UK singer/songwriter Harleymoon Kemp today releases her single What Good Looks Like. A song inspired by the beautiful relationship that her parents have, Harleymoon sings of looking for that kind of love herself!

A beautiful ballad, What Good Looks Like brings a whole different style and sound from Kemp than that we are used to. Showcasing her vocals in a truly stunning light, the song is one of the best songs we have heard from Harleymoon. The song is perfect in its simplicity and has that sort of dream-like, Prince Charming love we all dreamed of as kids.

What Good Looks Like was written by Harleymoon and solo artist Lloren, and it was produced by Charlie T (Calum Scott, Jax Jones).

Harleymoon Kemp may be the daughter of Martin and Shirley Kemp but she is no Nepo baby. Working hard from the very start of her music career and making her own way in the industry, Kemp is humble and kind and a real down to earth girls girl.

She has had a whirlwind of a career already and has had UK country #1 hit with her song Space. She won the prestigious Horizon Award for best new artist at the British Country Music Awards and has played at some of the UK’s finest festivals such as The Big Feastival, the Isle of Wight and C2C.

Harleymoon is set to release her debut EP Lone Ranger on May 31st. The teaser of the EP, What Good Looks Like is one of four sensational tracks that will likely catapult Harleymoon’s place in the country music market to a much higher level.

Harleymoon also co-wrote the other three songs that feature on the EP, with collaborators including Barnabas Shaw (Twinnie, Megan McKenna), Adrian Hall (Goldfrapp, All Saints), Michelle Leonard (AURORA, Robin Schulz) and Jess Sharman (Gabrielle Aplin, Ward Thomas).

We caught up with Harleymoon to discuss the new single, the EP and more!

Enjoy!

How are you? How has your week been?

It’s been really good you know! We have just been prepping for a show on Sunday which I am really really looking forward to. We are playing at Trafalgar Square on St George’s Day for the Mayor of London. It’s going to be fantastic – it’s a huge stage and different acts and people from Britain’s Got Talent, West End Theatre are there and lot of festivities will be happening in the square. By a twist of fate, I am also hosting the show! So I am presenting the whole thing and introducing the Mayor of London which is really fun and really exciting! I have just had to pop out and get cue cards.

Oh wow! Are you nervous?

The day goes on for 6 hours but the good thing is, once I get on the stage, a button clicks for some reason. All of a sudden I can keep talking to anyone and everyone that’s listening. I’ve got this lucky button that I hope will press on when I get there. I am really looking forward to it. It’s one of those things that will be a new experience for me and a really fun day!

Let’s talk about the new single ‘What Good Looks Like’ – what can you tell us about that?

So this song, I am really excited to announce because it’s a really personal song for me. It’s a song that I already had in me. It was kind of a conversation that I was saying all the time to people. I have been single for a while and I kind of never really settled with anyone and my friends were like “you’re not like your parents, you haven’t met anyone yet” and I would always in response say to them “well I know what good looks like”. When I see what a good relationship is, what my Homelife felt like growing up in a really loving environment, that’s what I am looking for – I want that same feeling. I kept saying it all the time in interviews if anyone would ask if I’m single. The ridiculous thing is that my parents have set the bar so high! They sing to each other on stage. They are so kind to each other that I think it really like sets the precedent of what I would like if I was going to be committed to anyone and I kind of had this song in me for a while and I had the title written down in my phone for ages.

When we went into the studio it kind of came out like in a couple of hours. Because it was so intimate and conversational, we actually kept a lot of the demo vocal and didn’t add drums. We didn’t want to add anything to make it more than just the feel of an intimate conversation. I am a little bit nervous to release it but I am hoping from the response of the teasers that I have posted, I am hoping that people make it their own song. I hope people have their own experience of this song.

Yes and I am sure they will. That was one of the questions I was going to ask actually that if the song differs from the writers room to full production but you just said that you wanted to keep it as little as possible production wise. I do think that sometimes a beautiful song can be ruined my too much production.

