Q&A: Tutara Peak Creates Soundscapes to Get Lost in With Textured New Single “Colour & Pattern”
DOES MUSIC HAVE THE POWER TO CAPTURE THE SUBLIME — nature in its purest, sacred state? Producer and songwriter Harvey Carter thinks so, aiming to do just that as Tutara Peak. Born in the lush countryside of the southwestern United Kingdom, Carter is intrinsically inspired by the landscapes around him. On top of a deep appreciation for unique instruments, Carter is drawn to the formless nature of digital music. His music is magnetic and enthralling, captivating the attention of a wide range of listeners and important tastemakers. Tutara Peaks' sound is not easily definable — it is expansive and unpredictable. Every song he releases is incredibly interactive, with melodies that seep into your brain and give it a good scratch.
Carter's recent release, “Colour & Pattern,” is amply titled for its stimulating sculptural quality — it is as satisfying as it is mesmerizing. Elaborating on the sounds of the natural landscapes fleshed out in Carter’s debut EP, Tansuri, this new single proves that Tutara Peak is an ever-evolving artist. This track feels alive, nonlinear, and blissfully organic. The sound of the steel tongue drum is both raw and refined, creating an organic sonic texture that courses through your veins.
Speaking to Carter about “Colour & Pattern” made one thing abundantly clear: Carter’s curiosity and love for music are utterly contagious. He oozes enthusiasm and has a fierce passion for what he does. He is a lifelong student of music and his dedication to craft sets him apart as a musician. There is something so invigorating about seeing an artist light up when they discuss the process of making their music, their relationships to instruments, and their newfound niche interest.
Luna sat down with Carter to discuss the future of Tutara Peak and what currently boosts his curiosity. Read below to hear more about this dynamic, multi-instrumental artist and what the process of making “Colour & Pattern” looked like.
LUNA: Congratulations on the release of “Colour & Pattern.” Tell me a bit about learning how to play the steel tongue drum for this song.
CARTER: So, I did not actually learn. I think the thing with instruments for people who teach themselves is they don't even consider things like, “Oh yeah, I'm learning how to do this so I can be sufficient at it in the future.” I get instruments from all over the place. This particular one was from a good friend of mine who inspired my last EP. He got me this steel tongue drum for Christmas and because of that I was like, “I need to see what I can get out of this and see how I can fit it into my sound.” And this song was the first one that came out, funnily enough. I literally had no idea what the scale on it was or how it was going to sound in the song. I kept bashing at it until I had a bunch of different recordings of things that I thought sounded cool and everything else on that song just sort of happened. It started from something really small and then just got much bigger as time went on. But I definitely wouldn’t say I know how to play the steel drum (laughs) — much with most of my instruments, except the guitar.
LUNA: Are there any other instruments that you would like to incorporate into your music?
CARTER: Yes, I do actually. There is this one called a Nagoya harp. It is essentially this harp that was created in the late 1800s in Japan, and it is a combination of a harp and a typewriter. It looks crazy, but it [has] the most amazing sound. I used it for the first time in a song coming out in the future called “Trident & Torch.”
Basically, the same amazing friend who got that steel tongue drum got this harp for me as well. So I was sort of first of all flabbergasted, like, “Why are you giving me all these instruments?” And second of all, he told me the message from the person he bought the harp off of. It was an instrument that this Japanese family in Nagoya kept for 40 years — I think it was handed down through generations of some form. My friend explained that he was buying this [harp] as a gift for his friend living in the UK who is a musician and, apparently, they responded by saying that it means the world to them to know that an instrument from this small part of Japan is going to be utilized in the UK, completely away from its home. Because a lot of time instruments like this are made years and years and years ago, and because they don't reach the western standard like a piano, which is obviously an incredibly popular instrument, they usually just stay in their own parts of the world. So bringing them out and seeing how they can be incorporated into western music, I guess is interesting — it always seems like I'm on another planet making the sort of music with these instruments. It keeps it really exciting.
LUNA : That's a great story — to get a very enthusiastic blessing from a family.
CARTER: I know. It's crazy. You know, I've always thought that if I ever won a Grammy, it still wouldn't equate to the amount of honor I would feel knowing that something I made or something I made with an instrument from another place was liked. I would be honored to know that. You know, it means a lot to know that I made something that even just changed someone's day in a positive way — it means tons more than any awards could.
LUNA: Did you always want to be a musician?
CARTER: Yeah, most definitely. Yeah. The easiest answer I can give you. There were plenty of times when I didn't think [it was possible] when trying to make it into a career. So I'd say there were times when I kind of didn't think that it was possible in a way of, “Is this a way to live?” You know, is this a career? But actually, the thing that fell back is that I can't see myself doing anything else, ever. So I had to make it work, you know? And, yeah, it is [what I want] and always has been.
