Harper bounds towards us, each step sending a brown spray of mud up her dazzlingly white trousers. Each slippy stomp is followed by a mischievous howl of delight; she’s made it her mission to destroy the pair of brand new trainers on her feet.
“I just love splashing in all the puddles,” she announces triumphantly, punctuating a particularly brave leap that sees her windmilling her arms for balance.
It’s June 2024, we’re at Download, and it’s wet, with punters cautiously wading between stages in knee-high wellies and raincoats. But 12-year-old growler Harper seemingly didn’t get the memo. While her explosive energy could well be a result of the “like, 20 Red Bulls” she’s downed today, she’s still riding the high of her very first live show.
Despite finding success on America’s Got Talent in 2022, and even performing Holy Roller with Spiritbox at London’s O2 Academy Islington the same year, Harper had never had the chance to perform for her own fans. She decided a baptism of fire was the best approach, making her debut at the UK’s biggest metal festival.
“I was so scared,” she admits. “But then, when I went out, everyone knew my music!”
Judging from the packed-out tent, people were eager to see how the youngest person to ever grace the Download line-up would rise to the challenge. From the bruising crush of Weight Of The World to a closing, crowd-pleasing cover of Bring Me The Horizon’s Chelsea Smile, Harper was a natural.
To celebrate, we’re doing a victory lap of the festival’s rides – and her sights are set on the bumper cars. After getting recognised in the queue (something she shrugs off casually, simply explaining “People always know me!”), Harper runs off, insisting we go in separate cars. As her bumper hits ours with a sharp thwack, nearly catapulting us out of our seat, it quickly becomes clear why…
Six months later, we catch up with Harper in a starkly different situation. Rather than unleashing maniacal growls for her fans, she’s reined in the chaos for an uneventful day at school. Now aged 13, she’s living a double life, balancing maths equations and grammar lessons with afterschool recording sessions.
“I barely get detentions now,” she states proudly. “I have to try not to get them, or I’ll miss an interview or recording. Today I got to tell everyone, ‘Sorry! I can’t hang out later! Oh, why? I’m having an interview with Metal Hammer!’”
She’s particularly glad the chat is taking place at all. “Newsround were meant to bring a camera crew to my Download rehearsals and interview me,” she recalls. “But they didn’t want to use the song…”
The song in question was Harper’s single at the time, I Hope You Choke, which scared off the producers of the BBC children’s show. “If they ask again, I’ll write a new song called ‘Unicorns And Rainbows’,” she jokes.
While screaming and stomping around is typical teenage behaviour, Harper has been laying the foundations of her career since the age of four. Most parents might have booked an exorcism upon hearing their child unleashing gutturals, but Harper’s encouraged it – which checks out, considering her stepdad is Acres frontman Ben Lumber.
“She’d scream along to nursery rhymes,” Ben recalls. “We’ve even got a video of Harper screaming her ABCs.”
“It wasn’t proper metalcore screaming, but it meant she started learning her technique really young,” he explains. “During lockdown I showed her Spiritbox, and then we tracked 30 seconds of her screaming along to Holy Roller in my studio. It sounded legit – she was a natural.”
As her stepdad praises her, Harper sits silently, a smirk creeping across her face. “Sometimes I hear Ben on the phone saying, ‘I can’t even do that!’” she announces, positively smug as she mimics Ben’s voice.
But Ben’s not ashamed to admit when he’s met his match, responding with a confession of, “Well – sometimes I’m jealous!”
Harper’s initial Spiritbox cover was so good that Ben uploaded it to YouTube. She’d soon audition for America’s Got Talent with the same track, before cruising all the way to the semi-finals. While she didn’t win, she was given an even more prestigious stamp of approval – a record deal from Pale Chord, Spiritbox’s very own label.
Since being signed in 2022, Harper has released a slew of singles. Her debut, Falling, was the perfect introduction, balancing sweet choruses and bitter, malice-infused verses. Her follow-up, Weight Of The World, even saw her collaborating with US metal heavyweights Brand Of Sacrifice and We Came As Romans. Not too shabby!
That collaboration only scratches the surface of the metal world’s love for Harper. She’s pretty smitten when discussing “bestie” Courtney LaPlante (“It’s pretty cool – we text every now and then,” she says, with a hair flick), and apparently Oli Sykes loved her Bring Me The Horizon cover.
Harper also says Melissa Cross, metal’s favourite vocal coach, refers to her as her “little star”, while Andy Copping has promised to put her on Download’s Main Stage one day. “He said I need to release a certain number of songs and he’d do it,” she says.
We were privy to a similar interaction back at Download. We’d just tackled our last ride: a towering contraption that swung high up in the air, Harper squealing along to Sum 41 as we stared, upside-down, at the thousands of fans crowded by the Main Stage for their set.
To calm our stomachs, Harper suggested ice cream. En route, we bumped into a festival promoter eager to find out whether Harper was enjoying herself. “Everything has been amazing… but I won’t come back unless I’m on the big stage!” she’d sworn, playfully sassy.
That’s the thing about Harper – her confidence is blatant. She’s happy to prattle on about anything, from the time she almost gave her friend concussion after hoisting them over her shoulder and bashing into a wardrobe, right down to the traumatising memory of her stepdad stealing her sweets when she was four (which she immortalises in song, unleashing an improvised pop-punk ode to her beloved ‘gummy eyeballsss!’). It’s a confidence she’s recently started taking into the recording studio.
“Now, I’ll be really firm if I want to re-record a line,” she says. “When Ben writes some lyrics for me, I also know what feels right. I’ll correct and rewrite things with him.”
With a goal of releasing more tunes to secure that Download Main Stage slot, she’s got her head down working on new music. Her latest single, Thorn In My Side, is a booming onslaught of thundering drums and raucous howls, with a call-to-arms chorus – an anthem that will undoubtedly win over festival crowds.
Looking ahead, Harper has got her sights set on crafting an EP – and maybe fitting in some live shows. She’s particularly excited at the prospect of hearing fans parroting her lyrics back at her again. Considering she was plunged into the metal world at such a young age, we can’t help but wonder whether Harper has ever considered any other path in life.
“At one point I wanted to be a flight attendant,” she admits. “But… then I was too scared to die in a flight accident. And I know sometimes jobs aren’t great – like, picking up dog poo. I feel like music is way more fun.”
Harper's latest single, Thorn In My Side, is out now via Pale Chord.
