Dhani Harrison has known Jeff Lynne his entire life. But this summer is his first time touring with the Electric Light Orchestra. Ive played with him live, but Ive never played with him in his band, Harrison says. I played with Jeff and Tom [Petty] a lot things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the night they did dads induction. But their band is fantastic, this version of ELO.
Harrison has been opening for the band since June, playing his solo music to packed arenas across the country. Its been standing ovations, he says excitedly.My walk off music every night is the intro to Rockaria! I get this beautiful, operatic way of leaving the stage. Its very funny.
Hes been playing his new single, Motorways (Erase It) to the crowd every night. A psychedelic track with a robust beat, the song was inspired by Harrisons drives into London from his home in the countryside. Its become almost inaccessible to me, he says. It took me three hours to get in and three hours to get out, when it should take 20 minutes. Years and years ago on the way in to London, Banksy had just written on the side of the motorway in big white letters, Its not a race. I was using it as an example of how the future is going to be.
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The opening line to the track, All those dreams they take from you when youre young, comes from Harrisons perception of childhood. I guess everyone is pretty perfect when theyre young, he speculates. All of our imaginations are still in tact, we havent been programmed yet. A lot of that is taken away from us by the time weve been through school and by the time weve got a job. I think we all spend the rest of our lives trying to return to that, that sense of curiosity and childlike innocence and dreams and imagination. Its only with that that we can get to the next level as beings.
With the help of Big Black Deltas Jonathan Bates, Motorways (Erase It) was recorded in a single day. The single will be included on Harrisons sophomore album, a follow-up to his 2017 debut In Parallel. The new record will be released as soon as Harrison is done completing it if he can ever take time off his rigorous schedule from performing and scoring music.
Harrison is so busy he hasnt even seen the movie Yesterday. I deal with all of the approving of the tracks and things, and I really like the idea of the story, he admits. I just havent seen the film yet. I only just got to see Avengers: Endgame the other day, and Im the biggest Marvel fan ever. Im a bit behind Im sure Ill see it once it comes onto the airplane or hotel screen.