"It's not long enough but it's a pretty good run of shows. I haven't done a tour like this in about three years, even though it feels like yesterday, I haven't done a tour like this in a long time," laughed multi instrumentalist Hunter Hayes shortly before his two recent New Jersey shows at the Newton Theatre and The Stone Pony in Asbury Park. "I am thoroughly looking forward to it, I have been looking forward to doing a tour like this since "Evergreen" started coming together, you know, coming to life; "Evergreen" has been an eight to ten year process, depending on where you want to start, it's a pretty good run of shows and I'm really excited about it."
Hunter Hayes is a five time Grammy nominee who has shared a stage with the likes of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, The Flaming Lips and more but with the March 6 release of his latest album, "Evergreen" and this 22 show run which currently has him in the upper Midwest, his story and touring still have many chapters ahead.
A talented multi-instrumentalist and lyricist, he always seems to be thinking steps ahead in his career so, why was "Evergreen" "An eight to ten year process?"
"Every album is kind of that, I'm always working on multiple albums, I always have room, places to store multiple things," he began somewhat deliberately, "I'm only working on one thing in particular right now but songs come into the world in times when you don't expect them, certain ideas drop from the sky at random times and I like holding onto all of them. I also like being a little bit ahead of the process with writing. Writing is a very separate process from producing and that is a very separate process from touring, they are all anywhere from a year to six months apart from each other so I like having a lot of stuff stored and saved. "Evergreen" has kind of been in the works for about eight years now. In 2018 I started on "Wild Blue" and there were songs that didn't feel right for "Wild Blue" so I held them for a project called "Red Sky" and there were songs that were sitting in the back of both of those that felt more grounded, more planted, more lived in that I just kind of held on the side. There was the song "Evergreen" and I think that created the room that I stored everything in and then at the end of the "Red Sky" tour; the last time I toured, that was when this album really came to life. I got back from that tour, I learned a lot, it was my first tour as an independent artist, it was my first album as an independent artist and I was eager to learn so many things and eager to put things into practice. So, "Evergreen" was my chance to do that and it became very clear what "Evergreen" was about; it was always this sort of grounded project and I just felt like I hadn't lived enough to feel like I could talk on that or that I was qualified to speak on it but then, as I wrote it, the realization was that being grounded was a process, it's a never ending process and that's what "Evergreen" is about. There are parts of it that I've lived, there are parts of it that I want to live, there are parts of it I've seen and there are parts that I only dream about. That's the whole thing of "Evergreen," I think the beauty of "Evergreen" is that it's a bit of a manifestation, a prayer, yeah, a dream."
Often when an artist has a lengthy writing or release method, they tend to overthink the material's relevance as it ages and often scrap things or find themselves penning things to fill space on the new release. Those songs are commonly called, "Filler" but Hunter seems to be a very good judge of what needs to be released and when and has no problem allowing his songs to mature.
"That's right," he said with a laugh once again, "There is a lot to talk about there because I think the whole point of writing a song is that you never write a filler (Laughs). Every song is a hit in some way and I think every song is a hit in the right room too, right? It is very much about narrative. When I was working on "Wild Blue," it was still from the point of view of an optimist, which is how we finished "Evergreen." There is a song called, "Around The Sun" and there are a lot of lines in "Evergreen" about being an optimist but specifically in "Around The Sun" and that's what "Wild Blue" was kind of born out of; there is a song called, "One Heartbreak" and the line is, "I'm one heartbreak closer to you." So, you see the through lines very early on. "Wild Blue" was about seeing a lot of big life change and dealing with a lot of big life change because I was at the time. "Red Sky," I just felt was like a road trip; pack a bag, get in your car and see where the wind takes you. "Wild Blue" being the change, "Red Sky" kind of being, if you want to call it the conflict, you can call it the conflict and then "Evergreen" always felt like the resolution, always felt like the third act. Now, I don't see it as the finish of anything, I kind of see it as the beginning of a lot of other things but in the context of those stories there were some things that just needed to wait for "Evergreen." "Evergreen" the song obviously needed to wait for "Evergreen," it felt like I was painting a picture of the world that I wanted everybody to experience musically and lyrically. "Until She Comes Along" is the second song on the album. I love that it's the second song on the album because it's the earliest, it was written in 2016 or 2017 maybe; it has hung around for a while and it has been important to me for a while. I never knew what to do with it because it just had this optimist approach to it and it felt so light; everything on this album kind of feels lighter and more rounded. So, in summation, songs deserve to have their moment and if they're in the wrong story at the wrong time, kind of like life; there's a beautiful metaphor (Laughs), they don't make as much sense. They can be missed, they can be contextualized in the wrong way and you can kind of not see the value of them if they're not in the right place at the right time."
