HARRY WAS HERE is the stage name of Harry Myers, an American singer, songwriter, producer and mixing engineer who began as a Denver-based EDM producer called Thoreau before relaunching in Los Angeles as an emo-leaning alt-pop artist in 2020. Signed to Dutch Melrose's independent label MADKID Records, he has built a parallel career as both a solo artist and an in-house collaborator, releasing three joint singles with Dutch Melrose in 2023 and a run of co-billed tracks and production credits with fellow MADKID artist benny mayne.
HARRY WAS HERE's real name, Harry Myers, is confirmed by his own interview with the Los Angeles culture outlet ShoutoutLA, titled “Meet Harry Myers | Artist, Producer,” and independently corroborated by Genius, which describes HARRY WAS HERE as “the alter ego of Thoreau, an american producer, singer, songwriter and mixing engineer.” Apple Music's performer credits on the track “Stuck.” list “Harry Myers” under harmony vocals, further confirming the name. One earlier trade write-up spelled it “Harry Meyers,” but the artist's own outlets consistently use “Myers,” which is treated as authoritative here.
No birth date has been publicly confirmed. A 2018 Ones To Watch feature on his earlier Thoreau alias states he “has been creating music since the age of 10” and was, at that time, based in Denver, Colorado, which establishes a long musical timeline but not an exact age or birth year. Sourcing shows a two-stage geographic arc: his 2018 Thoreau-era coverage bills him as Denver-based, while by his 2020 HARRY WAS HERE launch and a 2021 ShoutoutLA interview he is consistently described as Los Angeles-based. Viberate calls him “a pop musician from Los Angeles, California.” In his own words to ShoutoutLA: “Unfortunately most of my time living in LA has been overshadowed by the pandemic, so I never got to experience much of the city.” His Instagram output repeatedly references trips back to Colorado and the mountains, including a caption reading “tbh i only feel alive 300 miles from the closest city” geotagged to Moab, suggesting Colorado remains an emotional home base even as Los Angeles functions as his working base.
Myers's path runs through three distinct phases. He began making music around age 10 and, per Ones To Watch, “first made waves in 2016 amongst EDM fans on SoundCloud with his vast collection of remixes, all amassing thousands of streams individually,” recording under the name Thoreau. As he told ShoutoutLA: “First I was an edm dj/producer, then I got sick of that and started making hip hop and recording my own vocals.” His 2018 single “In For” marked what Ones To Watch called a “departure from his former realm of EDM into the hip hop arena,” blending electronic production with an “R&B/pop style of sing-rapping.”
The pivotal transition came in early 2020. Genius's artist bio narrates it directly: “In early 2020 Thoreau started shifting in a different, more pop / indie focussed, direction with Better Than The Real Thing. He would go on to publish two further songs, 'That's Not Me' and 'These Days'... His next release, 'stay' would be the start of his alter ego HARRY WAS HERE. This was done to keep some sort of separation between his remixes and LoFi songs from his pop / indie songs with vocals.” The debut HARRY WAS HERE single “stay” was premiered by Ones To Watch on October 14, 2020, which billed him as “UnderCurrent's newest artist venture” and described his sound as “a blend of the newer pop sensation we've been hearing a lot lately mixed with the nostalgic vibes of early 2000's pop punk.” UnderCurrent, a Venice, California, creator-management and marketing company founded in 2020 whose roster has included JoJo Siwa, gave HARRY WAS HERE his earliest professional backing before he moved toward the indie-label ecosystem that became MADKID Records.
Myers has framed his own decision to pursue music full time in classic risk-versus-safety terms. He told ShoutoutLA: “I avoided the deep end of my creative endeavors and for a while thought I was going to be a mechanical engineer because that was the safe bet... I'm sure as hell glad I'm doing what I'm doing now instead of being stuck at some desk.” He also described the stylistic homecoming that now defines his mature sound: “After a few years of doing [hip hop], I began pulling from my first musical influences: emo music. I've always been a guitar player but up until the last few years, it never really found its way into my music.”
