Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris has been working as a DJ and producer for nearly two decades, and the Scottish superstar has been a unique player in the field by singing on many of his own tracks since his 2007 debut. It’s been quite a while since the world has heard Harris flex his pipes, but the Grammy winner is back to using his voice on his new single “Smoke the Pain Away.”
“Smoke the Pain Away” marks Harris’ latest new music since the release of his compilation album 96 Months last summer featuring some of his biggest one-off singles from the past decade like “This Is What You Came For” with Rihanna, “One Kiss” with Dua Lipa, and “How Deep Is Your Love” with Disciples. But on “Smoke the Pain Away,” Harris stands alone as the sole vocalist on the track for the first time since his 2016 single “My Way.”
“Eyes sparkle like sun in June / Grow up and wait for you / Wide awake in a hotel room / Thinking ‘Oh, what I could do?’” Harris sings on the track. “Too late, I’ve been up for days / If I can’t even see straight / No, I can’t smoke the pain away.”
Singing in his own music is Harris’ way of distinguishing himself from other artists in the industry with similar backgrounds.
“I’m trying to work hard to do it more because also, in tandem with that, there’s a lot of DJ[s and]
producers, and I look at myself and I think, ‘What do I have to offer that they don’t?’” the Scot told Apple Music back in 2016, per Billboard. “Actually, Pharrell told me something about hitting the notes. Occasionally, people try to persuade me to sing again, and he was one of those people. He said some of the most memorable and character voices, that we have, including himself, it’s not about hitting the notes, is it? It’s about getting the emotion and the feeling and the character across. Once he said that to me I started looking at myself, like my voice differently, because I was like ‘Hmm, someone like him picked up on that.’”
With the weather starting to warm up, Harris is seemingly thawing out of hibernation in preparation for the “Summer.”
