track 1 from Arena Rock

I never thought that i could cause you all this sorrow

I didn´t know there could be so much pain

And if i could make it up to you somehow i would

If i could yes i would never ever do this again

No, i would turn back time and i would treat you right

If i could yes i would

 
Shift happens now and this is all that we can do

Shift happens then and we did all that we could have done

 
If i could make it up to you somehow i would, if i could yes i would

I never meant to cause you any sorrow, i never meant to cause you any pain

01 Shift Happens

track 2 from Arena Rock

I can´t catch the sunrise with the sun in your eyes

I can´t make you laugh if i can´t make you cry

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you

I always thought I needed you, always went on feeding you

But I never really seemed to fit

I had to find the way to what I could not have

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you but what can I say but:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you

Oooh too bad I kept on needing you

02 Too Bad

track 3 from Arena Rock

He´s not gonna catch you if you fall

Actually, he´s not gonna catch you at all

He´s not gonna kiss you goodnight and tell you the stories you never had

He´s not gonna make you happy when you are sad

He´s not gonna hold you hand and help you through

He´s not gonna say ´Baby I love you´

He´s not gonna go grocery shopping with you on Fridays

When it´s really crowded and all these people are walking around

With their big happy families buying big happy meals

Being normally and perfectly and astonishingly super duper happy

 

Although his body was truly a bless

He´s not gonna clean up your mess

He´s not gonna catch you if you fall

Actually, he´s not gonna catch you at all

He´s not gonna be your home

But i´m telling you that you will not be alone

´Cause there will be lots of friends and family

Angels and a few Gods

To keep your head up and keep your feet down

And keep you close to

Your heart

 

03 He Is Not The One

track 4 from Arena Rock

Let´s give it a chance, let it control our destiny

We owe it to ourselves to live happy eternally

Love is what we´ve been looking for and love is what we´ve been searching for

Now that I got it right here in my hand, it seems like I´m gonna spread it over the land

 

Now that we found love what are we gonna do with it

 

Let´s forgive and forget and let no thought be your enemy

I never felt so good, I´m as happy, happy any man could be

Love is what we´ve been waiting for and love is what we´ve been hoping for

Now that I got it right here in my hand

It seems like I´m gonna spread it over the land

 

Now that we found love what are we gonna do with it

 

Now that you found it what you gonna do with it

This is all that you´ve been waiting for

This is all that you´ve been longing for and hoping for

Now that you found it what you gonna do with it

04 Now That We Found Love

track 5 from Arena Rock

I´m disconnected i´m not here at all

I´ve turned everything off and now i´m staring at the wall

Life is fairly easy when you don´t have to fall into someones arms

I´m disconnected and i´m not here at all

 

I disconnect and i reclaim my streets from this sick love beat

I don´t know where to put or place my feet

These streets were mine before you came and

now nothing feels or looks the same

i disconnect and i reclaim

 

I reclaim my streets from this sick love beat

 

To let you leave in peace

I took this road to clean out this sick love beat

I came out here to let you leave in peace

This is in the head and not in my heart

And i told you i told you from the start

That these streets were mine before you came

Now nothing feels or looks the same

 

I reclaim my streets from this sick love beat

I reclaim my streets from this sick love beat

05 I Reclaim My Streets

track 6 from Arena Rock

You say you are a mess

And I say you are just messy

I don´t know if my love can heal the wounds

But I´ll try if you just let me

I´ll be the brave old elephant

You can ride upon my back

I will sing what i say but i won´t laugh when you are not funny

no, i won´t laugh when you are not funny

 
Stay in my heart, don´t go messing with my head

We had a strange kind of start with a terribly broken heart

06 Stay In My Heart

track 7 from Arena Rock

You go after the most unlikely people time and time again

All of a sudden he turned, you turned, he turned and you turned around again

And by the breeze of his smell you didn´t fall but spun around once more

He asked what all this spinning around was for and you told him:

That´s what space is for, that´s what space is for

Call attention to the space between

call attention to whatever you call clean

 

Perhaps you´re not laughing yourself through the day

But at least your heart beats calmer this way

You call her up and tell her machine that your life´s been a drag without him

She calls you back to tell you that your life was a drag WITH him

That´s what friends are for, that´s what friends are for

Call attention to the space between

Call attention to whatever you call clean

 

First you left, then he left, then you changed your mind and came back

To tell him that you´re gone

Just to make it absolutely clear you were gone, gone, gone

You told him he was wasted ´cause you tasted more sweet than any girl in

this town and to prove this was true you kissed his ear from your heart once around

He asked you: ”what was that all for?”

and you told him: ”Hey stupid, that´s what lips are for”

call attention to the space between

call attention to whatever you call clean

 

Avoid notes that make you cry

Avoid people that just tell you lies

Do notes that make you high

But avoid notes that make you cry


07 Avoid Notes (That Make You Cry)

track 8 from Arena Rock

I have to stop hating girls that do the way that you do

There is so little time and so much work to do

We all act like we need to

I suppose we all do

If united we stand we will never ever fall

If united we stand we shall never ever fall

This counts for us all

Unite

08 I Have To Stop Hating

track 9 from Arena Rock

In my mind I´m walking the elephant way

In my mind I´m falling free

I´m making you go aaa oooh way

Hey Mr, I´m not here to please you

Hey Mr, I´m not here to please you

 
In my mind Í´m making the elephant stay

Me and my elephant we have the best days

In my mind i´m walking straight

I´m making you go ooo aaa aaa ooooh

Hey Mr, I´m not here to please you

Hey Mr, I´m not here to please you

I say Hey Mr, I never was here to please you

Hey Mr, I´m not here to please you

09 Hey Mr

Track 10 from Arena Rock

She told me to go out and have some fun

Well, I did and now I´ve just begun

I danced with Jim the Dane and I kissed Jennie the bla bla blond

And I found my lost sister as a drummer boy

 