HARRY WAS HERE's catalog runs on a prolific singles-and-EP cadence from 2020 through the present. His debut EP as the new alias, If You Only Knew, arrived in 2020 alongside a Thoreau-branded lo-fi remix of one of its songs, a deliberate bridge between his two aliases. EarMilk frames his output as sitting “somewhere between bedroom pop and pop-punk,” calling him a “one-man band” whose music is “completely authentic to himself while delivering deeply personal lyrics,” with vocal deliveries showing “true vulnerability.” Alfitude separately describes his output as “a beautifully melancholic mix of alt-pop, indie and rock” that balances “a current sound with hints of nostalgia.”
The May 2021 single “Pet Giraffe” drew dedicated blog coverage, with Myers explaining its origin to EarMilk: “'Pet Giraffe' was written on a day that I was feeling really down for no reason. Lyrically inspired by Bob Dylan, the cryptic messaging comes from a deep place of sadness that always seems to be lurking... It's that feeling that you are the weight bringing down the people around you. The pet giraffe symbolises an imaginary friend that wants to raise me up to see more clearly.” That EP era, Some Things Never Change (2021), included “First,” “Weight of the World,” and “Obvious” featuring Pritty and AOBeats.
His most structurally ambitious project is the five-part, sequentially released EP Stuck. Run. Sink. Die. The End., which rolled out across 2023 with all-lowercase, punctuation-heavy song titles, a stylistic signature distinct from his MADKID labelmates. “Sink.” features benny mayne. Later singles include “Falling,” “OD,” “Say Shit,” “New You,” “Daisies,” “I Won't Mind,” “Panic!” (released January 30, 2025), “Black Sheep,” a slowed-and-sped reissue of “stuck.,” “YUKON,” and “Creep” (December 22, 2025), his most recent release as of this writing.
Beyond his own catalog, Myers works as a producer for others. He is credited as sole producer on benny mayne's “BLAH BLAH BLAH,” track two on benny mayne's HOLY TRINITY EP (released October 4, 2024), direct evidence he functions as an in-house producer within the MADKID Records ecosystem and not solely as a featured vocalist. A music-industry profile via Catalog.works states he “has worked with Senses Fail, Illenium, Mothica, Darci, Reid Stefan, KARRA, Connor Kaufman, AOBeats, and many more” across a career it describes spanning more than six years as “a producer, writer, engineer, guitar player, and artist.” The Senses Fail connection is independently documented: a January 2022 news item covers “Senses Fail Release 'Lush Rimbaugh (Thoreau Remix)',” quoting frontman Buddy Nielsen: “I got a chance to meet and work with Harry, and we collaborated on some really incredible music... I see a very bright future for him and all his projects.” Myers responded in the same piece: “'Lush Rimbaugh' is one of my favourite tracks from Senses Fail... Thanks to the team for letting me play a part!” The relationship also surfaces on his own release side, where “Weight of the World” is credited as “Harry Was Here & Senses Fail.”
HARRY WAS HERE is a confirmed artist on the roster of MADKID Records, the Los Angeles indie label founded and run by Dutch Melrose (real name Joshua Harms). The label's artists page lists its full roster as Dutch Melrose, benny mayne, Ashley Sienna, Natalia Marion, HARRY WAS HERE, Pretty Havøc and Rad Cat, with Harms confirmed as CEO and founder and Benjamin Shubert as creative director.
His business relationship with MADKID is substantiated not just by the roster listing but by an active, multi-release collaborative history. Three joint singles with Dutch Melrose arrived in 2023 alone: “Seasons” (January 2023), “Bonnie and Clyde” (March 2023) and “All Panic No Disco” (April 2023), the last of which Genius describes as marking “the third collaboration between Dutch Melrose and Harry was here following their previous releases Bonnie and Clyde and Seasons.” A separate, ongoing collaborative and production relationship exists with benny mayne, spanning the co-billed single “DOOMSDAY” (July 2024), the “Sink.” feature on HARRY WAS HERE's own Stuck. Run. Sink. Die. The End. EP, and the producer credit on benny mayne's “BLAH BLAH BLAH.” This production credit is the strongest evidence that HARRY WAS HERE functions within MADKID not only as a signed recording artist but in a working production capacity for labelmates, mirroring the in-house, double-duty structure documented more broadly across the label.
