Calvin Harris goes country for his first step back behind the mic in a decade
Looks like the EDM superstar is back on lead vocal duties in a teaser for his new track, Smoke The Pain Away

Yee haw. It’s a known fact that country music is hotter than ever and, always willing to ride a genre-mashing bucking bronco, here comes Calvin Harris, fresh out of the stocks on yet another new style being his first new music since 2022’s EDM-shirking Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2.
The new track has broken cover via a new, 32-second long clip on the DJ’s Instagram, showing Calvin in the studio (following his recent house move, we assume) picking at an acoustic and – surprise surprise – getting behind the mic for the first time in 10 years.
Yes, it may come as a surprise to casual Calvin watchers but Harris’s global fame and sleek EDM superstar DJ/producer status only came after he decided to step out of the limelight, drop the dork chic and put the mic down. In fact, his last credited appearance on lead vocals was for the 2015 recording of My Way (not that one).
However, as a rule, following You Used To Hold Me, the fourth single from his second album, Ready for the Weekend, and despite being very much the solo artist on his I Invented Disco debut, Harris deemed that his vocals weren’t acceptable in the 2010s…
The new clip shows a new, hairier Harris vocal-frying his way through a moody turn, dropping away just as – we assume – the synths and wobbly bassline drop.
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And with EDM giving way to YEEDEM on for smashes such as Kane Brown and Marshmello’s Miles On It and Diplo and Morgan Wallen Heartless (following pioneer-ing work by Avicii on the likes of Wake Me Up and Broken Arrows) it’s not hard/surprising to see where Harris wanted to head next.
And it looks like the track has got at least a couple of high-profile fan already: Harris’s wife Radio 1 DJ Vick Hope offers “Those vocals 😮💨🔥 YEEEESSSSS!!!” while TV presenter Davina McCall approves of Harris’ ‘new’ move with “I LOVE IT WHEN YOU DO THE VOCALS.”
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There’s no firm date or time attached to its release but Harris in his original promised, “It’s coming", before [STOP PRESS] adding a "Next week" update revealing even more the the track's country vibes…
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Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the biggest entertainment, tech and home brands in the world. He's interviewed countless big names, and covered countless new releases in the fields of music, videogames, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors and garden design. He’s the ex-Editor of Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes for MusicRadar.com.
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