Technically, “No Harm” was the first song Bradley Hanan Carter ever wrote for his Faux Prix collective. “Well, the chorus anyway,” says the native New Zealander, who found his way to the United States about 20 years ago, after his neo-punk outfit Steriogram scored an international hit with “Walkie Talkie Man.”
“No Harm,” meanwhile, “just sort of fell out of the sky” in December 2015. Around that time, Carter was at a crossroads in Los Angeles with another band: indie rockers NO (later Black English). He extricated himself from the situation and moved to the Mojave Desert, where he set up a home recording studio. The studio went mobile when Carter acquired a Winnebago and took a day job selling hair products across the country. He also traveled internationally, where Berlin became unexpected fertile ground as he was ramping up for Faux Prix.
Carter finally hit on the current version of “No Harm” in December 2023—and it was worth the wait. The lushly melodic, 21st-century power ballad packs a bittersweet sentimental punch.
“It kicked around my laptop in a slew of various forms and failed parts,” says Carter. “I was walking around Berlin with my headphones, and I realized it needed to change key. From there, everything made more sense, and it fit really well with a collection of tunes created in so many different places around the world, in a ton of makeshift hotel-room recording scenarios.”
We’re proud to premiere “No Harm.” Look for Faux Prix’s full-length debut early next year.
—Hobart Rowland
