the 941

Ed. note: This piece, by Michael Hamad, will appear in next week’s issue of Creative Loafing.

“Ten-Second Dreams” is a folk song about not knowing what you want.  It’s about fleeting ideas and shifting thoughts, the cause of most of our suffering as we choose to chew on them endlessly rather than simply watch them float in and out of our minds. It’s a song about not knowing what to study in school, what career to choose, what path to follow. Ultimately, it’s about saying, “Okay, I give up. I’m just going to let something find me, if at all.”

And so, being a student of the Eastern philosophies and whatnot, I find myself questioning Harper Sublette, 22, the Sarasotan who wrote the song, about her religious beliefs — one of two subjects we aren’t supposed to talk about in America — within four minutes of meeting her: “Are you a Buddhist?”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I feel stupid. Surprised, she answers politely. “I’m interested in all religions and spirituality in general,” she says, “Interpersonal things…” Then she trails off.

Long story short: The song isn’t about Buddha. It’s about those things I mentioned above in the first paragraph.

“I went to a community college in Hawaii when I got out of high school,” Sublette explains. “I wasn’t focused and I kind of played at the beach all day and kind of failed, really.  So I came back and went to school here. I’m in between going back to college to finish my degree.  I’m interested in everything, so it’s really hard for me to pinpoint one thing, so the most consistent thing for me is music. It’s what I’ve been doing for the longest. It’s not the focal point of my life, but it’s such an awesome instrument for me.”

Sublette’s unreleased six-song demo, which she recorded at her friends’ behest, is a whirlwind of wandering thoughts, doubts that dart in and out of focus, maybe this and maybe that. Sublette writes songs about searching for and rarely finding happiness. Above a chiming guitar, she sings her songs in a strikingly high, clear voice that’s full of confidence, despite the fact that she’s still a relative newbie at this.

“I found my singing voice fairly recently,” she says.  “Singing other people’s songs… I used to love Modest Mouse, so I would play and sing their songs. Of course, I couldn’t sing like myself because it’s not my own voice. So i’ve just been experimenting with my voice forever, pretty much.”

Sublette was born and raised in Sarasota. She started playing guitar at age 15, but wasn’t really serious about it. “I didn’t really know how to play it,” she remembers. “I just kind of made little things up. I started playing on a guitar that my dad had that is really old and busted and didn’t have a low E string, but I played it anyway for awhile, just little on-and-off bouts. It’s just kind of my way of expressing myself, I guess, but I never played in front of anyone for that whole time.”

Sublette started playing in front of people when she met — and was inspired by — Erin Murphy, also known as Maid Mosephine from Maid Mosephine and the Equines. “The only reason that I have played in front of people is Erin,” she laughs. “Otherwise, I would still be in my bedroom just playing by myself… I think I’m spoiled, too, because I always play in front of a lot of my friends, so I have so much support.”

Sublette’s got a whole scene of friends now for whom she can perform. Nearly everyone she knows plays music, and they perform together both in public and private. “Cats in the Basement is my friend Greg, who’s actually my friend Erin’s boyfriend, and Jesus Chrysler Supercar is my friend Brian… I really love what’s happening right now in Sarasota. I’ve been here 22 years. I wasn’t in the scene for 22 years, but I feel like it’s just kind of blossoming right now, the Sarasota music, for younger people, anyway. It’s making me really happy.”

Sublette’s songs are full of intricate chord changes and melodies. One song, “Orlik” (“eagle” in Czech), reminds me of the harmonic and melodic structure of “Wie Singt Die Lerche Schön” (“how sweetly sings the lark”), a 19th-century Lied composed by Franz Liszt on a text by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. (Rock on!) Nevertheless, Sublette professes not to know much about the technical side of music.

“If I try to write a song,” she states, “it never happens. I usually sit down and if I’m feeling a certain way, the chords will come and I can make sounds, and that’s good. I never get the lyrics with the songs. I usually just sing it and just say whatever comes out, and then I try to create sentences. Usually, the lyrics come a month or so after the actual song. It’s kind of a weird way of writing, but it’s not my job or anything. There’s no pressure, really, so it’s just kind of my outlet. It’s nice.”

I ask Sublette how Sarasota can improve as a music scene. “First and foremost,” she says, “we need a venue in Sarasota. We need somebody who cares about the young people in this town who has money to get a real venue for bands that come from out of our town, to come here instead of Tampa or wherever else they go in the South and between Miami. Just have a place where the music scene can really develop. I think that a lot of the older people in this town are really scared of that, so right now we’re playing at pubs.”

“But there are a lot of young people,” Sublette continues. “It’s a college town. I think there’s a bright future if we all kind of stick together. I think the prospects are good for us staying here. I’m trying to go to New College, so if I go to New College I’ll be there for another two years. I will definitely be here and definitely have my hands all the way in the scene. Same with Erin and Greg. They want to go to New College as well. We stick together.”

Sublette will continue to play, but she wants an education. “My goal isn’t to become a musician, you know? I want to get an education and have a real job, but I’ll always do music. I just want to learn about things, a little bit of everything. I feel like I’d be robbing myself if I just did one thing. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m excited about the future. It’s going to be awesome.”

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