then when you get ready to release a song and put it out, it's like, making sure that it is sitting right. Making sure that the guitars are sitting, the drums are doing what they need to do, etc. It's fun to go through that process with other people.
LUNA: Right! You guys would feed off each other and get ideas from each other, which is great, I bet.
LIPTON: Yeah! You know, the song kind of stagnated at one point, and then it was this thought of “Okay, I guess this is as good as it's gonna be.” And then I gave it to Santi. Santi was like, “Hey, I want to try mixing it!” and then … the whole thing opened up. I was like, “Oh my god! This is perfect!” At first, I didn't know about the song, but when [Santi] mixed it I was like, “Maybe this song is actually good!”
LUNA: How is “Sagittarius” different from previous tracks you’ve put out?
LIPTON: I feel like my career has kind of split into two eras. There's the era before “Speedracer,” which is my first record, Loveliness. Then all the singles and the EP I put out closed the chapter on that entire era for me. Then in the “Speedracer” era, it was the most R&B song I've ever put out. It’s also the most I've ever put into a track ever — I broke my back over that song (laughs). There was a music video made and everything. I had a release show that I did, and that was such a fun experience. Now in this new era, I’ve been working on a new record and I've been writing songs for other people. I’ve been trying to find where this new era is gonna go. It's somewhere in between indie and R&B. The record I'm making is really guitar-focused; I'm trying to write more on guitar. I think that's new for me. I usually write on keys, as I mentioned earlier, and that changes the whole style of things. At any point, I'm just trying to see what feels best to me. I don't want to chase a trend. To me, it’s not about what sounds cool. It's really about how I'm feeling and what I'm most inspired to do. And I feel strongly about “Sagittarius” so far.
The way this track compares to my other songs, it feels like the beginning of a new era. It's almost demarcating a new chapter in my career. I hope that people listen to it with fresh ears and separate it from my last track because it doesn't relate. So in a way, it’s like a departure. Both “Speedracer” and “Sagittarius” have been departures, and I'm totally into this idea of starting fresh.
LUNA: Wow, that's so great to hear! I have to check out the rest of your library because you're a newer artist to me. I've only listened to “Speedracer” and “Sagittarius” so far so I'm excited to see the differences between eras in your library!
LIPTON: Yeah, I put out an album in 2018. It's the first thing I ever put out. At the time, I was a pretty small artist and the album didn't do anything crazy. But just to contextualize it to you, it was almost outside of art. At that point, I didn't know how to produce. I recorded it over one summer and I remember the first time, the only song that did well from the record, I had to tune it to a key that's not even [a] key (laughs). I had a sense that it was out of tune. It’s between F and F sharp. There was almost no auto-tune on the entire record. I didn't know how to use a compressor. There's also no mix — it just went to mastering. It didn't even get mixed. It's kind of like if an early Alex G did R&B. It has this outside-of-art field to it. It's super earnest. And that was the first record I ever put out. So I feel like you'll hear it and you'll be like, “Oh, this is definitely different!” (Laughs)
LUNA: Absolutely! Can't wait to check it out! What inspired your lyricism?
LIPTON: I love when life feels like a movie. When life feels like a movie, that's usually when some of the best lyrics come out of writing about my life or things that have happened to me. I write a lot about love because it leaves an indelible mark on my brain. Sometimes there's a therapeutic element to it. Writing about your life, you just sit down to write a song. Sometimes, I don't really know how I feel about a given situation until I've written a song about it. And then I'll look at the lyrics and it will be like, “Oh, I guess that's how I feel.”
I feel like my lyricism just comes from experiences I've had and people I've been with. In some ways, no part of me ever wants to look back at love with distaste or bitterness. It's always like if I'm writing a song about someone [it’s with] the most amount of respect I could ever give someone, you know what I mean? To me, it means it's just super powerful, in that I'm never trying to trash someone. Also, the toxicity of this relationship, that's on both of us. It's not like it was just her and then I’m this perfect person. I'm not, but I'm growing. And I'm trying to figure out myself. We're all in the process of growing and being the best people we can be. But you know, I think that's kind of the spirit of “Sagittarius” as well. I'm lodging these complaints in the verses, and then in the chorus I just land on “I love your fire.” I see all of these things that are warning signs, red flags, and really difficult things. But the conclusion I draw is that I still love it. I still love being burned by it.
