It’s a double celebration this coming weekend, as Jezabels front woman Hayley Mary not only kicks off her first ever nationwide headline tour in Perth but it is also album release day for her debut solo record ‘Roman XS’. We caught up with Hayley to discuss her debut album, as well as what a glass of red and a steak can get you from a creative Sarah McLeod…
Sean: Hayley, how are you?
Hayley: Hey Sean, good thanks. Great to speak to you again.
Sean: Well let me get in early to congratulate of the new up and coming debut album ‘Roman XS’. Five of the tracks have dropped all ready and they are all very different. You must be so excited to finally be able to release the whole album.
Hayley: I feel like I was produced for it, like giving birth to a watermelon. [laughs] But there’s a slight constipation to trying to get an album out these days. It just took me so long to make, like almost as long to get out. So I honestly think when this is done I’m just going gonna stare at a wall for like three weeks [laughs].
Sean: Sounds like a huge relief then [laughs].
Hayley: Oh yeah, because I’m very DIY so I kind of have a lot more invested than just kind of what most artists do, you know. I’m kind of organizing the tour and also managing myself and releasing it myself. I have no label or anything so it’s a lot of work which I really like doing, but it’s been a bit of a brain explosion to me. But then it was also the creative thing. It was a big, ambitious album to do on my own. Like, especially looking back, I decided to do rock music as a solo artist, which is kind of crazy because, you know,
there’s a reason why solo artists often go poppy electronic, I think. It’s easier practically speaking so yeah, it’s just been a mammoth thing that I’m very proud of and I’m kind of just like not to say I don’t care how it goes but it’s really for me. The fact that it is even in the world is the achievement.
Sean: Well, of course you’ve teased us over the last few years with some EPs but now is time for the big one. You mentioned your a fan of DIY and I kind of experienced this first hand myself when I caught up with you and Sarah McLeod from The Superjesus. You both mentioned you had been spending the afternoon having a casual drink at The Palace Hotel in Broken Hill during the Mundi Mundi Bash weekend, when you both decided to shoot some clips on her phone to use for a future vid.
Hayley: [laughs] Yeah, I mean, a lot of that is down to the fact she is this dark horse director. I thought I was going to get something a bit lacklustre. I needed some content for this song that I had coming out. It wasn’t even an official single – ‘Primordial Afterglow’ was really meant for streaming just to keep the momentum going but in a way you don’t put a full campaign behind it and yeah, I was like thinking she might just, I don’t know, film me next to a frigging horse or something with me saying, “hey, my song’s out.” [laughs] And she kind of went with it. She just went berserk because her dad’s a cinematographer, right? She was like, “You have asked the right person!” So honestly, most artists, musical artists, hate making videos, let alone for someone else. It was mad good luck that I had there. It’s still the cheapest music video I’ve ever made. It cost me a steak and a glass of wine [laughs].
Sean: It was fantastic especially because I caught up with both you and Sarah in the afternoon and said, “so what have you been doing today?” And she was so excited when I ran her out to the merch table for a signing session and she was saying “oh my god Seany, we’ve filmed this video and I’m going to edit it as soon as I get home and when I said “what do you mean?” She went, “well, we just asked could we use some of the pub?” And she said, “we were in the kitchens, we were upstairs, we were in the bar. We went everywhere.” And the results were wonderful.
Hayley: It’s funny because we were filming everywhere because this guy at the bar said it was ok but when we bumped into the manager she had no idea what we were doing [laughs].
Sean: So the guy at the bar could very well have just been a local [laughs]. So, where did the name ‘Roman XS’ come from for the album?
Hayley: Look, it’s beautiful, it’s a bit convoluted and all, just really simple as well. The simple side is that it was excessive to be even making an album, particularly a rock and out, in today’s climate, you know, especially as a solo musician. I was speaking to a younger artist at some event, and I was like, “oh, yeah, I’ve just finished my album.” She was like, “whoa, an album? That’s crazy.” Because actually these days it is pretty difficult. Like, it’s expensive. It’s a big job, especially a rock album, you have to go into the studio and all these kinds of things. And unless you’re established or have a big label or whatever, it’s quite a big thing to do. We indulged ourselves with production a bit – I think we went a bit over the top with guitars and synthesizers and kind of made this epic album, in my opinion. I know you’re not supposed to call your own music epic, but I don’t care anymore. I don’t care about any of the rules [laughs]. The album is epic and it’s ambitious, but it’s also, to me, in the age of musical minimalism, it comes across as really quite excessive. And to me, kind of punk, because it’s a resistance of that cool minimalism is now. It’s just like this over-the-top thing and nostalgic and, you know, I wouldn’t call it histrionic, but, you know, it’s not understated, really, like a lot of pop music these days.
And also a little bit to do with a sign, like how I feel about the times. I don’t want to get too deep into that, but just the feeling of an empire on the wane and maybe that some people kind of hate the world we live in and the society we come from. But I don’t really, and I kind of think it’s a little bit sad that we might be at the end of Western society. I actually hope that we are not. And so maybe a little bit like, you know, like how Nietzsche proclaimed that God was dead and everyone thought he was celebrating it but he wasn’t. He was saying this is a really bad, sad thing and and hell’s gonna break loose because of it. It’s a little bit like that. I’m saying you know, maybe we’re in the period of excess of our empire which actually came before the fall of the romans. Maybe we should be like looking at ourselves and where we are we are history and I like Roman history a little bit.
