House of Harm formed when Michael Rocheford and Cooper Leardi came together in 2017 to cut a demo. Tyler Kershaw joined in 2018 to round out the group, but not before Rocheford and Leardi played a show as a duo supporting The Cure’s Reeves Gabrels. As a trio, they’ve gone on to record and share the stage with other local post-punk/synth acts, as well as the Editors at the Paradise Rock Club last year. Now they’re taking their sound, described as “emotional, energetic, and infectious,” to the studio to work on their first full-length album.

I caught up with them to learn more about some other firsts, and a bunch of upcoming local shows. Excerpts below.

Opening for The Cure’s Reeves Gabrels in 2017 was their first show.
It was about a month after we released our first songs. It was a very intense evening opening for someone we respected so much, especially as our first show. He was very kind to us and has been a friend ever since.

The first song they wrote together was “Snowblind.”
It came about very naturally because we had a very clear vision of what we wanted our first few songs to sound like.

We’re all strong songwriters, so the song didn’t come about by jamming or any conventional methods like that. We work on and contribute equally to each other’s demos and that’s the same way that this song came about. Our sound has since evolved into something that we couldn’t have expected since then.

Their EP release show at Great Scott in 2018 goes down as a night to remember...
We booked the show ourselves and handpicked the opening bands. The night was 100% us, it definitely went down in our personal history as a shining moment.

… and pre-performance rituals are always up in the air.
We try to do something different every time.

Career options outside of music?
I can’t see any of us doing anything outside of this.

Where Boston can see you perform next?
October 22 - with Lust For Youth at ONCE Ballroom
October 31 - with The KVB at Great Scott
December 15 - with She Past Away at ONCE Ballroom

The Boston Music Awards recently selected House of Harm to be a part of the 617Sessions, a program that recognizes Boston-based artists who are making great contributions to the local scene and rewards them with a day of studio recording.