LUNA: I relate to that a lot. I'm not a musician, but I'm a writer, and it's often a very fruitless, underpaid industry, but I can't see myself doing anything else so I gotta make it work.
CARTER: Exactly. And there was one piece of advice that I heard that really helped, which I want to share with you. Basically, in a creative industry such as writing or music or even film, when there are lots of fruitless activities where you could do a lot of stuff not knowing whether you're going to make any money off it, one thing that a lot of people do is try to reach out to people for guidance. So this is one bit of advice that was told to me: If you imagine the analogy that, let’s say… Who’s your favorite writer?
LUNA: Octavia E. Butler.
CARTER: Okay, E. Butler. So imagine they built up this massive hill and they have their house at the top, and essentially, every budding writer wants to try and climb up that hill to know what E. Butler has that they don't — you know the formula or whatever. But most of the time people fail. The best thing to do is to build your own hill, consistently do your own thing in your own space in your own lane, and basically get to that point in the hill where you can just have a conversation [with E. Butler] across the house windows because you're at the same height. I don't know if you may even find that helpful, but that's a bit of advice that really helped me think like, “I should just stay in my own lane and nothing can go wrong.” Do you know what I mean?
LUNA: Yeah! I really like that advice. It is a more visual understanding of sticking to your gut.
CARTER: Yeah, exactly. That's pretty much it.
LUNA: I appreciate that. Moving onto your current project: Why the name Tutara Peak?
CARTER: So this project has only been going on for just over a year. I knew I was going to start a new project a few months before we launched, but before I decided on the name Tutara Peak I'd written the first EP, Tansuri. I guess I took the logical route of thinking of a name, and I didn't want to have a name that just sounded cool or that was spelled weirdly. So I did some research and noted down some characteristics of my music at the time, and one characteristic that kept standing out was “evolving,” which I think I do still have in my music these days. So I did some research and I found this animal called a Tuatara which is basically, to my knowledge, the fastest evolving animal in the animal kingdom. I thought that the name was pretty cool, but Tuatara was a little bit of a tongue twister. So I just took out the first “a” in Tuatara. And then I've always liked two-word names. So I wanted another one-syllable word at the end, and I figured “peak.” The peak of a mountain represents my willingness and personality — I always strive for the top. So that's where the name comes from.
LUNA: Cool. It kind of also goes with the analogy of what you were saying before, like building your own mountain — “the peak.”
CARTER: Oh, wow. I should have said that as my answer. You can just write that actually (laughs).
LUNA: Each of your songs takes people into different places, either sonically or visually. Are you envisioning specific types of landscapes when you create your music?
CARTER: Yes, 100%. I'm a visual person. If I've achieved a song idea well, it's because what I can see is executed visually and sonically, and this beautiful harmony coexists. For example, a lot of my song titles and how I kind of come up with the titles of my songs usually describe some visual space or some event. It makes sense if you have lyric-based songs where the main lead chorus lyric is the title of the song, but I want it [the title] to be describing the story of the song as opposed to two words that are in it.
For example, on my last EP, there is a song called “ Shape of the Moorlands.” I knew that in the Dolomites in Italy there are these beautiful grassland plains called the moors, and they look lush. So basically for “Shapes of the Moorlands,” I imagined really low-hanging clouds and their shadows representing unique shapes across the grass, and that is basically the song. I do that for most of my songs — just seeing the visions and thinking about how to describe them.
LUNA: Would you distinguish yourself as a very outdoorsy or nature-focused person?
CARTER: See, here's the thing. I feel like I probably was in a past life, but I'm bound to my studio all the time. So I mean, when I'm not here I like to not be at home, but I don't take camping trips or any of the stuff that might be good. That's definitely a smokescreen, I guess.
LUNA: It would definitely make sense if you were a very outdoorsy person in your past life and now you are just overflowing with this inspiration.
CARTER: Actually, that's a good way to think about it (laughs) — that could be the case. I mean, I feel like I would like to [be outdoorsy]. I live in the UK, and at least in the area of the UK where I am from, you can see the nicer views, like fields and stuff, from anywhere. And I've been brought up around it my whole life. So when you're brought up around beautiful areas, you don't see them as beautiful all the time, you know what I mean? So I feel like I'd love to be able to go to a crazy-looking place and just write something from what I'm seeing.
LUNA: What are some hobbies outside of music that inspire you?
