What word best describes ‘go big or go home’ performance artist, Harley Deville? Diva!
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
Courtesy of @harley.deville
NAME HARLEY DEVILLE
AGE 28
OCCUPATION Artist
LOCATION Dallas, TX
STAR SIGN Libra
BIGGEST PET PEEVE When people don't use their turn signals!!!!!
Queer Texan performance artist and musician Harley Deville fell into the arts scene by fate, through a Dallas-based experimental collective called Avant To Leave This Planet. “I had been making music for a while, but had never really found the right context to share it,” explains Deville. “The performance art community really took me in and gave me a space to synthesise all the pieces that make up who I am as an artist and a stage to share it with others and I'm forever grateful for that.”
Using their medium as an outlet for self-discovery, Deville’s high art work is rooted in their own spirituality, healing, and artistic freedom. Through a connection to self, expression, and the power of the Universe, they explore non-judgement, authenticity, and self-exploration on a deeply emotional level. In 2020, Deville released their debut album titled The End, which features eight liberating pop tracks. I spoke to Deville about their artistic process, highest calling, and being a Venus in Scorpio!
Audry Hiaoui: Who are your favorite performance artists?
Harley Deville: I am eternally inspired by the work of Chiharu Shiota. She's a performance and installation artist and her work completely transforms the spaces it exists within which is something I deeply resonate with. Also love me some Leigh Bowery and Klaus Nomi.
AH: What are your musical influences?
HD: There's definitely a classic Americana influence especially in my earlier music that comes from my upbringing and what was playing in the house. Lots of classic rock, folk, jazz, and blues. That's all still there in a compartment in my brain but now I find myself much more influenced by electronic and dance music. I love disco, that good ‘80s goth, techno, and house. But I'll always be a pop girl at heart.
AH: What’s your writing process like lyrically?
HD: I’ve always been obsessed with words. The way they sound, the feelings that they conjure. I love building worlds with the words I love. Pieces and fragments are always coming at me from every direction and it all ends up synthesising in the end. I try not to question it too much!
AH: How do you think being from Texas has impacted your artistry?
HD: Everything is bigger in Texas! I tend to go big.
AH: Funniest/weirdest thing to happen on set at one of your music videos?
HD: We filmed a music video in a casino once, like full ‘70s glam in Oklahoma. I guess they saw us on the security cameras and came to kick us out and had the audacity to try and confiscate my memory card!!!
AH: How do you think your best friend would describe you?
HD: Diva!
AH: Favorite fashion trend for spring 2021?
HD: After this dreadful winter through which I wore black like 99% of the time, I will be full-throated-ly embracing and advocating for colour like never before.
AH: If you had to have a fashion uniform, what would it be?
HD: I love a suit!
AH: Describe your ideal day!
HD: A day at the beach with the dolls is all I want right now.
AH: Best quarantine pastime?
HD: Oh, obsessively watching Antiques Roadshow.
AH: Favorite candy/snacks to bring to the movie theater (for when going to the movies are ever a thing again)?
HD: Popcorn with hot sauce.
AH: Any advice to people who are trying to figure out what their highest calling is?
HD: I would say that ultimately your highest calling is whatever the hell you want it to be!
AH: What is your love language?
HD: I think I tend to give love through acts of service but it's all about quality time for me. I need that deep Venus in Scorpio connection. Gifts and touch are hot too though.