Kurt Harland

{{Short description|American singer, songwriter, and audio engineer}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=June 2019}} {{Notability|Biographies|date=December 2019}} {{BLP one source|date=January 2020}} }} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox musical artist | image = Kurt Harland 2012 07 21th.png | caption = Harland performing in 2012 | name = Kurt Harland | birth_name = Kurt Harland Larson | alias = Kurt Valaquen<br/>Kurt Harland Valaquen<br/>Kurt Larson | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1963|1|25}} | origin = Minneapolis, Minnesota | occupation = Singer, songwriter, record producer, game soundtrack composer, audio engineer | genre = Synthpop, hi-NRG, electronic, freestyle | associated_acts = Information Society | years_active = 1982-present }}

'''Kurt Harland''' is an American singer, songwriter, and audio engineer. He is the lead singer of Information Society. He also works on video game scores, including two of the soundtracks for the ''Legacy of Kain'' video game series (''Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'' and ''Soul Reaver 2'' in collaboration with Jim Hedges).

== Personal life == Kurt Harland Larson was born on January 25, 1963 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He lived in Minneapolis until he was 5, when he moved to New Brighton.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Official Information Society (InSoc) site |url=http://insoc.org/KurtBio.HTML |access-date=2025-01-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030314170714fw_/http://insoc.org/KurtBio.HTML |archive-date=March 14, 2003 }}</ref>

Kurt began learning piano at age 6 and took lessons on and off until age 19. He began singing in the school choirs and theater productions in 8th grade, which he continued through college. Between the ages of 14 and 19, he experimented with painting.<ref name=":0" />

At age 18 he moved back into the city to attend college, in Saint Paul. From 1982 to 1988, he lived in South Minneapolis, except for a 6-month stay in Vienna, Austria.

He graduated from Irondale High School in 1981, and attended Macalester College in Saint Paul for a year before attending the University of Minnesota in 1982.

Kurt has stated he started performing and making music with Information Society at age 19 in 1982.<ref>{{Citation|title=Kurt Larson Speaks| date=February 10, 2013 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_rn8OIkEs|language=en|access-date=2021-04-01}}</ref>

In 1988, he moved to New York City for 5 years before settling in San Francisco in 1993.<ref name=":0" />

==Career==

===Information Society===

In early concerts and albums, Harland was credited under the pseudonym "Kurt Valaquen", Valaquen taken from Tolkien, meaning child of light. After the band had achieved mainstream success, he began using his own middle name as his professional last name.

=== 1982–1990 === Formed in 1982, synthpop band Information Society achieved mainstream success for a time in the late eighties and early nineties. They are most widely known for their 1988 hit single "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)". The band's last major (top 40) charting release was "Think" in 1990, from the album ''Hack''.

=== 1990–1997 === After the moderate success of Hack, the band released ''Peace and Love, Inc.'' in 1992. The album did not achieve much commercial success and failed to chart to a notable degree. MTV were reportedly opposed to playing the music video of the title track on its channel.

After Information Society broke up, Harland kept the rights to the name of the band and worked with Steven Seibold of ''Hate Dept.''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Don't Be Afraid, by Information Society|url=https://informationsociety.bandcamp.com/album/dont-be-afraid|access-date=2021-03-31|website=Information Society}}</ref> The resulting album titled ''Don't Be Afraid'', was released in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Information Society|url=http://informationsociety.us/|access-date=2021-03-31|language=en-US}}</ref> The album resulted in a more industrial influenced sound, purportedly fulfilling the wishes of Harland in pursuing a darker approach that he had previously hoped to explore.

=== 1997–present === A 2004 episode of VH1's ''Bands Reunited'', caused a brief controversy when Harland refused to appear in an Information Society reunion performance, despite apparently accepting the invitation on-camera by signing a copy of their first album. In an account of the incident written by Harland and available on his website,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://insoc.org/texts/BandReunion.HTML|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230112756/http://insoc.org/texts/BandReunion.HTML|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 30, 2007|title=InSoc vs. TV!|date=December 30, 2007}}</ref> Harland disputes VH1's depiction of the events and his portrayal on the show, claiming that the show was edited to make it look as if he had accepted the invitation and then backed out of it.

In 2006, he turned the name back over to Paul Robb and James Cassidy, who reformed the band with a new singer. Harland cited family obligations and a demanding career in not returning full-time; he has since been involved nonetheless, performing at a few concerts, and is featured as a vocalist on their 2007 album ''Synthesizer''. He later rejoined the band full-time, singing and writing for subsequent releases. These additional albums were ''Hello World'' in 2014 and ''Orders of Magnitude'' in 2016.

===Video games=== After 30 years as a full-time recording artist, Harland moved to San Francisco and began his career in video game audio engineering. Over the years he has been involved with eighteen different projects, notably six years with Crystal Dynamics and a stint at Electronic Arts.

Harland has worked on the following:

* 1995: ''Scooby-Doo Mystery'' — Sunsoft, Mega Drive * 1995: ''X-Men 2: Clone Wars'' — Headgames / Sega, Mega Drive * 1995: ''Ballz'' — PF.Magic, 3DO * 1995: ''Nightmare Circus'' — Funcom Oslo / Sega, Mega Drive * 1997: ''Gex: Enter the Gecko'' — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation * 1999: ''Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'' — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation / Dreamcast / Windows * 2001: ''Soul Reaver 2'' — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2 * 2003: ''Whiplash'' — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation 2 / Xbox * 2003: ''Legacy of Kain: Defiance'' — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2 / Xbox * 2005: ''The Godfather'' — Electronic Arts, PlayStation 2 / Xbox / PC * 2005: ''Death Jr.'' – Backbone Entertainment, PSP * 2006: ''Death Jr. II: Root of Evil'' – Backbone Entertainment, PSP * 2007: ''Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom'' – Backbone Entertainment, Nintendo DS * 2011: ''PlayStation Move Heroes'' – Nihilistic Software Inc., PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move * 2012: ''Resistance: Burning Skies'' – Nihilistic Software Inc., PlayStation Vita * 2020: ''Ori and the Will of the Wisps'' – Moon Studios, Windows, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S

Four songs from Information Society's album ''Don't Be Afraid'' were also used in video games that had their soundtracks composed by Kurt Harland: * Early versions of "Closing In" and "On the Outside" had been used in the 3DO version of ''Ballz''. * The instrumental track "Ozar Midrashim" would later be used as the intro theme of ''Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver''.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://informationsociety.us InformationSociety.us Official Information Society band website (as of 2007)] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20170517085034/http://www.insoc.org/ InSoc.org Original official Information Society website (largely a historical archive, written by Kurt Harland)] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050924230632/http://insoc.org/texts/BandReunion.HTML InSoc VS. TELEVISION!], an article/account of "what really happened" on VH1's ''Bands Reunited'', according to Kurt Harland * {{musicbrainz artist|id=8844c290-7c3c-49b3-b129-ee87b1529b58|name=Kurt Harland}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harland, Kurt}} Category:Living people Category:American video game composers Category:Musicians from Minneapolis Category:American freestyle musicians Category:American hi-NRG musicians Category:American synth-pop musicians Category:Information Society (band) members Category:1963 births