Meet The Dare, The Ultra-Cool Musician Behind Charli XCX's "Guess"
The Los Angeles-born, New York City-based DJ, singer, and producer has emerged onto the scene with a series of electrifying tracks and collaborations.
Whether Brat Summer has served as your first foray into the dizzying party scene that superstars like Charli XCX frequent, or you've been watching the movement for a while, chances are, by now you've stumbled across The Dare in some capacity. After the release of his 2022 hit, "Girls," the musician has enjoyed a series of viral moments—including a mention on Barack Obama's highly anticipated music roundup, which the Internet went wild over thanks to the sheer, slightly hilarious contrast between the song's sensual, slightly silly party vibe and the former president's laid-back, distinguished demeanor—but it seems the best is yet to come from The Dare.
Born in West Hollywood and raised in Portland, Oregon, Harrison Patrick Smith—the man behind The Dare—grew up with the same mix of eclectic interests that he boasts as a celebrated musician today. While studying English literature at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Smith started his first true project—Turtlenecked. The band quickly became a sleeper folk indie hit among local crowds and produced several albums that were generally well-received by critics and fans alike.
Somewhere along the way, Smith made a move to New York City and ventured into a new indie sleaze adjacent project—The Dare. Prior to signing a deal with Republic Records after the sensation "Girls" produced, Smith spent his days as a substitute teacher at a private school in the West Village. By day, he handled classes of mischievous teenagers, and by night, he DJed at clubs across Manhattan and Brooklyn, where he imbued the party scene with an utterly unique, electric energy.
“Compared to any viral hit, ["Girls"] doesn't have anywhere near as many streams," Smith told GQ in a 2023 interview. But within the first month of putting it out, there was so much attention from other musicians that I respect, and labels, and all these people. And they felt really excited in much more of a cultural way than in some sort of algorithmic way.”
Brat Summer—which The Dare has had a huge hand in furthering, thanks to his production on Charli XCX's ultra-buzzy track, "Guess," as well as the viral Billie Eilish remix of the same song—has served as the perfect setup for the next phase of his career, but if you think this is an entirely new persona that the man behind the act is taking on, think again.
Since his emergence into the pop culture zeitgeist in 2022 as The Dare, the musician has been a frequent face at all the hottest runway shows, parties, and industry events.
The comeback of indie sleaze—the dark, chaotically sensual, enthralling scene that had a tight grip on New York's music scene in the late aughts—was inevitable, but even veterans of the original era didn't anticipate its renaissance to look quite like it has over the past two years or so. At the center of it is The Dare, who caters to the amped-up masses of the New York party scene at a number of bars and clubs across the city.
The Smith-led indie sleaze craze isn't just a local phenomenon though. After catching the eye of ultra-cool designer Hedi Slimane, who is currently at the helm of Celine, The Dare ventured back out to Los Angeles, where he DJed a party following the luxury label's Fall/Winter 2023 runway show, aptly titled "The Age of Indieness." As expected, the scene inside the affair recalled earlier revolutionary acts like The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem and proved that "Girls" was truly just the beginning of Smith's cultural takeover.
With a brand new debut album dropping September 6, 2024, New York, cool contemporary designers, and the Internet have yet to see the best from The Dare.
