He was born in Evanston, Illinois. He has one younger sister. They were both, raised by their mom (who bought him his first guitar when he was twelve). They moved around a lot when he was growing up. In fact, in one Six Year span he thinks they moved thirteen times. Living in various cities like, Santa Fe, Boston and Seattle. Eventually they ended up in Chicago where their mom found a job that she liked. Both his sister and he went to high school there.

At seventeen, the summer of his graduation, he moved to California in a VW van that his mom sold to him for a dollar. He headed for San Francisco even though he didn't know anyone there. He figured when he got there he'd just sleep in his van for a while till he got a band started or something. He did finally join a band that became very popular in that area for the time, and he did finally move out of his van (although it was 6 months later). The band was called Flame. They were together for 6 years and put 2 records out.

He's been in bands his whole life and every now and then he'd sing, but usually there was a SINGER. Writing all along, and usually keeping a song or two to himself, at one point decided that he wanted to sing them. So, he started playing around the Bay Area and it was ok, but he was getting the feeling he should be doing it elsewhere. By process of elimination it came down to Austin, TX.

He has been in Austin now for about ten years. He has worked with many great Austin artists in that time…Trish Murphy, Bob Schneider, Kacy Crowley, Blu Sanders, Steve Poltz, Craig Ross…

He has four indie releases -"More Happy Than Sad","Toast",“Pie”, and his new one "Bearsick" which broke CMJ's top 100.

Keep up with him also at http://www.billyharvey.com and http://www.myspace.com/billyharvey