The year wrapped up for Scott Hardware (the moniker of Toronto-based musician and composer Scott Harwood) with the announcement of his upcoming third album, Ballad of a Tryhard, which was listed as one of Exclaim!’s “most anticipated albums of 2022.”
Today, he shares the villainous album track, “Watersnake”. “My mom lived near this lake for a while, and whenever I’d go to visit her, I’d want to walk along the shore and have a moment,” says Harwood. “She’d always tell me before heading out to watch out for the water snakes. In fact, this lake’s little beach was covered in them. My brother who lived nearby would have little snake babies falling in clusters from the roof of his garage. I mean no disrespect to snakes, but it’s ghastly to see them slither over top of water.
It all must have left a mark, because when I sat down to write a song about a villain, an exploiter, the first thing I thought of was “Watersnake!”
MORE ABOUT BALLAD OF A TRYHARD
How do you self-stabilize amidst ongoing crisis? Or, more crucially, what does it mean to question how much control we have over our collective well-being? On Ballad of a Tryhard, the third album by Scott Hardware, he attempts a response by honouring the splendor of “living between emotions.” It’s an album where a rich inner monologue, and the undefined space between reflection and realization can offer an invaluable reprieve.
Over luminous keys and sky-sweeping melodies, Harwood reverse engineers his capabilities as a composer skilled in the art of complexity to deliver his boldest album to date — unselfconsciously ambitious Y2K rock; a reimagination of experimental adult contemporary that tweaks the limits of soft rock with curiosity and appreciation.
For the first single, “Summer” (which features members of Phedre, Lee Paradise, WHIMM, Vallens, Blunt Chunks, and Jaunt), Harwood tries his hand at a bouncy, heartstring ballad built for the open road. “I was born in September, and autumn has always been my favourite season,” says Harwood. “Fall people love to look back and to dwell in the bittersweetness of memory. This song marks a deep dive into my changing thoughts about nostalgia, seeing it change from cozy romanticism to toxic waste.”
Crafted in Spain and co-produced with Matt Smith (Prince Nifty, Lido Pimienta), Ballad of a Tryhard is a snapshot of weeks spent in Elche, a sleepy Mediterranean city on the southeast coast, wandering through emptied-out streets, becoming acquainted with the interiors of a historic apartment block, and living for the first time with a familiar love. With unlimited time on his hands, Harwood would write slowly, playing piano until dawn. The result is an album with ornate and bucolic orchestral arrangements that nod to a background in techno and house with a tangled web of synths and strings.
Prior to his solo work as Scott Hardware, Harwood played with indie rock stalwart Toronto groups like Ostrich Tuning and released ambient pop as Ken Park. A move to Berlin influenced his 2016 debut, Mutate Repeat Infinity, which centered the dancefloor as a site of queer resilience. 2020’s Engel pulled direct inspiration from Wim Wender’s 1987 haunting masterpiece Wings of Desire. In 2021 Harwood was accepted into the Slaight Family Music Lab.