Yeah and I think for me, I have another song called ‘She Looks Like Me’ and I felt the same on that because it really is just a story. I just want people to listen to the words. I think building up the track too much and even though I absolutely love harmonies and would do harmonies from front to back, as thick as anything and on top of every line if I could – I didn’t even want harmonies on it and that is a big deal for me. I just wanted people to really listen to the words and feel a part of the song.

It is beautiful and I think it really showcases the extent to your vocal ability! A few high notes there..

Yeah It’s funny, It feels like a soft song to sing because the last few songs that I have put out have had a little bit more pop production, a big loud chorus and I am using full voice. This was like I said kind of demo vocal, very soft, very delicate and feminine which I don’t use all the time when I’m writing. I like to have a bit more of a bad ass kick in some of my songs but yeah I felt for the style of this, it should feel really soft.

I think it’s really beautiful!

Thank you!

As the song is inspired by your parents, what do they think of the song?

I played it and I sent it to them and they both individually called me crying!

Awww

They were very happy with it!

That must feel really good?

Yeah it was really nice!

Who did you work with on the song?

I worked with a producer called Charlie T and he uses some open string tunings and all sorts of stuff. He started playing this loop and I was “in”and a couple of hours later we had finished the track. There was also another writer on it who I had done another song on this EP with a girl called Lloren. We were in the studio together for about a week and this was the first song that we did in the studio and we were like “how are we going to follow it up?”. We actually have another track together on the EP, another kind of romantic song. It’s actually a duet that I am doing with someone else and that’s going to be on the EP that comes out at the end of next month.

Is that ‘Faith In You’? I have heard the demo but not the duet!

Yes! That is a duet now!

Wow!

We have literally just finished as a duet and I am very excited.

Well I can’t wait to hear who it will be with when you announce it!

It’s with an artist that I met in Nashville and now we are really good friends.

I was going to ask about your time in Nashville as you go quite often! What have you come to love over there? What do you like to do regularly?

There is only one thing to do in Nashville for me and that is to just walk from bar to bar to bar, go to The Listening Room, go to the Bluebird and just listen to people’s songs. I could sit there all day and all night. I say to everyone that if you want to be an actor you go to L.A and everywhere you go, everyone’s an actor. If you want to be a songwriter, you go to Nashville and everyone’s a songwriter. The level and the standard is just exceptionally high. Every time you go into a bar you think “this is the best song I have ever heard” and then someone else comes on and you think “no THIS is the best song that I’ve ever heard”. It is just so inspiring.

I can’t remember who said it but someone in the Nashville music scene once said that “when you go to Nashville, any bar you go in to, know that your server is probably a better songwriter than you are”.

That is so true, I absolutely agree. You think you can write a song and then you go to Nashville and think “uhuh”.

It was a major artist or writer that said it if memory serves and I think the intention behind what he was saying was “you can’t just assume your server is just a server” and again, as you said, the level of talent out there is so high! It’s a shame that so many artists get lost due to that!

Another song off of the EP that I am really liking on the early cut is the title track ‘Lone Ranger’. That is a hit in the making.

Thank you so much! I love that song and I am going to play it on Sunday and I am going to kick the air and Kung Fu Panda when I am playing that song because it is a story that I wrote after a night in Vegas to tell the truth haha! I was in Vegas and whatever happened it was wild, you can guess from the song haha. All the lyrics from the song are true, everything about it! The next morning I just wrote it down haha. I just heard the song. The next day I just had it in my head all day and I couldn’t stop singing it. I got home and got it straight in to the studio with Adrian Hall who worked with artists like Tori Amos and other Rocky like female artists. I got in the studio with him and also with Barnabus Shaw who is in mine and Twinne’s band. He has written a lot of Twinnie’s songs as well. I took it to the studio and they were like “what do you want to write?” And I started singing the line “Lone Ranger..” and then we started jamming it out. It was so fire! I think that we wrote and recorded it in about six hours and it makes me so gritty just because I remember the person that the song is about. I can’t wait to sing it and dance to it. I want people lassoing, kicking and stomping their boots. I can’t wait to sing it live and can’t believe I get to play it on Sunday!