CARTER: Well, I do enjoy painting — I have very, very, very limited experience. It's more so something I've always wanted to do, but I do enjoy doing that. To be honest, just taking the dog for a walk — maybe not a hobby, maybe a chore, but I treat it as a hobby. And to be honest, I'm quite into how films are made and kind of researching a lot of that. One goal of mine is to be able to write a film or a screenplay and get it up on a big screen. And I guess me being interested in it now is almost securing my fate in a way because I definitely can't write a film right now. That's a lot of time, effort, sweat, and tears. So, yeah, one day.
LUNA: Love the idea of manifesting films in the near future. Would you ever be into scoring a film? I think your music would translate very well into that.
CARTER: Yeah, I think it would as well. I just need to get more directors hitting me up.
LUNA: That's the hard part.
CARTER: But I guess the molehill is still growing? So we'll see. But yeah, that's definitely something I would love to do. Ideally, I'd be able to write it as Tutara Peak, not just my name. That's a goal of mine for this project — to be able to get to that point. And I've done short films before, but a feature-length or a series would be a lot of work but it would be very rewarding.
LUNA: How did you develop your style for performing?
CARTER: I feel like that aspect of the entire project is still being evened out and smoothed out. I'm still learning not just how to expand it but how to perfect it in a more unique way. Currently, when it comes to performing live, I just perform by myself. Some people have coined my performance as a guitar and synth show, which it more or less is. The guitar is my main instrument and the synth is my second love, so that's all the setup is at the moment.
One thing I want to expand on is, well, I probably can tell you about this, but people can't see it just yet. Basically, my brother and I have been creating this instrument of some form that I can use to perform my music with. And the idea is that there are these frosted glass lightboxes that look like part of the set design, like part of the light show. But essentially, once you hit it [the lightbox], it triggers these sounds and you can play a whole melody from these collections of boxes. I want it to be set up on stage so that it looks like part of the set but actually it can be interacted with. And then essentially, at some point in time, the whole live setup will have a bunch of things that look like part of the set that also interacts with the music. And interestingly, just something more for the crowd to be like, “What the hell is he doing? What is that?”
I don't know if you've ever seen any live electronic music performances — they might be doing crazy stuff but when you watch them; the showmanship is not always there. So a lot of times, they are just looking down, concentrating, because they have so many things to think about. I want it to look more engaging because I wouldn't say I'm the best performer in the world, and I'm a rather shy person. So putting me up on stage by myself, you can only imagine. But having things to distract from, like pretty lights and stuff, that's a way to elevate my performance. At some point, we'd like to get a drummer going and start doing some more performances with my brother as well because he plays keys and bass and stuff.
LUNA: I like that a lot. I also agree that it can be boring sometimes to see a DJ. If you know the behind-the-scenes of it, you are like, “Oh, I appreciate this because I know this is taking a lot of work and energy and there are a million different things they are doing.” But for people who might not really know what goes into the behind-the-scenes of playing live that way, it kind of just looks like they are bouncing.
CARTER: Literally, and I guess the performance that you go to see them for is the tunes that they’re going to play — it’s not them doing it because anyone could play that. Whereas if you go to see a band, you're seeing the chemistry between people and you're seeing them perform this music as opposed to just playing it, you know? So two different experiences.
LUNA: And I bet it makes it a little bit more fun for the person who's playing it as well.
CARTER: Yeah, infinite times more [fun]. In the last project I was in, the last few shows we did we started to expand on this live show idea, but it wasn't completely live. But before that, we were just doing DJ sets all the time, and while DJ sets are fun, l I don't think I could do it as a career. It’s a particular type of musician, I think, but performing stuff live is just so much more of an elevated feeling. You obviously get much more of a sweat on as well because you're doing loads of crazy stuff.
LUNA: Well, you have lots of plans in terms of future performances. Do you have any future projects that you want to mention?
CARTER: I have a song coming out, “Sudden Glimmer,” with my friend Owsey. Creating that whole song was an absolute joy and I think it's a unique collaboration to come out of me, with another producer/vocalist. I'm looking forward to releasing that on July 27. There are a bunch of other projects that I have working on. I'm working on two other EPs. It's just music for the next two years. Basically, I'm getting it all locked in tight way ahead of time. So that, for example, once I keep pursuing doing film, if a film project comes up that would take six months out of my time. It’s not like fans don't hear music from me in six months — it will already have been written for the past two years.
LUNA: I respect all of the planning ahead, that's a great way to manifest — thinking, “I am not just hoping that this happens in the future, I am actually going to plan accordingly.”
CARTER: Yeah, exactly — kind of like calculated risks in a way. The only downside to that is that whenever a song comes out, that song is usually about a year old and by that point, once it's out, I'm already thinking like, “Oh, this song I'm working on now is much better. I want to get that out.” But, you know, that's just how it is, I think — music is never finished.
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