Introducing:BrokinPaper. The NYC-born project of Harrison Lee blending dark electronic music, cinematic sound design and the restless, relentless energy of New York City into something entirely his own.
Operating as a totally independent artist, BrokinPaper has built a strong and incredibly loyal fan-base. Through DIY releases, self-produced Brooklyn shows and immersive, visually-driven productions, his rising success is testament to his hard graft, creative instinct and a finely tuned artistic eye.
With over 200,000 monthly listeners, collaborations with Gucci, a sync placement for ZARA, a DJ mix for Rezz’s label HypnoVizion, and support from Timbaland, BrokinPaper continues to pique interests in not only New York’s electronic underground scene, but in the high-fashion and cultural arts sphere too.
Between attending the Gucci Cruise 2027 show in NYC, DJing the GucciCore after-party, and a string of upcoming NYC dates, we grabbed a moment with BrokinPaper.
BrokinPaper! Let’s go back to the very beginning. How did your production journey begin?
I started producing when I was a teenager, but I didn’t actually start out as a producer. I was 13 years old and like many teenagers of that time, I wanted to be in a metal band. I feel like that’s very relevant because the name BrokinPaper comes from that time. A friend and I had started a metal band called Broken Paper Wings, because we were very emo, very angsty teens trying to make depressing-sounding music. Of course, that didn’t really go all the way, but I still wanted to do music.
BrokinPaper became sort of a placeholder name at the time, but being by myself became sort of a debacle. What do I do by myself? I can’t be in a band, and I had no interest in singing. This was just around the time that production started becoming more prevalent. Skrillex had just started doing things. It was an insane time. Nobody knew how he was making those sounds. I started getting really interested in it. Soon after, I started producing on FL Studio, and I had met some folks online who were also getting into that space. They actually helped me learn it. After producing rap beats for a little while, I came to a crossroads again. That was when I decided to go into electronic music.
Ok! So when did the BrokinPaper sound really start to take shape?
I’d say 2019 was when I released the MASLOW EP, which has ‘SAPIOSEXUALITY’ on it, and is my most popular work to date. That’s really when the sound formed into this dark, somewhat minimal thing. It was like a culmination of everything, all my experiences, all my sounds and influences. Combining my experiences with dabbling in different genres also taught me a little bit of nuance. Rap beats, by design, are minimal because you need to leave room for vocals. But dubstep is the opposite side of that. It’s very maximalist because you need to fill the space. You need to be innovative in the sounds that you pick and create.
With the artists I admire and take inspiration from, like Gesaffelstein and RL Grime, I love both of their arts and they both make very different styles of music. I love Hudson Mohawke, TNGHT and Lunice too. All of these artists have their own distinctive style and their own nuances, where you hear one of their songs and you automatically know who you’re listening to. I really admire that about them. So I think it’s a culmination of my experiences, but also the artists that I look up to, and how the sound developed.
You have a unique and dark sound to your music. What do you want people to feel when they listen?
To put it bluntly, there are a lot of things in this world that I think are worth being angry about, especially today. But I also believe that you can’t just be passionate about something without feeling that something must be done. There needs to be something that people can rally behind. Creating music was really an outlet for myself, in that respect. I was taking my emotions and putting them into production, but with the sense that there’s hope, that there’s something motivating. I like inspiring others to do things and to push them to create as well.
Initially, there were a lot of other creatives who resonated with my music – not other musicians, but visual artists, graphic artists, a lot of people doing design work. They would reach out and say they were working on some design, or creating something, while listening to my music. One person said they were writing a book to my music, and I was like, this is really great. I love being able to be a source of motivation and inspiration for others. As an artist, I have my own vision for what my music means, but that doesn’t mean I have the right to tell you, as a listener, how you should feel about it. I interpret my music in one way, and someone else might interpret it in a different way, and I have no part in that. I love to see what is spawned from what I’m able to put down.
