Diva Harris

Editor and freelance writer

United Kingdom

London born, bred and based, I am a writer with a degree in English from the University of Liverpool.

Since I graduated in 2015, I have worked by day as commissioning editor, copyeditor and staff writer for Caught by the River, an arts/nature/culture clash posting regularly at caughtbytheriver.net.

By moonlight and probably sheer madness, I am also a writer-for-hire, mainly covering music; I write regular reviews and features for The Quietus and DIY, as well as album and artist biogs for the likes of Cate Le Bon, Bradford Cox and Working Men's Club.

Adjacently: I DJ, co-host a monthly show on Soho Radio, and occasionally co-host the Heavenly Jukebox radio show too.

Say hello/commission me: [email protected]

Portfolio

Biogs

Confidence Man - TILT

Biography for Confidence Man's second record, released on Heavenly Recordings April 2022

Ade - It's Just Wind

Biography for the debut Ade album, made with his son Connan Mockasin, and due out on Mexican Summer on his 72nd birthday, July 2021

Katy J Pearson - Tonight

A biography for Katy J Pearson's debut single on Heavenly Recordings, 'Tonight' released October 2019

Cate Le Bon - Reward

Biography for Cate Le Bon's fifth studio album 'Reward', released on Mexican Summer May 2019

Journalism

The Quietus
05/28/2020
The Quietus | Features | Quietus Writers On Why BBC4 Is Worth Saving

On John Cooper Clarke and BBC Four: The 2012 BBC4 documentary 'Evidently... John Cooper Clarke' was the first time I became properly aware of The Bard in all his stick-legged, perma-sunglassed, rapid-fire, big-haired, fag-on-the-go, Salfordian-lilted, no-fucks-given glory.

Caught by the River
01/22/2020
Shadows and Reflections: Diva Harris

Here endeth the annual series of postings we like to call Shadows and Reflections, in which our contributors and friends look back on the past twelve months. The final piece of the season comes from CBTR editor and staff writer Diva Harris

The Quietus
11/29/2019
The Quietus | Reviews | Girl Ray

The course of true love never did run smooth declares Lysander 135 lines into A Midsummer Night's Dream; and so too sings Poppy Hankin 1 minute 16 seconds into Girl.

DIY
09/06/2019
Jerkcurb 'Air Con Eden' album review

Seven years after Jerkcurb emerged comes first full-length, 'Air Con Eden': a Lynchian prom night woozy with eclipses, chicken bone wishes, slow-motion love affairs and punch-drunk riffs.

The Quietus
07/16/2019
The Quietus | Reviews | Mega Bog

It is ten years and five albums late - and on the promise that I will be met at the door by 'a Pacific Northwestern rodeo child with an unmistakable laugh, who was allegedly cursed upon conception'- that I arrive at the Mega Bog party.

The Quietus
05/01/2019
The Quietus | Reviews | Aldous Harding

Ever since I first heard 'The Barrel', the first song to be released from Aldous Harding's Designer, some two months ago, I haven't stopped thinking about the peaches and ferrets and eggs of its lyrics.

The Quietus
02/05/2019
The Quietus | Reviews | Jessica Pratt

It is radical, in a world of constant sensory overload, to use quietness to make yourself heard: something I realise as I attempt to listen to the new Jessica Pratt album over roaring central London roads, office babble, the racket of the Victoria Line.

The Quietus
01/15/2019
The Quietus | Reviews | Deerhunter

"Come on down from that cloud / And cast your fears aside," urges Bradford Cox in the opening bars of the new album from indie beloveds Deerhunter. Gently, dreamily, and with a slight baroque flourish (he is singing over harpsichord - played by fellow winner of alternative hearts Cate Le Bon, no less) we are coaxed into Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?, the band's eighth album.

The Quietus
11/13/2018
The Quietus | News | Live Report: Crack Cloud at Moth Club

Photo by Naomi Yates Some context before I ramble on about how blisteringly good Crack Cloud were on Friday: it's well-documented that the Canadian 'multimedia collective' functions as a form of rehabilitation for its seven members.

The Quietus
11/08/2018
The Quietus | News | Live Report: Drinks at Oslo

I don't know if it's the manic pre-gig jazz that was just playing or something in the air, but when Drinks (and their fellow low-key-indie-celeb-studded backing band - hiya Euan from Younghusband) take to the stage and fire up their multitude of instruments (guitar guitar bass keys drums cowbell cowbell miscellaneous percussion) at Hackney's Oslo on Tuesday night, everyone seems to be making out.

The Quietus
10/24/2018
The Quietus | News | Live Report: Mauskovic Dance Band at the Shacklewell Arms

Ordinarily, it would take some convincing to get people to haul their arses down to a tiny, oddly painted room on a drizzly night to watch a band's first ever London gig. But not last Sunday, when rhythmic-space-disco-hungry hordes squished into the Shacklewell Arms for a sweaty slice of The Mauskovic Dance Band.

The Quietus
10/10/2018
The Quietus | Reviews | Connan Mockasin

Connan Mockasin, with his seedy spoof-sultry riffs, his croony vocals and his unsettling pillow-talk lyrics, makes me uncomfortable in the way that using somebody else's toothbrush or being stared at by a cat while I'm having a wee makes me uncomfortable.

The Quietus
10/02/2018
The Quietus | Reviews | Cat Power

"In the press there's always been an exploitation of my vulnerability that has demeaned my professionalism, has demeaned my stature," said Chan Marshall - aka Cat Power - in a recent radio interview with Mary Anne Hobbs.

The Quietus
07/24/2018
The Quietus | Features | Rays Of Light: Madonna, Beyond The Hits

On Madonna's 'Amazing': Let's get one thing straight: cowgirl Madonna is the best Madonna. Not only is that blue satin shirt a certified Look, but a country slash French club banger album just should not, on any level, work - should it? And yet it does, doesn't it?

The Quietus
05/31/2018
The Quietus | Reviews | Kadhja Bonet

Legend has it that Kadhja Bonet was born in 1784, in the back seat of an intergalactic seafoam-green Ford Pinto. Her glittering, celestial debut The Visitor - an eight-song album of baroque and stardust-smattered R&B/soul/jazz beamed down for earthly consumption back in 2016 - can certainly be taken as evidence for this claim.

The Quietus
04/17/2018
The Quietus | Reviews | Drinks

From behind a slowly drawn pair of velvet curtains, flecked with motes of dust and moth wings, appears a cobbled town square in the south of France. Haphazardly handpainted scenery drops into place: a crumbling stone mill set against a green, rock-lined river.

Radio/audio

Mixcloud
Token Girl Djs (19/12/2019)

Listen to Token Girl DJs (19/12/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Heavenly Jukebox (12/11/2019)

Listen to Heavenly Jukebox (12/11/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Token Girl Djs (29/09/2019)

Listen to Token Girl DJs (29/09/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Token Girl Djs (10/08/2019)

Listen to Token Girl DJs (10/08/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Token Girl DJs (09/07/2019)

Listen to Token Girl DJs (09/07/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Heavenly Jukebox (02/04/2019)

Listen to Heavenly Jukebox (02/04/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.

Mixcloud
Heavenly Jukebox (05/02/2019)

Listen to Heavenly Jukebox (05/02/2019) by Soho Radio for free. Follow Soho Radio to never miss another show.