Along those lines and having so much control over the where, when and how his material is handled; does it bother him once it's released and he can no longer control how people think of or interpret it?
"Valid question but that's my favorite part. That's why I do it, I do it so that it's yours, it's not mine, it's not meant to be mine. I think it's weird to call it a gift because that seems a little pretentious but at the same time, I see it as something I want to give. I see it as something I want to give into the world. I want to create input in the world and have more in the world so no, I think it's my favorite part (Laughs). Honestly, parts of "Evergreen" are a sort of sub-category of growth for me. One of those was finding a way as a songwriter to both be present but also have a conversation so that there is space for other people. I don't want it to feel like every album is just about me. I also don't want to lose the significance that it's coming from a very real personal and authentic place but I know that. I know that it's hard coming from your very real place and there are some things I've written about that I haven't necessarily experienced. The last album, "Red Sky," most of that was about the industry; it was all written in the form of love songs or breakup songs, life songs or whatever but almost every song on that album was written about someone or something in the industry. That's something that I don't really talk about a lot but that's because I don't want it to mess with anybody else's relationship with the lyrics; whatever their relationship is with it is theirs and that's what I want. I mean, to me, that's where music gets its value, it gets its value from the listener, we're just making it until it's released. I think that's where it finds its life, that's where it gets its heartbeat when people listen to it. There is a reason that the only tattoo I have is a paper airplane on my arm. You'll see the paper airplane on stage with me when you come to a show, it's a big part of and is on very piece of my merch; I subscribe to the belief and it's my belief; my fans know this about me and that's what I love about our relationship, my songs are paper airplanes. I put everything I've got on every piece and then we toss it out and it catches the wind and it finds where it's supposed to and once it leaves my hands it's for the world and it's for the world to interpret however they want and yeh, it's yours and that's the best part."
Hayes isn't necessarily the type to tour and heavily feature his new material. Instead, he prefers to take his audiences on a journey and get from point A to point B and oh yeah, circle back around to places like The Stone Pony.
"I have a lot of history with The Stone Pony. I currently hold a Guinness World Record and I broke it there, so I've got a very special personal relationship with The Stone Pony. I actually just had a very fun long conversation with my buddy Alex, he and I produce shows together, we build shows together he's kind of my partner in crime when it comes to collaborating on anything musical and the show takes a lot of different shapes but it's really interesting when we make a setlist because the setlist reveals the story of the album we are playing because it says a lot about what songs have relationships with other songs. A lot of the debut record has come back, there are a lot of through lines, a lot of common threads and so we've built a show that's very modular in that we have a wild card slot that's gonna change and rotate, I have 10 different things that can slide into that slot. I like structure but I also love to be able to break it at any time. So, we make a very rigid structure and every time that has a space to breathe; I'm playing as many instruments as I can in the show but I also think the show is my chance to be the singer songwriter so it's really about the songs and the stories. I get to also kind of be the guitar player and the piano player and the vocalist but the band is the best they've ever been; I love playing in this band. They are a bunch of world class phenomenal musicians and speak the same language. I've also got some older members in the band who have been with me for close to 15 years and it's a good time for us to be on the road with a show and an album like this because it's taking a lot of things I've learned and putting them into a new practice or a series of practices. Old, new, everything in between, there are request slots, improv, some jamming, storytelling; the show just has a really fun roller coaster storyline and I love it."
Record? The Stone Pony? Do tell.
"In 2013 or 2014, I set the Guinness World Record for the most shows played in multiple cities in 24 hours. We did 10 shows in 10 different cities in a day. We started on GMA in New York, we went to Boston, then down to Rhode Island, crossed to Connecticut, played some other shows in New York and then we broke it at The Stone Pony at 4 a.m. We started on the morning show on a Friday and broke it at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, we sold out The Stone Pony where we broke The Guinness World Record and then went on to play another show in Philadelphia to finish it out. We had to travel a certain amount of mileage between shows, everything had to be licensed and ticketed, shows had to be a certain length of music, they had The Guinness World Record people there with their blazers, timers, clipboards and the whole thing so we didn't break any rules. It was a very intense set of rules so I'm really proud of it because as of now we still hold the record, it was a fun time."
To discover more about Hunter Hayes or when he is coming to a city near you, please visit https://store.hunterhayes.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