Have people interpreted your music in ways you didn’t quite expect?
A lot of people make the comparison with my music and Cyberpunk. I never intended for it to be a Cyberpunk soundtrack, but people would tag me on Twitter and be like, we need to get BrokinPaper on the next cyberpunk soundtrack. I was like, oh, that’s cool. Of course, I would love that. Cyberpunk is not only a video game. It’s an entire world, an entire genre of culture. It drives fashion, music, and there’s an inherently dystopian theme around it. It’s interesting that some of my listeners are heavily interested in cyberpunk, because it lets me make inferences on who they are and what their interests are. There’s a good amount of overlap between how they feel and how I feel, despite me not really knowing so much about cyberpunk.
On TikTok, there are a good amount of people following me with the GI Robot profile picture too. I found it interesting because this GI Robot character was created in the show, and its whole storyline is that its only purpose is to eliminate Nazis. I went to their profiles and saw they were posting a lot of anti-fascist content. I can say I align with that vision. I don’t like Nazis. I don’t like racist people. I really dislike close-minded people. I just thought it was interesting that they’re potentially getting that from my music, where there are no vocals. What you hear is what you get. My album artworks are purposefully ambiguous as well. I don’t like to put too many on-the-nose things in my visuals.
Let’s talk about your new single ‘Damage’
‘Damage’ is the first single off my album called Function Over Form. As the title of the album implies, it’s very purposeful. It’s going to be darker. I wanted it to be a bit more gritty. This time around, I am leaning more towards bass music. My previous projects were kind of mid-tempo and maybe a little bit techno-leaning, albeit a bit slower. This one feels more intentional on hitting the bass market and shifting gears a bit. I’ve had more DJ opportunities recently, and instead of maybe curating a vibe that you can listen to at home, for this project I’m being intentional about creating something that is more exciting to hear live, while still staying true to my sound.
I’m also working on a later project, probably releasing maybe in a year or so, called Form Over Function. That’s going to be lighter, maybe more daytime, maybe even more housey. I’ve got a couple of tracks stubbed out for that which are more melodic in tone. I love to build this universe of having these two projects live side by side and showcase the different types of music I enjoy, while still maintaining what I want to be associated with BrokinPaper.
Your music has also started moving into sync and fashion spaces. How does that feel?
I’m overjoyed about these opportunities. Last week, one of my songs, ‘66023C’, was featured in this new show on Peacock called M.I.A. Jen Malone’s team reached out. She’s a very well known music supervisor in the United States. ZARA also used the same song, ‘66023C’, in their hair campaign for the holidays last December. Not only that, but I was also invited by Gucci to DJ at the Gallery Weekend after-party in Berlin. It was an incredible experience, where they dressed me and I was featured in Vogue Germany. I was also invited to attend Demna’s debut Gucci Cruise runway show in Times Square titled ‘GucciCore’. It was absolutely insane. They provided my outfit, I got my entrance picture to the fashion show taken, and got a front-row seat at the runway. It truly was such an honor to be included in that special moment. I then got to DJ at the after-party at the Gucci Mansion in midtown Manhattan, which was so much fun. Going back to what we were talking about earlier, it’s really great to see that the music is resonating with creatives, especially in such high places.
I feel like it’s such an odd position. We’re trying to grow the brand, but at the same time, we are getting these big-ticket opportunities. In a way, I feel immensely grateful for these opportunities. It feels like the way we’ve been able to put the music out there has been so hyper-focused. It’s hitting the right people.
What values do you try to carry both personally and through your music?
In this day and age, it’s important to be human. Especially with AI everywhere, it’s what makes you unique. You’re a human being. You’re not just a profile on the internet. When I meet people, even though my music is so dark and maybe evil-sounding, in person, I want to know people. I like talking to people. I like getting to know them. I want to hear their story and what they’re building. Seeing all these creatives and what they’re doing, not even with my music, but seeing what they’re doing, is inspiring to me as well.
