From Netflix hit Purple Hearts to opening Victorious Festival's Castle Stage - Emsworth's Harvey Jay Dodgson is on the rise

And in the background of one scene is a song called Caroline, by one Harvey Jay Dodgson.

Harvey, from Emsworth, is a rising star who has been catching the attention of some serious industry tastemakers. He was snapped up earlier this year by the Paradigm booking agency, which represents some of the world’s biggest artists from Ed Sheeran to The Prodigy.

This weekend the 20-year-old indie-rocker will be playing to the biggest home crowd of his career so far when he opens The Castle Stage on Sunday at Victorious.

Harvey released his debut single, Indigo, in 2019, but the pandemic stopped him in his tracks. Over the past year, he has been busy making up for lost time, playing as many gigs as possible and releasing his debut EP, Oxygen, in April.

‘In the last few months with gigs and festivals especially,’ says Harvey, ‘I've been able to build a bit of momentum and hopefully I can carry that on through the rest of the year and onwards.’

He’s been buoyed by support from radio too: ‘It's been brilliant, Steph on BBC Introducing on Radio Solent, John Kennedy on Radio X – that's a brilliant radio station, it just makes you want to carry on, it's a great feeling.’

But having his song Caroline in Purple Hearts has brought his music to a whole new audience.

‘I've definitely seen the benefit of that – the number of my listeners has gone up. It put the music in another lane of where it can be used – to have it in a film is like another string to the bow.

‘And it's been recognised by a lot of people – the film did really well, sitting at number one for a while, I was really pleased with it, and being able to showcase it in that.

‘I have seen the film – I sat down and watched it with my family. They loved it and they're really supportive. I think they enjoyed the film as well, which is always a good thing!

‘Again it gives you that self-belief that the music can be doing great things.’

For his most recent video, for the Oxygen track For The Love Of It, Harvey is filmed on the streets of Southsea and in The Loft on Albert Road.

‘That was great fun,’ he recalls. ‘That was filmed by a group of Bournemouth uni students who came down. They put it all together and did a really good job with it.

SEE ALSO: 15 reasons you can be denied entry to Victorious Festival

‘It kind of reflected the song as well – a group of uni students doing it to benefit them and to help me with my music, now we've got their contacts – and we're all doing it for the love of it!

‘Putting it together, and the whole vibe of it was about having a laugh and not worrying about money - just doing the best out of what you've got. Filming it in Portsmouth, it’s the same as all of my music videos, around Hayling Island, Emsworth, it shows off where I'm from and being proud of the place I live. I want to showcase that and put it in with my music. Places around here are where I get my inspiration from.’

Harvey first picked up a guitar when he was just seven, but he says it’s only very recently he’s been taking it more seriously: ‘It's only been the past few months to a year. I've not always had a lot of self-belief. I'd always enjoyed doing it, but thought that it's probably not going to happen and I was looking at other options. But in this past year with all of the momentum that's built up, I've been putting every second I get, when I'm not working, into it. I’ve had a bit more self-belief and hope that it could happen.’

He is also now on the roster of Wasserman Music (until recently known as Paradigm).

‘It's pretty mad. My agent Alex Hardee is the agent for people like Liam Gallagher, Bastille and Grace Jones. He got in touch with Jeff (Powell, Harvey’s manager) and said he wanted to come and see one of my gigs, so he came to a London show and a week or so later said he wanted to sign me. It was a crazy feeling, and again that gives me more self-belief.

‘It's not just Jeff that believes me in, when it's someone like Alex, things like that keep me going.’

Harvey’s been playing various festivals recently from The Great Escape in Brighton, to Golden Touch at The Wedge, in the This Feeling tent at the isle of Wight Festival and 110 Above Festival in Leicestershire.

But this weekend’s set at Victorious will be the icing on the cake.

‘I've played Victorious a couple of times – the one before lockdown I was on the Radweb stage, and then last year I was on the Casemates stage.

‘I cannot wait.

‘I've been going since I was about 14-15, so it's quite surreal, after watching people on these stages, like Nile Rodgers last year, and always imagining being up there.

‘Obviously being on so early it won't be such a huge crowd, but just the honour of being picked to play on this stage - it's living the dream!’

For tickets go to victoriousfestival.co.uk.