Talking with Trent Harmon

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done for love? For Trent Harmon it was the time he drove 600 miles one way to see a girl only to discover he had lost his chance with her. Harmon sings about this and all the other ridiculous stuff he’s done for love in his debut single, ‘There’s a Girl.’ If his name sounds familiar, you probably know Trent as the final American Idol. This past April, the 25 year old was crowned the winner of the 15th season of the singing competition, and with his victory Trent snagged a record deal with Big Machine Label Group. From that moment on, the Mississippi boy got to work right away as he was swept into the industry under the wing of Scott Borchetta and his team. We had the opportunity to talk to Harmon about his adventure so far, from how it all got started, to his current single, to what he plans for the future.

One of the craziest things about Trent’s story might be the fact that he was ready to quit music altogether just one night before his American Idol audition. “I always pursued music but I really really started taking it seriously in college,” Trent explained. “I realized that I could make a living, you know pay my cell phone bill, doing music.” But the spark he had in college somehow fizzled a bit and it wasn’t reignited until a trip to Central America. “I was in Belize doing some work,” he recalled. “The moment I decided to quit pursuing music, I had some young guys come into the camp I was staying at and asked me to play some songs on guitar. So I kind of took that as a sign like, you know what, let’s give it a little longer.” Trent flew into Little Rock, Arkansas the following morning and auditioned for the show. “I didn’t know that they were having auditions. I hadn’t watched it in the last two years because I didn’t have TV,” he admitted. But he decided to just go for it and about ten weeks later Trent came out on top when America chose him as their favorite.

The singer said that things moved pretty quickly following the Idol win. “Big Machine has been two steps ahead of me at every standpoint,” said Harmon. “That’s really a big deal to me because I like to be two steps ahead of everything, so to have people that are always more prepared than me, that’s a good thing!” The label was quick to choose a single for Trent – about 24 hours after he sent his song ‘There’s a Girl’ over, he got a response back. “They were like, ‘I hope you’re ready to make a music video for this and go to radio because this is your single that’s going to radio whether you like it or not,’” Trent said, and he couldn’t have been more excited.

‘There’s a Girlis a very personal song for Harmon, but the idea behind it is universal. “Anybody that’s ever been in love, they’ve done something stupid, good or bad, you’ve done it,” he declared. Harmon co-wrote the song with Laura Veltz and Jimmy Robbins, and while he admits that he’s good at keeping a journal of ideas, he sometimes struggles with putting them into a collective train of thought. “I wanted to write a song about all the stupid stuff that I had done in previous relationships,” he said. “And that’s what we did. I did all the stuff in the song – I drove 600 miles one way, I learned how to play guitar, I did all that.” The outcome is a song that’s both easily relatable and catchy as hell. It gives fans more of an insight into who Harmon really is and also sounds perfect for radio – it’s no wonder Big Machine jumped on it as quickly as they did.

The video for ‘There’s a Girl’ exclusively premiered on Rolling Stone Country on July 11th and has already been viewed on YouTube over 100 thousand times. It was directed by Roman White, who’s behind award-winning videos for stars like Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, and Taylor Swift. The video shows Harmon on a long road trip to see a girl, and throughout his journey he rides a motorcycle, hitchhikes, and stops at a lemonade stand. Trent explained that the storyline was a collaborative effort. “I think I came up with the motorcycle and the train aspect of it. Roman came up with the lemonade girl in the video,” he said. “Four or five people in the room and we all just kind of collectively started throwing things out and it took off.” Harmon had nothing but praises for the director as he described working with White. “Super fun, very easy going but also very schedule-oriented, which I really appreciated.” As far as the reactions from fans go, Harmon humbly said that the numbers speak for themselves. “The video went to number one in the country charts and then it went to number two overall in all music videos on iTunes!”

In addition to putting out the single, Trent has been working hard on a full-length album. The singer has been jumping into studios every chance he gets and already has two or three songs that are ready to go. Fans of the show heard Trent sing everything from OneRepublic to Sia, but for this album, Harmon is going back to his roots. “It’s going to be a lot of me which is country. I live in Mississippi and drive a tractor and, I mean, if you listen to me talk you know I’m country. But I’ve been blessed enough to sing different kinds of genres so those are definitely going to be very evident throughout the vocal side of the country album,” he said describing the sound of the new record. One would assume that Harmon must be feeling a lot of added pressure coming off the show, but the 25 year old says that despite any extra pressure from Idol, he puts quite a bit on himself. “I’m not going to let any sub-par project come to fruition. I’m going to show up, on time, ready to sing with my best voice, ready to go,” Harmon said, the determination in his voice was loud and clear.

One thing American Idol doesn’t put as much focus on is the songwriting component of the artistry, but for Trent it’s something that’s equally, if not even more important than just having a good voice. It’s still a learning process for Trent, who keeps a daily journal to reference for inspiration. “You know, I guess I really still haven’t realized I’m good at it,” he laughs. “I’m still practicing a lot.” For Harmon, songwriting is like a tool. He recalled something he heard one of his favorite artists, Ryan Tedder, say, ‘Look at music as a Swiss Army knife and songwriting is the big blade, you know the one that you use the most. You’ve got to have all these different things – you’ve got to have the voice, and it helps if you play an instrument, and you got the look, but songwriting can really carry you the furthest in music.’ For Trent, writing is something that he’s really focused on polishing right now, he admits that he has even read books on how to get better at it.

Trent has also been spending most of his time out on the road, a welcomed change from living in a hotel for weeks while filming Idol. “Every chance that we get we’re going into live venues and doing shows. We’ve already done one today at a radio station in Dallas/Fort Worth. We’ve got one in the morning in Chicago, Milwaukee, we’re all over,” said Harmon, adding that his single has gotten great reception at all the places he’s been so far. It was sent out to radio not long ago and Trent hopes to watch it climb up the charts. The singer is incredibly appreciative for all the love and support he’s received from anyone that watched the show, voted for Trent, or plays his music. “I hope I get to see each and every one of them in the future,” he said finally.

We hope ‘There’s a Girl’ takes off for Harmon and paves the way to a long and successful career. He’s an incredibly gifted artist and such a kind, down-to-earth guy. It won’t be long until Trent has thousands of girls driving miles and miles just to see him.

Make sure to keep up with Trent on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

You can purchase your copy of ‘There’s a Girl’ on iTunes and Google Play.

Main photo by David McClister.