Harper an ‘exceptional’ talent, teacher

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This article was published 31/03/2015 (4223 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Kerey Harper came to Winnipeg from the remote northern community of St. Theresa Point and started school at River East Collegiate in 2012 at the age of 15, he’d been quietly making music for three years.

“I was using a free recording interface,” Harper explained. “I was recording guitar riffs from there. I had a rhythmic thing that I would make drum patterns with. But I never really showed anybody that stuff.”

When River East’s band director Jeff Kula found the quiet, young student poking around the band room one day, Harper’s musical journey took an interesting twist.

“He just wandered into the room and started exploring sounds,” Kula said. “He hadn’t seen a lot of these instruments before. He said, ‘Can I borrow some stuff?’ He wanted to use those sounds on his recordings.”

Kula quickly realized that he had an exceptional creative talent on his hands. Harper, who picked up one of his older brother’s guitars at the age of 12, had never played in school band before. He had no musical training whatsoever. But what he did have was a very discerning ear and a keen interest in sound. Kula got the 15-year-old into the school’s concert band program (Harper plays bass) and the contemporary music ensemble.

Harper said his work with Kula and River East’s music program has helped focus his approach to composition and performance, “especially with rhythm and dynamics.”

Kula isn’t the only one to have taken note of Harper’s unique musical talents.

“His peers are blown away by his performances,” Kula said.

And not just his peers, either. In 2013, German experimental electronic label Project Moon Circle released a track of Harper’s (performing under the moniker Neema, though he now records as Aniima) on their Uprising compilation. And this year, he’s a featured artist at Winnipeg’s Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival.

“Kerey’s productions are imaginative and well formed, with a level of sound quality and attention to detail uncommon for somebody so young,” Eliot Britton, co-director of Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Harper will be performing a solo set at Cluster on April 2, featuring his original compositions, using a keyboard, an Ableton Live setup, and an acoustic guitar in open tuning.

“I don’t know the chords I’m playing,” Harper admitted, citing the work of guitarists Jon Gomm and Antoine DuFour, which combine open tuning, harmonics, and rhythmic use of the guitar body in their performances as a big influence on his own work. “I just figure out what works good with different chords, different harmonic.”

“It’s pretty unique what he’s doing,” Kula said. “It’s true to him, he’s not influenced by popular music.”

Following his set at Cluster, Harper has a few school performances lined up. He also juggles schoolwork, and struggles to find balance between creativity and the day to day. But that’s all part of the process.

“It’s really difficult,” he said. “But I just do what I can.”

Kerey Harper performs at Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival on Thurs., April 2, alongside Sweden’s Fredrik Gran, Montreal’s Architek Percussion and Myriam Bleau at Ace Art Inc. (290 McDermot Ave.). Doors open at 7:30 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m.

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