Recent releases show DistroKid as the listed distributor, and phonographic copyright lines are typically self-held (“℗ HARRY WAS HERE”) rather than attributed to MADKID Records directly, a pattern consistent with MADKID's broader model of artists retaining their own masters and catalog ownership.
HARRY WAS HERE's visual identity centers on a moody, high-desert and mountain Americana aesthetic layered over alt, emo and underground digital-native branding. His Instagram captions and hashtags apply a consistent lexicon across posts: #EmoRap #AltMusic #DarkIndie #AltScene #IndieRock #NewIndie #UndergroundArtist #EmoVibes. Recent content leans into desert and highway imagery, including the Moab-geotagged “300 miles from the closest city” post and a separate caption reading “miles behind. miles to go. still feels like home,” reinforcing a road-trip, nomadic motif tied to his Colorado roots. The “Panic!” single received a dedicated visualizer credited to the handle “@harrywitz.mp4,” while the “Say Shit” visualizer was built from handheld footage from what he described as “a quick trip we sent to colorado,” a lo-fi, DIY home-movie approach consistent with the emo aesthetic rather than glossy studio visuals.
HARRY WAS HERE does not have a dedicated Kworb.net Spotify page, meaning his Spotify footprint sits below the threshold Kworb tracks. Viberate maintains an editorial artist page describing him as “a pop musician from Los Angeles, California, who has gained recognition in the indie pop industry,” citing “&” and “Weight of the World” among his most-cited songs alongside “No Talking,” “First,” “Seasons,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “People Say,” “Living Nightmares,” “All Panic No Disco” and “Started With,” and naming Senses Fail, Dutch Melrose and Cairn as key collaborators. Viberate's actual numeric statistics, including monthly listeners and follower counts, are gated behind a paid wall and were not retrievable. No dedicated Kworb page, no unlocked Viberate numbers and no confirmed public follower counts on Instagram, X, YouTube or TikTok exist as of this writing, a quantitative gap in an otherwise well-documented release history.
Myers presents across available sourcing as a self-effacing, mental-health-forward, nature-and-solitude-oriented artist whose public voice leans introspective rather than performative. In the ShoutoutLA interview he ties his artistic growth directly to being able to “talk about the subjects that matter to me like depression and mental health,” noting “a few people have noticed” and expressing hope “to connect with more people and offer them what my favorite artists have always offered me.” The “Pet Giraffe” quote reinforces the same theme, describing the song's cryptic messaging as coming “from a deep place of sadness that always seems to be lurking.”
On relationships, the same ShoutoutLA feature credits a long-term partner met “at the beginning of college,” with Myers describing a mutually supportive path into the music industry: “We grew up and became adults together and both happened to end up pursuing careers in the music industry... rather than competition, we lean on each other for accountability and I'm not sure I'd still be doing this without her.” No later sourcing confirms whether this relationship is ongoing. On lifestyle, he expresses a clear pull toward nature over urban Los Angeles social life, telling ShoutoutLA that a visiting friend would see “a sunset on the beach in Malibu,” a “camping trip in the sierras,” and “at least one night spent in the desert.” His 2024 and 2025 Instagram output confirms the preference has persisted, with recurring returns to Western and mountain landscapes serving as both personal retreat and creative fuel. A birthday post captioned “Bday with the best friends I could ask for” suggests a small, close-knit circle rather than a large public social footprint.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Early SoundCloud breakthrough as Thoreau, amassing thousands of streams across a large remix catalog. |