LUNA: I know earlier in our conversation you mentioned that Stevie Wonder is one of your inspirations to make music. What other artists inspire your sound as a whole?
LIPTON: Oh my god, I'm a voracious listener! Stevie Wonder was there when I was a little kid and was my first introduction to popular music. My first love was actually opera. I was a 2-year-old obsessed with Luciano Pavarotti (laughs). And then I remember, my dad showed me James Brown and Stevie Wonder and it blew my mind. But it was my early childhood stuff. But for me right now, what I'm inspired by… I've been a huge fan of Chiiild since 2020. I don't know if you ever listened to him but he has a really rough around the edges [sound]. His voice is constantly shifting in and out of focus. He has such brilliant music and his laptop was stolen, which led to his album getting leaked. And this album was put out on Bandcamp for one day until XL Records took it down. I paid seven British pounds for it. I was one of those people who bought it on the day that it came out [early]. So I just had that record. I just listened to that for years. He's been a huge influence on me. I think Frank Ocean has been a huge influence as well. Blonde is my favorite album of the year for the past six years (laughs).
LUNA: Blonde by Frank Ocean is such a masterpiece! Best pick right there. What brings you joy?
LIPTON: “I love people” is, like, a brain-dead answer (laughs). But I just love people and love getting to know people. Whenever I feel sad or I feel like the world is a little gray, talking to people helps. Right now we're in this really weird moment in time… It’s just hard. I also had a friend pass away a few days ago.
LUNA: Oh no! I'm so sorry for your loss.
LIPTON: Thank you for that. I think in darker moments, it's amazing to recognize why we're here. I feel like if the world didn't have all types of great people, where would we be? Things like nature, time alone, and self-love are great! But they're not people (laughs). That to me is what I feel brings me joy. Hanging out with friends, having good conversations, and going to my best friend's house. Things like that bring me joy. Other things that bring me joy are when I'm playing music, of course. I think putting out music brings me joy. And then there are also the little things like cooking, making my bed, and being with someone while it's raining outside. Things like that!
LUNA: Nice! We have to appreciate those little things in life. Thank you for sharing that! What are two personal goals and two career goals you have for the new year?
LIPTON: Personal goals, exercise more. It's a big one (laughs). I know that sounds pretty shallow, but I think it's important. Figuring out my love life in the sense of, I'm not really looking for anything right now. It's more of learning to either be okay with being single or hopefully find that partner that's gonna just blow my mind, and it's gonna be that thing that just feels right. That person that I'm just going to meet, and it's just going to click. So for now, it would be in terms of getting comfortable with being single and enjoying the time that I spend on my own. Continuing to learn how to make the most out of my time spent alone. And just exercising, seeing friends, and helping the people that are closest to you.
For career goals, put out more music. I'm going to have an EP that I think is going to come out in the first half of 2023. So put out more music and continue to build the team around me. I have a manager and a PR agent, obviously, which is why we're talking (laughs). But I would love to get a booking agent and would love to do a tour. Playing support for someone I think would be fun. But yeah, just continuing to build the team out more and play more live shows.
LUNA: Nice! Okay, and our last question is for fun: What are your top three fave zodiac signs?
LIPTON: I'm a Libra, my mom is a Libra, and my dad is a Libra. We have a really Libra family (laughs). My friend Bree is a Libra! She's living in Japan right now. I remember she was over at my house before she went to Japan and we were all around the table laughing at the fact that we all realized we're all Libras! No wonder why we all get along so well. So I have to put Libra up there. Two of my closest friends are Virgos — I would say Virgos are another one for sure. Then my other friend Jake, who's probably the longest friend I've ever had, we met when we were practically babies. He's a Virgo. So Virgos are big for me. And then I would probably say Sagittarius (laughs). It's cool that I'm releasing this [track] in the Sagittarius season. So of course, happy birthday to all the Sagittariuses out there — but they are great, though. They're so dynamic. They tend to be a little chaotic, but they are interesting and full of life. There's a lot to appreciate about them.
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