HAYDEN ANNOUNCES FIRST NEW LP IN 8 YEARS ARE WE GOOD + SHARES NEW SINGLE/VIDEO “ON A BEACH (FT. FEIST)”
ARTS & CRAFTS
Hayden β the legendary Toronto indie-folk rock fixture whose heartrending songs are a soundtrack to coming of age β today announces Are We Good, his first full-length studio album since 2015, due out April 5 via Arts & Crafts. The news arrives alongside lead single “On A Beach (feat Feist)” and its cinematic, star-studded official video, also featuring the inimitable Leslie Feist with cameos by Matt Berninger of The National and beloved actor Steve Buscemi (who Hayden last worked with on the music for Trees Lounge, Buscemiβs 1997 directorial debut).
Spearheaded by βOn A Beachβ β a song unmatched in his canon for its immediate catchiness and clear blue sky production β Are We Good posits Hayden Desser, peppered and grizzled (by the pandemic or parenting), in an attic studio stand-off with writerβs block during early lockdown. A coupleβs duet about turning to hypnosis in search of the spark of their youth, the songβs ambling bass line and sparse hand claps blossom into Feist and Haydenβs indelible chorus of βWeβre on a beach, oh yeah, weβre on a beach / Weβre drinking income taxes and youβre fond of meβ with swirling synths adding to the ambience. Accompanied by a transportive music video directed by Yael Staav, who has directed most of Haydenβs videos for the last 25 years, βOn A Beachβ brings an all-star cast together into a timeless artistβs singular realm.
While Hayden acknowledges that this collection of eleven songs took him the longest to complete, βOn A Beachβ proved to him that βafter all these years, a song can still appear nearly fully formed in one quick inspired moment.β On Are We Good β an evolutionary album that is βthe sound of an artist whoβs been learning how to challenge an aesthetic theyβve been exploring for 30 yearsβ (sometimes past the point of perfection) β Hayden opened up to new creative approaches to awakening his singular storytelling voice, including collaboration in different forms. Hayden sets the stage:
βOne afternoon February 2021 I was asleep at my piano when I received a text from my friend Leslie (Feist), inviting me to be a part of a songwriting workshop with several other musicians of note. I was terrified, but joined in as an attempt to jolt myself out of submission. The idea was to write a song a day for seven consecutive days, sharing them later each evening with the other writers. A great combination of pure feet to the fire expression and accountability.
ββOn A Beachβ was my βday fourβ submission. I continued tinkering with the song and recording in the following weeks, adding a bridge, tracking several synth lines to try to create what I thought hypnosis may sound like. A few weeks later, Leslie was in town and I invited her to sing on a newer verse Iβd written to make the song more of a conversation. Who better than the best, and the one who basically made the song happen in the first place.β
Six years in the making with sixty plus songs in the running, Are We Good was written, produced, and mixed predominantly by Hayden at Skyscraper National Park, the studio at the top of his Toronto home. A perfect combination of complex family life β he and his wife are parents to a child with developmental disabilities β coupled with the grinding halt of creative inertia, Hayden found himself trying to balance the album on an unachievable ledge of perfection. By breaking his confines, Hayden β who has defined his perennial 30-year career with a staunchly DIY approach β made an album richly inspired by relationships, from first crushes to family, and music in between. Trading ideas back and forth over time with Berninger, Hayden put trust in a lyrical voice not his own for the first time across his eight achingly beautiful solo albums. The collaboration led to Berningerβs verses unfurling beneath Haydenβs repeated mantra of βAre we goodβ on the title track, just one defining moment of the album. The National frontman also co-writes on album tracks βItβs Just Meβ and βCanβt Happen Nowβ, furthering a collaboration which began on βTake Me Out Of Townβ off Berningerβs Serpentine Prison and will continue.
Hayden also worked with another member of The National on this record. After listening to an early version of βAre We Good,β Aaron Dessner came on board to lend his immense talents as co-producer. They worked on several songs at his storied Long Pond studio in Hudson NY, enlisting Dessner heavyweights like engineer Jonathan Low (Taylor Swift, Big Red Machine) and drummer James Krivchenia (Big Thief). Although just two of these co-productions appear on Are We Good β the stunning βWe Dancedβ in dedication to Leonard Cohen, and βItβs Just Meβ β the others are sure to show up in the near future.
Introduced by the raw and gravely βEast Coastβ and the raucous but plaintive βMiss Fort Erieβ, Haydenβs ninth studio album is a crowning achievement in his well-deep catalog of carefully hewn indie rock dating back to his debut album Everything I Long For in 1996. Often likened to north stars like Neil Young and Leonard Cohen in the same breath as sonic outliers like Pavement and Sebadoh, Hayden’s career began with a cult following in his native Canada, leading to a bidding war that saw him sign with Geffen offshoot Outpost records. A visual storyteller who has always used music videos as a lyrical tool, with βOn The Beachβ Hayden and his longstanding cast of friends prove again that reinvention is the greatest reminder of the essence of who you are.
Are We Good is currently available for pre-order on vinyl, CD and digital formats ahead of its April 5 release on Arts & Crafts.
Hayden
Are We Good
(Arts & Crafts)
Release Date: April 5, 2023