HAYLEY MARY

Your new single "Eighteen" captures a sense of nostalgia mixed with a gothic twist. Can you talk about the inspiration behind this track and how your experience driving through LA helped shape its theme? 

I’ve always been a naturally nostalgic person, perhaps because, to be very honest, I’m slightly conservative in comparison to where current mainstream culture sits, especially music culture. So it’s easy to romanticise ‘simpler’ times, but I guess the gothic twist comes from an awareness that it can also be pretty dark to look at the past more fondly than the present, just as dark as wishing you life away dreaming of the future, or utopia as we so often do. Both can be symptomatic of a lack of gratitude and an inability to live in the moment, and both happen all the time. My nostalgia was really strong on that road-trip in LA and ‘When You Were Young’ by the Killers came on. I wanted to be eighteen, at the end of high-school again, but I knew that young teenager me dreamed about being an adult, driving a convertible driving from Hollywood to Vegas like I was now. I thought that contradiction was worth capturing in a song; the idea that too much of either backwards or forwards thinking can become so unhealthy they suck the life out of the moment like a vampire. 

The music video for "Eighteen" has a distinct vampire theme. What was it like working with Bryn Chapman Parish from Heartbreak High on this project, and how does the visual concept tie into the song’s meaning?

That was the director, Samantha (Sami) Swilks idea. When I told her what the song meant to me she came up with this inversion of the nostalgia story. What if you were actually stuck at 18? That would be truly gothic. She happened to know Bryn and I thought the idea of a teen drama star was absolutely perfect for my vampire bf who traps me in the. He was great and is obviously a natural on screen. It took  us a few tries to get over the awkwardness of dancing romantically in front of a bunch of people, because I am not a professional actor, but he was very gracious and patient with me. Haha 

The production on Roman XS draws from a variety of influences, from gothic synth-pop to 80s divas like Annie Lennox and Kate Bush. How did you go about blending these styles with your own unique sound? 

Yeah, to be honest, I’ve always struggled with the fact that I don’t seem to fit in a particular sound, mood or style. In fact I think it has hindered me in a lot of ways as it’s difficult to culminate into a cohesive ‘brand’ which is somewhat paramount to the music industry. The cohesion always seems to come from whoever I am collaborating with because they put a very welcome limit on my creative ramblings. Having Lachlan Mitchell as the executive producer on this group of songs was really good as I knew a lot of it was his wheelhouse from working with him previously with The Jezabels. Lachlan actually trained in the UK under George Martin and assisted on some pretty iconic 80s stuff, but he is known as a bit of a contradiction as a producer because he has as much time for black metal and DIY punk as he does for super-star 80s pop divas. I guess I sit somewhere in the middle of all that. Haha. He is also quite conceptual, which I appreciate,  as a concept can sometimes help tie things together that are seemingly aesthetically disparate. 

"Eighteen" features some really interesting interpolations, including a nod to Dead Or Alive’s "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" and samples from the 1965 horror film Nightmare Castle. How did these elements come together during the production process?

The Mario Caiano film was Lachlan’s idea.  We knew at that time the album was going to be called Roman XS and have a bit of a gothic feel, and Nightmare Castle was a gothic horror film shot in Rome and old enough to be out of copyright, so it was perfect. The dialogue we found tied really well into the themes of longing for eternal youth and misplaced desire. 

The Dead Or Alive track was kind of just an instinctual decision of mine because the song was starting to sound  really 80’s. I had the bulk of the song, but it didn't feel like it was right after this epic breakdown/journey we’d created in the bridge to go back into a formulaic chorus repeat. I just started singing a slightly altered take of the ‘You Spin Me’ lines to it and it seemed to work. I hit up the band for permission and they were really good about it, which I appreciate a lot. These things can be difficult to get over the line sometimes, especially when you’re borrowing from a song as huge and iconic as that. 

You’ve described Roman XS as balancing the synth-pop of The Killers with the gritty beats of The Chemical Brothers. What drew you to explore this musical direction on your debut album, and how did working with co-producers like Johnny Took and Lewis Stephenson help bring that vision to life?

Overall it’s a pop-rock /indie rock record for sure, but there are definitely moments that were influenced by electronic/dance music which is mainly because Johnny is obsessed with The Chemical Brothers and gritty rock and we wrote a couple of tracks together (‘One Last Drag’ and ‘Millionaire’) and he co- produced the former with Lachlan. Eighteen also has that disco feel which makes a track like ‘One Last Drag’ not too much of a sore thumb though in a more 80s way. Working with Lewis is great because he has a real penchant for 80s diva style song-writing and production style. Tracks like ‘The Lonely One’ and ‘What Makes A Man Cry’ are seriously epic and dramatic in a way you don’t often get to hear since the cynicism of the 90’s stormed the world and dominated recent trends, so I like that I can merge these disparate yet equally awesome things in my album because of the oversight of Lachlan Mitchell, who somehow manages to not lose his mind when ideas feel like their coming from every which way.  

You’re known for your dynamic stage presence. With the release of Roman XS, where can fans catch you performing live, and what can they expect from your upcoming shows?

I’m kicking off the Roman XS album tour on release day, October 25th in Perth. I have a very awesome three-peice band I call The Hurricanes who happen to be all girls. I didn’t hire them because they were girls. I hired them because they were the best people for the job at the time. I play rhythm electric and have a gun lead guitarist Lakota Vella, and amazing drummer & musical director Astid Holz who helps me put the set together with the use of tracks. We all sing harmonies. The band is smaller than I started out with when I first went solo in 2019, because it’s a way of adapting to the difficulties of touring in the post pandemic economy, but it all sounds rather huge. 

HAYLEY MARY ROMAN XS ALBUM TOUR 
Friday 25 October - Old Habits, Perth
Saturday 26 October - Grace Emily Hotel, Adelaide
Friday 1 November - Waywards, Sydney
Saturday 2 November - Black Bear Lodge Brisbane

Saturday 9 November - Out West Fest, Ararat
Friday 29 November - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Tickets on sale at hayleymary.com