I’m not some whiz. I don’t know heaps of shit, but I do happen to know, like, certain things that I’ve read recently and over the years about Rome is that there’s actually a lot of similarities between now and then that were actually popularly known. Like, there was a lot of climate change before the end of the Roman Empire, and there was a lot of pandemics and new diseases because of that climate change. And these were just phases in, like, glacial melting stuff. It wasn’t actually human-induced climate change like ours, but there are some parallels. And I just found that really interesting. And, you know, I guess it’s easy to get overwhelmed by foreign affairs these days and think, wow, it just does feel like the end of an era sometimes. So it was a little bit of a sort a deeper reflection on society and the world, but it was also just a reflection on me being a self-indulgent artist.
Sean: You touched on the fact that it’s difficult to do a rock album as a solo artist, but you’ve got a backing band coming with you on the tour, the Hurricanes. It all kicks off in Perth on Friday 25th October, but what can you tell us about the Hurricanes?
Hayley: So I started out as a six-piece. Sometimes it feels like the end of rock and roll to me yeah because it’s so unsustainable in so many ways but then I get excited when you know I see new bands forming and I do believe it will never die but with my band… and again you’re not supposed to talk about boring behind the scenes business stuff but I don’t care about the rules anymore… so it started at the start just before Covid and I had a six-piece band at first but you have to pay them all and you have to pay for their travel and you have to pay for their travel days and it ends up costing tens of thousands of dollars to have a full band. So then covid hit and you were only allowed to play to like five people in a room at once. I was like, “this is actually impossible unless you’re a millionaire” so I ended up adapting over the last few years and using a combination of technology and and also learning to play guitar myself and so I’ve actually stripped it back to a three-piece band consisting of three girls, two guitars, one on drums and then we all sing and there’s a bit of backing track, I won’t lie, but just, again, I’m not a purist. I wouldn’t be able to come on tour if I was some purist that was like, “everything has to be played live”. So it’s just a practical thing. I would love one day, you know, and in the right circumstances I will, but I’ve never even toured the country. This is my first national tour, and all I hear is about tours getting cancelled because of lack of ticket sales, lack of sustainability. Even if you’ve sold it out sometimes, you still can’t make money if the calculations aren’t right earlier on, you find that actually this is going to cost more than it’s even able to make at that ticket price for example with constant inflation and all that stuff… again, I know I’m not supposed to be talking about money in the economy but I just don’t care. That’s it. Why did you need to pay six musicians? That’s a rule.
Sean: Fuck the rules [laughs].
Hayley: Yeah, right. Fuck them [laughs].
Sean: I think it is important that people understand the logistics behind it. It is sometimes just not financially viable to tour the country. We’re so happy that you’re opening the tour in Perth. Perth, sometimes, as you well know, misses out on these events. And we’ve got the pleasure of it being the opening night of the tour and the release of the album as well, which is fantastic. Old Habits in the City. I’m going to head down and come and see you, I think, and see that show.
Hayley: Yeah, that’d be great to catch up Sean. If I’m honest, this is probably my proudest life work. Like, I know I’ve probably had more successful projects in the past with Jezebels and stuff, but this is my baby and the proudest I’ve ever been of something. And I do think that even though some Jezebels fans, didn’t like some of my solo stuff because it was quite different, I actually think there’s a good blend of like, because I worked with a Jezebel’s producer on this. There’s a little bit. It goes back to some elements of Jezebel’s, not totally, but there’s a little bit more Jezebel’s friendly sounds in there. And then there’s still that me and that more straightforward rock thing. And there’s a few different angles on an album that you can kind of explore which is good so that excites me as well and I have to at least do one national tour before I die [laughs].
Sean: Well before I let you go I have a couple of general questions to run by you, if that is ok.
Hayley: Of course.
Sean: If you could invite three musicians, dead or alive to join you for dinner who would you have sat around the table with you?
Hayley: I’d be pretty boring on this one and say David Bowie. Then someone a bit more controversial like the composer Wagner who had a bit of a reputation [laughs] or Mozart maybe. Yeah, lets go Mozart… and then…
Sean: Bowie, Mozart…
Hayley: Maybe Agnetha from Abba [laughs]… maybe. Oh, it’s hard. Hard just to… Oh, Michael Jackson, I reckon. Just because he may have been criminal. But I’d like to look him in the eye and just work it out. [laughs]
Sean: That’s a pretty eclectic table. I have no idea where the conversation would turn there [laughs]. What was the last album you listened to?
Hayley: You know what album I really like? The Excentronic Research Council. And they have this concept album. Like, crazy fan follows this rock and roll band around. And the singer’s called Johnny Rock. And she gets obsessed with him. Do you know Maxine Peake? She’s a actress and it’s kind of spoken word, like quirky sort of punky music. I actually really recommend it and then funnily enough based on one of their songs Sean Lennon, the son of John Lennon. Yeah, it’s very weird and cool, but it’s just like I love spoken word stuff.
Sean: I was flicking through some of your back catalogue today and one of my favourite artists came up with you doing a duet and it was the Nick Cave song with Jon Stevens. What a fantastic version that was.
Hayley: Holy fuck. Where did you find that?
Sean: It popped up on Spotify.
Hayley: That was on Rockwiz. I reckon I probably sucked it on that because that was kind of a jazz live quiz, I think. I used to find those things very nerve-wracking and it wasn’t probably my best performance.
Sean: It’s a great version and you did it justice. Hayley, thank you so, so much for your time, especially in your evening. I really appreciate it. It’s great to catch up again.
Hayley: Thanks for even thinking of reaching out to help push my shows and music. I really appreciate it.
Sean: Well. I hope to catch you on 25th at Old Habits and good luck on album release day.
Hayley: That would be so great. Thanks Sean. See you then.
