Tabi Harlowe Talks “So Pretty (It Hurts),” Saying the Thing and Building the Tabiverse

On her new single, Tabi Harlowe makes room for yearning without pretending to have the love story figured out yet.

Tabi Harlowe doesn’t need an actual relationship to write a love song.

In fact, “So Pretty (It Hurts)” came from almost the opposite place. Released September 18, the new single sits somewhere between being perfectly capable of standing on your own and still believing there might be someone out there worth making room for.

“Real talk, I haven’t dated anyone seriously in two years,” Tabi tells Everyday Jams. After time spent navigating dating apps and watching romantic relationships seemingly fall into place for people around her, she found herself writing about someone who doesn’t exist in her life yet.

The optimism never really left.

“I have never stopped believing that there is someone out there who would be worth the love I have to give.”

The song isn’t attached to one specific person. Instead, Tabi remembers writing it with an almost unexplainable feeling that somebody could actually be on their way into her life.

And if that sounds unapologetically romantic, she’d probably agree.

“Anyone that knows me will tell you right off the bat that I am a LOVER GIRL who isn’t afraid to get caught up in her feels.”

Letting the Song Get Bigger

That romantic streak doesn’t make “So Pretty (It Hurts)” delicate.

The track has weight to it. Electric guitars open up around Tabi’s voice, giving all that yearning somewhere larger to live. The cinematic feeling wasn’t necessarily mapped out from the beginning either. It started revealing itself once she and her producer had the foundation in place.

After finding the hook and piecing together the bones of the track, Tabi remembers the two of them looking at each other and immediately knowing they had found the atmosphere.

“We both immediately shared a look and went, ‘yeahhhhh this is vibe.’”

That instinctive quality seems important to the way she makes music. Once a melody clicks, Tabi says she usually knows pretty quickly where a song needs to expand and where it should stay restrained.

She especially loves letting the guitars interact with the vocal rather than simply sitting underneath it, whether that means moving around the melody or slipping small details into one side of the mix.

Sometimes, the best moments are the ones nobody planned.

“On occasion I do surprise myself and do something I haven’t done vocally on a whim and it manages to land in a way that I didn’t think it was going to. Those are the best moments.”

Her producer finds those moments in the instrumentation too.

Learning to Stay in the Moment

Before Tabi Harlowe existed as a recording project, Tabi spent years in musical theatre, including time on the national tour of Cats.

It’s a completely different world from the music she’s making now, but the experience still follows her.

Mostly, it taught her endurance.

“Touring is HARD!”

Tabi spent two years living out of two suitcases and performing eight times a week, sometimes more. That meant learning how to take care of her body, understand her limits and keep enough in the tank to do it again the next night.

Those habits haven’t disappeared.

Neither has the ability to recover when something goes wrong. Musical theatre happens live. A strange vocal moment or mistake doesn’t stop the show. You adjust and keep moving.

“You have to be locked in and in the moment,” Tabi says. “If something happens and you mess up or have a weird vocal moment or whatever, you keep going and still make the best of it.”

That live instinct carries into the records too. Even when the production gets bigger, the emotion still feels close.

Saying the Thing

The openness in Tabi’s writing isn’t accidental.

She likes leaving enough unsaid for listeners to bring their own lives into the music, but there are also moments when being vague would defeat the point entirely.

“If something has to be said in a way that I simply can’t ‘poetically sugar coat,’ then it’s just gonna have to be said in the way it needs to be said.”

Getting there can take a few tries.

“Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to REALLY be honest if I’m too scared to ‘say the thing,’” she admits, before adding, “Shout out to my therapist.”

There’s humor in that answer, but there’s also a pretty clear philosophy underneath it. Tabi would rather work her way toward the honest version than hide behind something that sounds prettier but means less.

Welcome to the Tabiverse

Tabi already has a name for the world she’s building: the Tabiverse.

Her debut single, “Erosion,” introduced a more existential side of her writing. “So Pretty (It Hurts)” turns toward something warmer and more openly romantic, but Tabi doesn’t see those emotions as competing with each other.

She wants space for all of it.

“I hope it shows people that I’m an artist who really values feeling and connection.”

As the Tabiverse grows, she wants it to become more than a collection of songs. Ideally, it becomes somewhere listeners can recognize pieces of themselves.

“Whether that’s a song that makes them want to fall in love, cry, get lost in their own head, or just feel a little less alone, I want there to be room for all of it.”

That feels like the clearest way into Tabi Harlowe right now.

There’s no pressure for the music to live in one emotional space. It can be romantic, existential, huge, soft, messy or hopeful.

The Tabiverse is still getting bigger.

Stream “So Pretty (It Hurts)” and get familiar with Tabi Harlowe now.

Photography by Jordan Zdon.