FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
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| MUSIC HAYDEN Hayden is barreling down the highway to his next gig in Montreal while talking through a cellular phone balanced on his shoulder. As two travel companions giggle at him in the background, I realize the situation is not conducive to an in-depth conversation about his new, in-depth record, The Closer I Get. It's strongly probable that the 27-year-old singer/songwriter wouldn't surrender an in-depth lyrical explication even if he was in the private confines of a phone booth. Hayden may be one of the best Canadian lyricists at writing austere songs brimming with emotion, but (despite much prodding) he does not like discussing them. "No, I just generally don't love to talk about my songs or the lyrics in particular," Hayden admits. "I always like to hear what people think my songs are about. There's a few I've talked about, but not on this record. On Everything I Long For (his debut album) there's definitely obvious stories that I've said if they were true or whatever, but yeah, I'm not so into talking about what songs are about. "One of the reasons is that people will often write me letters and talk to me after shows and tell me what a song means to them. I really like knowing that people have different interpretations of what I'm singing about. I guess another reason is I kind of feel there's an element of personal thought and feeling in my songs, and that what I wanted to express is right there in the songs so talking about it is sort of redundant." Hayden will admit that the past two years have enriched his songwriting creativity. In 1996, Everything I Long For was re-released in the States and Hayden was forced to tour an album he'd already extensively toured in Canada. Within two months, he was unable to sink into the songs like when he first wrote them. He cut the American tour short by 10 months, succumbed to his creative urges and began writing songs for the new album. During the next year, Hayden took the talents of four producers (who had, collectively, worked with Neil Young, Sloan, REM, Nirvana and others) and globetrotted to three countries and four different studios to master the sound that washes through The Closer I Get. To recreate the lush feel of the record Hayden will be on tour with his first full band, including Damon Richardson (formerly of Change of Heart), Mitch Roth and Joshua Malinsky (formerly of Poledo). Once a man who only toured with his acoustic guitar, Hayden's full-scale production mirrors the gigantic steps he has made as a recording artist. "I went from living with my parents to going through this whole thing where a lot of people are interested in me and my music and traveling around the world and playing my music and meeting hundreds of people," he says. "It was like definitely a huge transitional period in my life." |
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