Q&A: Harrison Lipton returns with his sophomore album ‘Between Us There Runs a Tether’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ By Lilah Phillips☆
FOUR YEARS OF HARD WORK FINALLY PAYS OFF—as Harrison Lipton releases his sophomore album Between Us There Runs a Tether. Seen as the album that almost never was, the birth of Between Us There Runs a Tether goes back to a breakup in 2021, where Lipton moved from LA back to New York heartbroken. Inspired after driving cross-country aimlessly, Between Us There Runs a Tether is about “connectivity that ties together a long rope that stretches back in time from the rearview mirror all the way to the future full of optimism and branches outward linking [me] to everyone else,” Lipton shares.
Collaborating with MICHELLE’s Layla Ku and Yot Club’s Ryan, as well as using studio space from Ian Bakerman and Aidan Ludlam of booyah! kids, this nine-track album is Lipton's pure manifestation of his love for music, as he messed around with his own ideas whilst building a community around his work. Alongside the album, Lipton has released three music videos for his tracks “Synchronized Swimming,” “On My Own,” and “Tether” and is set to host an album release show on May 9 at Public Records in Brooklyn. Lipton’s comeback shows how much he has accomplished, how much more he has to share with listeners, and his ever-growing love for music and songwriting. Lipton shows that having such a deep-rooted stamp in the NYC music scene can bring together a community of artists to create this beautifully-crafted album.
Read below for more on the making of Between Us There Runs a Tether and how Lipton has worked alongside some of his collaborators.
LUNA: Harrison! As always, it's a pleasure to chat with you. The day has finally come for the release of your sophomore album Between Us There Runs a Tether. Congrats! Tell us how it feels to have this album out and what it means to you?
LIPTON: The pleasure is mine! I can’t believe this day has finally arrived, it’s been several years in the making, and now that this album is coming out into the world I’ve been practicing trying to detach myself from the outcome. At the end of the day, I’m giving people music to listen to that they might enjoy, and that’s really my only hope or desire right now. I’ve been trying to take the “me” out of the equation and re-center this experience of sharing something with the world with no expectations.
LUNA: You are having an album release show May 9 at Public Records, which is so exciting! What are you looking forward to the most about this show?
LIPTON: I’m excited too––we’ve been rehearsing with a five-piece band, including my best friends Ian Bakerman and Noah Ross re-enacting all the guitar moments on the record. Ian engineered the album out of his home studio in Brooklyn, and both Ian and Noah play almost all the guitar parts you hear on the album. Bringing this music to life with them in a performance setting rather than a recording setting is a challenge, but a good one, because we’re reworking the songs, examining them in ways we hadn’t before, assigning parts, making them live and breathe and feel alive and full of motion and urgency. We’re playing with my good friends Santi Coto on bass and Jordan Wolff on drums, and hearing songs that have existed their entire lives as recorded works in this new context is really rewarding. I can’t wait to get up on stage and sing these for the first time. It’s going to be a great show.
LUNA: The music video for “Tether (feat. Yot Club)” came out amazing! What was the idea behind it and what was it like working on set?
LIPTON: Thank you! I worked with director Breanna Lynn on a few variations of this idea of playful disorientation, and we wanted to shoot in a blank white cyc-wall space with Ryan [Yot Club] seemingly being in two places at once. We had an extra in the role of director, and when they signaled “cut” they’d give us increasingly insulting notes. In essence, we wanted it to be like a shit show, and it kind of was, but in a good way. My favorite part was when we had Ryan stand on an apple box so that we were the same height.
LUNA: Can you tell us about the album cover?
LIPTON: It almost looks like a photo someone would find in an old cupboard of their dad in the 1970s. It feels very vintage, while the surrounding graphics feel modern and clean. It all aligns with the sound of the album to me. I wanted to capture a feeling of traveling, aimlessness, motion, untetheredness, even rambling––as exemplified by the vintage RV, the road-worn boots, the rucksack. Subverting the title of Between Us There Runs a Tether, the cover highlights the tension between connectedness––in the title––and transience, in the photo. Also, that is not my RV, although I wish it was. If you are the owner please contact me so I can make an offer.
LUNA: What do you hope listeners can get from this album?
LIPTON: Ultimately, this album is for you––you can dive as deep as you want into it, imbue whatever meaning you want into it, it can be your companion, it can be something you put on when you have friends over, or when it’s just you, alone, reflecting. A lot of this music can feel quite breezy at times, but the lyrics tell a different story. This album is my creating and fine-tuning this long, detailed string connecting personal, sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful life moments in my late 20s, and then letting it go in the wind and watching it drift away and be for everyone else. It’s for you now.
LUNA: You collaborated with other talented artists on this album, such as MICHELLE’s Layla Ku, and Yot Club. How was this experience of getting to work with other artists within the New York community?
LIPTON: One of my favorite moments from working on this album was compiling my list of thank-you’s––this would never have happened without the support of my bandmates Ian Bakerman and Noah Ross, as well as the artists you mention like Ryan [Yot Club] and Layla. It means a lot to me that people I admire were willing to believe in this music and lend their talents to make it all happen. I don’t take it for granted (haha, get it, “All For Granted”). Okay, I’ll stop (laughs). Ian, Noah, and I met at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, where we all were doing music but in different capacities. Ian came from the band Phony Ppl, where he had already seen tremendous success as just a high schooler, and Noah was shredding guitar in a very popular band on campus. Meanwhile, I was locked in my dorm room trying to teach myself Ableton Live. I looked up to them. I distinctly remember watching Noah play and thinking to myself “Man, I’d love to play music with him someday.” Well, that day arrived not too long after, and with years of the three of us working together under our belt, it’s a great testament to our friendship and collaboration that this album is coming out with massive contributions from everyone involved.
LUNA: Which song do you look forward to for listeners to hear?
LIPTON: “Pillowtalker” is one I’m especially proud of. My suggestion would be to put it on as you sit on your fire escape, take a nighttime drive, or walk home in the rain.
LUNA: Anything you would like to share with your fans about Between Us There Runs a Tether?
LIPTON: To any readers out there, any of your input, feedback, or anything, else is very welcome, so please feel free to message me, strike up a conversation, let me know how you feel about the album, or just say “hi.” Like I said, it’s for you now. In undertaking such a big project, focusing so intently on it, I’ve had to remind myself that there is more to life than just this. I’m looking forward to having the album out so I can focus on things like exercising regularly, canvassing for NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, rooting for the Knicks in the playoffs, and of course, making more music. So for now, I will be stepping back, letting go, and watching it weave outward into the world like a tether. And, thanks for being a great interviewer Lilah, as always.
