About

Alec Harryhausen is a Chicago multi-instrumentalist who has crafted clever, introspective songs for over twenty years. His new album Noon Island is a warm, playful mix of organic and synthetic sounds that Harryhausen recorded in his Chicago apartment over the course of several years. Synthesizers and drum machines sit side by side with folky acoustic guitar and Harryhausen’s signature “lead bass.”

The son of two Michigan librarians, Alec Harryhausen was a creative kid from a young age.  While he was embarrassed his high school band was compared to 3rd Eye Blind, later in life he came to embrace the comparison. “There’s so much thought and craft hidden in those songs,” he says, “but they don’t feel artsy or distant; they hit really immediately.” While leading Chicago post-punk band Dream Version, Harryhausen tested out how many weird choices the band could make without sacrificing an accessible, melodic exterior.

Noon Island is Harryhausen’s first full-length record since 2009. “I tried to think about the words ‘playing music’ in the same way that a kid might play with toys,” he says. That concept is baked into the relaxed, exploratory feel of the record; it’s like an invitation into Harryhausen’s imagination.

The hi-fi but homemade sound of the album conjures cozy scenes of piles of paperbacks, records, and DVDs. The name of the title track came from reading Clive Barker’s book Abarat, which takes place in a series of magical islands, each of which perpetually experiences the same time of day. Harryhausen, who recently made a midlife career change, thinks of Noon Island as a place where “everything’s still possible.” It’s an optimistic sentiment just slightly tinged with melancholy.

The gentle but adventurous feel of the album brings to mind artists like Yo La Tengo, Sufjan Stevens, Robert Wyatt, and Julia Holter. At times, the songs explicitly explore a fantasy world (“Pink Potion”, “Backless Dress,” “Lost in the Night”). But just as often they find novel ways of exploring relationships and mental health (“Leveled Out”, “Big World”, “They Call Me Mellow Yellow As Well”). Harryhausen has assembled a quartet to perform the record with long-time collaborator Emily Jane Powers, Dream Version bandmate Eric Brummitt, and Dave Zagar of the psych rock band Groovy Magic.

Harryhausen is currently on his wife’s health insurance.