Dhani Harrison has been everywhere lately — on stage with ELO, on albums with Perry Farrell and UNKLE, and on scoring credits for everything from HBO docs to the RZA-directed Cut Throat City. But ask him what ties it all together and he’ll probably say: dogs. And possibly Antarctica.
“I don’t write songs unless there’s a dog involved,” Harrison jokes. “That’s in the contract now.”
And with Motorways (Erase It), his first new solo single in years, Harrison merges everything — the ambient textures of his film work, the melodic instincts of a lifetime surrounded by legends, and yes, a dog flying through space in the video. “Everything was so heavy last year,” he says. “What do we love more than anything? Dogs on the internet.”
He co-directed the video with Liam Lynch, who understood the assignment: turn a cinematic synth-pop track into a viral scroll-hypnosis featuring a galactic canine. It’s fun. It’s weird. It’s what Dhani Harrison calls Tuesday.
But don’t let the visuals distract from the deeper anxieties baked into the song. “We were literally stuck on a motorway during the Extinction Rebellion protests in London,” he says. “And I’m sitting there thinking about that Banksy on the M4 that says, ‘It’s not a race.’ That line hit me hard.”
Harrison, now a veteran composer, sees no real line between film scores and pop songs anymore. “The best part is when you have a synth sound that didn’t fit any of the scores — it goes in the secret folder,” he explains. “Then when it’s time to write your own songs again, you open the vault and there’s this sound that already feels like home.”
It’s that cross-pollination that makes Motorways so compelling — the spaciousness of cinema fused with actual hooks. “It’s nice to write something with a chorus again,” he laughs. “You can’t exactly do guitar solos in documentaries.”
His official solo career began with In Parallel in 2017 — an atmospheric, introspective album he composed largely on a laptop while traveling. Now with Motorways, there’s a second chapter forming. “I’m hoping to release another record this fall with BMG,” he says. “And hopefully in between all the movies and scoring work, I can finally get the second solo album done.”
But perhaps the most tantalizing project is the long-teased reunion of Fistful of Mercy, his supergroup with Joseph Arthur and Ben Harper. “Next year’s the ten-year anniversary. I hadn’t even realized that,” Harrison says, mildly horrified. “We actually recorded a track for the second record five years ago with Jim Keltner and everyone… and then it just stopped.”
The good news? There’s a name. “I always said I wouldn’t do it unless we could call it For a Few Mercies More. That’s the title. That’s the whole reason to do it.”
Until then, Harrison is racking up frequent flyer miles with Jeff Lynne’s ELO, a gig that loops back to his childhood. “I was six years old when I met Jeff,” he says. “They mixed the Traveling Wilburys records in our house. I still use that same studio.” He’s not just opening for ELO — he’s continuing the family business, with permission.
And when he’s not working, he goes to Antarctica. Just… because. “No communication, no cell service — two weeks of just staring at icebergs instead of billboards,” he says wistfully. “It changed my neural pathways.”
Which, all things considered, is as good a mission statement as any for Dhani Harrison’s music.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below.
