Exeter native Aubrey Harris has shared the stage with Gigi Perez and Chappell Roan, performed at major music festivals like Coachella, and was a part of Perez’s band that kicked off Noah Kahan’s historic four-night run at Fenway Park.
Though her journey has led her to stages across the U.S. and internationally, Harris’ bass journey began in her hometown of Exeter, New Hampshire.
Harris grew up in a musical family; both her father, Les Harris Jr, and grandfather, Les Harris Sr., were Berklee College of Music alumni and jazz musicians who played in the New England area. Her father was a music educator and drummer and her grandfather taught at Berklee School of Music for 30 years.
“They’re really like why I do what I do,” Harris said. “I grew up like doing a lot of the Berklee summer camps and doing things like Grammy Camp.”
At 15, she was the only representative from New Hampshire to attend the Grammy Foundation’s camp in New York City in 2012. Following the camp, she performed with country music legend Keith Urban on the nationally televised American Country Awards.
Harris said that her father encouraged her to pursue music — something she immersed herself in many evenings at local venues like The Press Room in nearby Portsmouth, where her dad played jazz every Sunday night.
“I would say those aspects of just going and sitting in at these gigs around New Hampshire really got me to where I am today,” Harris said.
While she began her music journey early, playing the piano at 4 and guitar at 9, it wasn’t until she found the bass at 13 that “it clicked.”
“That’s when I started to… actually get serious about it,” she said.
After graduating from Exeter High School in 2014, Harris went on to attend her father’s and grandfather’s alma mater on a full scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in songwriting in 2017. She also earned a master’s degree in 2019 from the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance.
A ‘kid from New England’ performs in front of sold-out Fenway crowd
Harris started touring with Gigi Perez — best known for her 2024 hit “Sailor Song,” which blew up on TikTok and peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 — in January. The tour has taken her from Cancun to Australia and across the U.S., with a performance at Coachella in May being a highlight.
Being part of the opener for Noah Kahan’s Fenway run, though, was something Harris describes as an “out-of-body experience” — something both intimate and otherworldly at the same time, telling a story through music to 151,000 fans across four days.
“Just being a kid from New England and going to Sox games with my dad growing up, I’m up on stage, and I’m like, staring at the Fenway Park sign to just make sure I’m really processing it,” she said. “You just kind of go out on stage…and you’re like, okay, just got to play. And then afterwards, you’re like, wow, that was crazy.”
Harris’ return to New England and Fenway was bittersweet after the death of her dad in October 2025.
“We played four nights there, and it was tough for me to not have him there…This is what we worked towards my whole life: like not just me, but like him. He would say like, ‘Oh, you’ll play Fenway Park someday’ because I’d say like, ‘Oh, that’s my dream venue to play at.’ And he said, ‘of course you will.’”
On tour, she says she gets to be a part of something bigger than herself and tell meaningful stories.
“Her (Perez’s) songs are very personal,” Harris said. “A lot of her songs are about…her older sister who passed away…and with my dad having passed away this past October… Everybody’s grief is different, but it feels really special to be someone who has… been through a similar experience to play her music and to play it at such a high level in front of so many people.”
“She’s a really amazing artist, and it means a lot to be a part of her project,” Harris added.
The moment she realized girls play bass, too
Women in the field playing the bass — whether in classical or contemporary settings — inspired Harris to continue playing.
One of her teachers, double bassist Susan Hagen, taught at Berklee and was a female role model for Harris when Harris was a teen.
Her other childhood music inspirations include Tal Wilkenfeld and Esperanza Spalding. Her father introduced the former’s performances to her when she first began playing the bass.
“When I started playing bass…I told my dad, ‘oh, maybe bass would be cool to try, like it sounds so cool,’ and he actually bought me a bass, and I was like, ‘girls don’t play bass,’ and he was like, ‘yes, they do,’ and pulled up this video of Tal Wilkenfeld.”
Since then, Harris has played her bass across several continents in front of thousands with many talented women, including Chappell Roan and Gigi Perez.
On playing with many artists who have embraced queerness as part of their identity, Harris said, “I’ve known I was bisexual since I was 14…and it really means a lot to be working with different women. Most of the female artists I’ve played for — actually men too — are queer or lesbians or bisexual.”
Growing up, Harris said she didn’t always feel like she could be herself, so it felt “really great to just be out on stage and…to be a part of something that makes everybody in the crowd also feel like they can be themselves too.”
‘Younger me wouldn’t believe it’
The path to performing on some of the world’s biggest stages wasn’t always glamorous.
Harris landed her first post-grad professional gig at the Raglan Road Irish Pub at Disney World, where she spent a year working 6 nights a week, playing a mix of Irish music and wedding band songs.
“We played a two-and-a-half-hour set with no breaks, playing the same show every night,” she said. “And it gets so repetitive that you really have to find ways to keep it fresh, keep it interesting and…put on the Disney smile every time you go on stage even if you’re having a really hard day.”
Harris said her experience at Disney prepared her for being on tour: “Maybe you’re having a bad day, but you go out there, and you give it your all every single time.”
Still, she says “it’s always what I’ve wanted to do.”
Fenway was a bucket list item come true for Harris, but the bassist is still dreaming big: Madison Square Garden, TD Garden — where she saw Lady Gaga at 17 — and playing in Europe are some of her goals.
For now, she’s excited to continue doing what she loves by performing on tour.
“I’m really proud of myself and 13-year-old me who just started playing bass for…the pit band or the choir at Exeter High School or middle school, like, ended up playing these shows. Younger me wouldn’t believe it,” Harris said.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Grace Chai, Portsmouth Herald.