Is that a song that after production you were like “woah!”

Yeah! It is just so much fun! It gets me wired up and I want to get Kung Fu Panda moves on it haha! As soon as we finished the demo and they sent it back I was like “please make this song happen right now! What’s the quickest way to put this out?” Then in the same week I had written ‘What Good Looks Like’ and I thought “ok, let’s put this as an EP” I love both of these two singles.

In the other song that is on the EP, that was produced in Nashville by Jessica Sharman who worked with Ward Thomas and The Shires. The song is called ‘America’ and we wrote that on an all female writing camp. It was really fun and it wasn’t meant to be country but then I can’t help but make it feel country. I am excited to put out this EP and it is also the first time that I have done an EP because I have only ever put out singles.

I have heard it and am loving it and am very intrigued about the duet too!

I was going to ask this question which I feel now is a question I should be asking you on Monday after Sunday’s show but what has been the most memorable live moment for you so far?

Ooh! Definitely playing Brighton Pride. That was absolutely wild! It was the biggest audience and biggest stage we had played. The year before, I was attending Brighton Pride and watching Christina Aguilera perform. The fifteen year old girl in me was like fangirling. When we got to play on the same stage a year later, I just couldn’t believe it! That felt like a weird turn of events, I never thought that I would get asked to play on that huge stage. It had a catwalk, dancers in cowboy hats and tassel, see thru skirts and it made pride feel country. The reception was fantastic. Also just playing at Pride is something that I want to be doing! It’s just amazing! It was the most fun!

Where else can we see you this year?

I’ve actually got loads of shows this year! I am so excited! Obviously on Sunday I am playing Trafalgar Square so that could become the next best moment haha! Then I have a bunch of festivals coming up! I am playing Carfest, Urban Van Festival, Deva Fest, Cardiff Pride, Oxsted Festival, The Weekend Festival. There’s a lot going on!

Tell us about your dogs, who they are and what breed are they?

I am dog crazy. Oscar is my rescue dog, he is about 14. He is like peg-leg Pete. I got him and he had broken legs and I took him to the super vet and he has had his leg rebuilt, he has had spine surgery. That’s when you know you really love your dog when you don’t go on holiday all summer because your dog needs an operation. So he is my boy. My parents dogs which we all kind of spend all the time with are Iris, who is another rescue dog. She was in the Chinese meat trade. She is a gorgeous ginger toy poodle then Pops is a little black toy poodle. I put little matching pyjamas on them and say we are in the little sisters sleep over club when they come and stay with me.

Awwww that’s really sweet! Thanks so much for taking today and good luck for Sunday and the EP and single release!

Harleymoon Kemp is set to play various shows this year including St Georges Day Event at Trafalgar Square this Sunday!

APRIL
St Georges day Event – Trafalgar Square – HMK to host the whole event and perform.

JUNE
23rd – Cardiff Pride (main stage)

JULY
6th – Oxted Festival (main stage)
13th – The Somerset Weekend festival (main stage)
21st – Urban Van Fest (headliner)

AUGUST
9th – Deva Fest – (main stage)
25th – Carfest – ( Wig wam stage)

SEPTEMBER
22nd – The Weekend Fest

About Harleymoon Kemp

Inspired by the likes of LeAnn Rimes, John Mayer, Maren Morris and Alanis Morrisette, Harleymoon’s songs are often similarly narrative: stories which focus on everyday incidents and emotions, but moments which also shape who we became and how we feel about things. ‘Space’ first fired Harleymoon to attention during lockdown, and she added to that compelling introduction with a series of independently released singles. Her rise was supported with tastemaker acclaim across media and streaming platforms alike, as well as TV appearances in both the UK and US plus an unforgettably flamboyant main stage performance at Brighton Pride.

Based in London but regularly visiting Nashville for sessions, Harleymoon has felt compelled to make music since childhood. It was only natural given her family: her father is actor and Spandau Ballet legend Martin Kemp, her mother is Shirlie Kemp of Pepsie & Shirlie and Wham!, and the TV presenter / recent BRIT Award host Roman Kemp is her brother.