| 2018 | “In For” single marks a genre pivot from EDM to hip-hop and sing-rap under the Thoreau name, premiered by Ones To Watch. |
| Early 2020 | Pop and indie pivot begins under the Thoreau name with “Better Than The Real Thing,” “That's Not Me” and “These Days.” |
| Oct 14, 2020 | Debut single “stay” launches the HARRY WAS HERE alter ego, backed by UnderCurrent and premiered by Ones To Watch. |
| 2020 | Debut EP If You Only Knew released alongside a Thoreau-branded lo-fi remix bridging the two aliases. |
| May 2021 | “Pet Giraffe” single draws dedicated coverage from EarMilk and Alfitude with direct-quote commentary on its Bob Dylan-inspired lyricism. |
| Jan 2022 | Senses Fail releases “Lush Rimbaugh (Thoreau Remix),” with frontman Buddy Nielsen publicly praising his work. |
| Jan–Apr 2023 | Three consecutive Dutch Melrose collaborations, “Seasons,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and “All Panic No Disco,” mark his clearest public integration into the MADKID Records ecosystem. |
| 2023 | Five-part conceptual EP Stuck. Run. Sink. Die. The End. rolls out as sequential singles, including a benny mayne feature on “Sink.” |
| Jul 2024 | Co-billed single “DOOMSDAY” with benny mayne deepens his in-house producer role at MADKID. |
| Oct 4, 2024 | Sole production credit on benny mayne's “BLAH BLAH BLAH,” from the HOLY TRINITY EP. |
| Jan 30, 2025 | “Panic!” single release, with a dedicated visualizer and lyric video. |
| Dec 22, 2025 | “Creep” becomes his most recent single release as of this writing, continuing an unbroken multi-year release cadence. |
| Year | Release | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | stay | Single |
| 2020 | If You Only Knew | EP |
| 2021 | Pet Giraffe | Single |
| 2021 | Some Things Never Change | EP |
| 2021 | No Talking | Single |
| 2022 | Your Turn (feat. Cairn) | Single |
| 2022 | People Say | Single |
| 2022 | Paradise Lost | EP |
| 2023 | Seasons (with Dutch Melrose) | Single |
| 2023 | Bonnie and Clyde (with Dutch Melrose) | Single |
| 2023 | All Panic No Disco (with Dutch Melrose) | Single |
| 2023 | The Rose | Single |
| 2023 | Stuck. Run. Sink. (feat. benny mayne) Die. The End. | EP (5-part rollout) |
| 2024 | DOOMSDAY (with benny mayne) | Single |
| 2024 | Falling / OD / Say Shit / New You / Daisies / I Won't Mind | Singles |
| 2025 | Panic! | Single |
| 2025 | Black Sheep / YUKON / Creep | Singles |
No. HARRY WAS HERE is a stage name and alter ego; the artist's real name is Harry Myers, as confirmed by his own ShoutoutLA interview and by Apple Music performer credits.
Thoreau was Myers's earlier alias, under which he built an EDM and lo-fi hip-hop catalog on SoundCloud starting around 2016. Genius describes HARRY WAS HERE as “the alter ego of Thoreau,” and Myers has said the new name was created specifically to separate his remix and lo-fi work from his pop and indie material with vocals.
Yes. He is listed on the artist roster of MADKID Records, the Los Angeles indie label founded by Dutch Melrose, alongside labelmates including benny mayne, Ashley Sienna, Natalia Marion, Pretty Havøc and Rad Cat.
His most documented ongoing collaborations are with MADKID labelmates Dutch Melrose (three joint singles in 2023) and benny mayne (a co-billed single, a featured verse, and a producer credit on benny mayne's own EP). He has also collaborated with the rock band Senses Fail under his earlier Thoreau alias.
Early coverage from 2018 describes him as Denver-based; by 2020 he is consistently described as Los Angeles-based. His social media content continues to reference frequent return trips to Colorado and the mountain West.
No confirmed live show dates, festival appearances or tour history have surfaced in available sourcing. His public output is release-based rather than performance-based as of this writing.
For more on the label structure behind HARRY WAS HERE's most frequent collaborations, see the entries on Dutch Melrose and benny mayne, as well as coverage of MADKID Records and the Dutch Melrose Collaboration Map.