We ended up playing in this hallway and i remember the rhythm of his heart delay

As i moved in and occupied his skin

he had no money in his pocket, but a heart made of gold

 

i can still hear, I can still hear, i can still hear your heart beat

 

I fell so hard when he broke my heart is like a battlefield

The older i get the longer it takes to heal as he danced after his old Love,

who had her heart broken by my friend, who years ago i also had a crush on,

I really liked his mother, but ended up sleeping with his older brother, who as i turned

out, had his heart broken by my lost sister as a drummer boy, who in the meantime,

eventually, after once more having his heart crushed by the old love that never

became new, realizes what a huge mistake he made leaving me, so all of a sudden:

”Here I am baby!”, there he is outside my door and here i am, stuck in mid-flight

with a heart contusion real, but not so sore anymore

 

I can still hear, i can still hear, i can still hear my heart beat

10 Circus


"Oh, dear Harriet, music high school is only for talented pupils…"

Despite a teacher’s consternation and warning, a young Harriet Ohlsson didn’t listen; went on and was accepted into music high school and thankfully so as we are rewarded by her stunning debut album “Arena Rock” performing as OH, HARRY.

OH, HARRY’s music distils an extraordinarily independent life that Harriet has lived. A restless creative spirit possessing a magical voice and lyrical depth exposing the emotions of her Bohemian youth cultivating new relationships quite early, a teenage backward embrace of religion upon learning of her family’s heritage only to quickly reject it except for the musical soundtrack of it, University days of theatre and gender studies, working in far flung places such as India and America, only to land in a complete circle.

Born in Gothenburg to academic parents, Harriet was left mainly on her own to discover. 

“My parents were working a lot on their different doctorate papers. Our home was a loving home, but way to quiet for me. So I learnt to stay out of the apartment and to create my own routines. They gave me a lot of tools to be independent quickly.”

As a fourteen year old Harriet Ohlsson realized she wanted to be a storyteller. Not exactly sure of how this would happen, she tried theatre, learnt to play the oboe, the flute, the double bass and for a long time the saxophone was her main instrument.

For several years she dallied in photography making art projects. “I went out to different punk scenes and took portraits of people and sometimes I dragged them to a squatted house and used it as my studio. I collected old windows and put my pictures in them and I had exhibitions in small coffee shops.” Restless as ever she grew weary of the photo lab atmosphere and music came calling.

“I lived one hour from school so I rode my bike every morning through Gothenburg City constantly making all these songs up. I had a couple of punk bands and I played the oboe (mostly because it was free lessons at the music academy and you got to eat dessert if you had done your homework.)

“Music always seemed to be just another way of expressing myself. I hated the oboe, but I didn’t know there were other instruments until I found out about this circus that was touring and came to Gothenburg. There I fell in love with the soprano saxophone and the cool woman playing it became my teacher and role model.”

Harriet joined and toured all over Sweden with the Klezmer band called Chutzpah, started a couple of different bands and ended up at the Academy of Music studying Balkan music. Outside of school she began to sing and eventually that turned out to be her greatest joy.



Until 2009, Harriet was the lead singer and one of the founders of highly acclaimed Hellsongs performing stripped down heavy metal classics as “lounge” in a unique special way. An epic rendition of Iron Maiden’s “Run To The Hills” launched them to the forefront of Swedish media while building upon an already impressive live reputation touring across Scandinavia.

In 2008, Hellsong’s full length debut "Hymns in the key of 666" entered the Swedish charts at #9 and has been released in the Scandinavia, UK, France, GSA, Benelux, Spain, Japan, Australia/NZ and Russia. The album was nominated for a German Critics Award as well as a Swedish Grammy Award, A hugely successful tour in the GSA countries followed.
After five years of releasing several EPs, the album and touring, Harriet decided it was time to start listening to her own voice and musical longings and left Hellsongs to work on her solo album

For the past year she has been dragging a baby carriage all around Gothenburg and Berlin filled with instruments and recording equipment, stubbornly convincing herself that she actually is making a solo album.

ARENA ROCK was born in the kitchen, on a jetty, in between tears, during cooking, laughing while in Berlin, on a bike, and always straight from the heart. The songs are about the pastimes of life with a direct poignancy formed in what can only be called OH, HARRY world.  Emotional songs of dashed hopes “He Is Not The One”, resignation “Too Bad” “Shift Happens”, rebellion “I Reclaim My Streets” “Hey Mr”, remorse “Avoid Notes (That Make You Cry” and love “Stay In My Heart” a stunning cover of the O’Jays “Now That We Found Love”.

The title of the album originates from the guitar effect Arena Rock in GarageBand, which has been used as her recording tool. However it is also about the “big-time-once-in-a-life-time-arena-rock-heroes-and-heroines emotions” that the album is all about. 

The name OH, HARRY stems from a period in her childhood when she used to call herself Harry and that ringing of a teacher’s words. Simple.

All songs are written by Harriet Ohlsson (except for “Now That We Found Love”, by The O´Jays). 

Harriet sings, plays the piano and synthesizers, accordion, harmonica, saxophone, percussion and a bit of guitar and ukulele and a love of elephants.

Petter Eriksson provided postproduction and mixed the album at Studio Singh, Göteborg.

“Arena Rock” is available from Lovely Records.

Patrik Larsson / Headlock Management  patrik@headlockmanagement.se
Steve Lee  / World Lee Consulting Ltd. Steve@worldlee.co.uk



Oh, Harry

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