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More Liner Notes…
Q&A WIth Musician Darren Hayman
Q&A is a sometimes feature here at IHTOV, where a person (or persons) is given a set of questions about their record collection. Today’s guest is musician Darren Hayman
Have you ever bought a record just for the artwork?
I don’t think so, not entirely for the artwork. Or maybe I have, but I think it would still be that the artwork was telling me something about the genre or the sound of the music within.
I can think of records I wanted to like because of the art. Like, I would have liked to have collected Smiths seven inches, but the music didn’t do it for me.
What is your most memorable vinyl buying/receiving experience?
I remember being given The Damned ‘Live at the Lyceum’ by my parents one Xmas, and then we put it in, and the first words on the record are Captain Sensible shouting, ‘This one is for Lady Di, who’s a fucking slag!’
They stopped buying me records after that.
What’s the most treasured album in your collection and why?
Maybe the Wombles or Bay City Rollers records that were bought for me before I could speak properly. The decision was made by my parents that I liked these artists. This is before The Damned incident, obviously.
What one record in your collection would you be most eager to share with new friends?
I wouldn’t do that to new friends. That would be ghastly. I’d be more interested in their records, maybe.
Do you have a definitive album of choice for spring, summer, autumn and winter?
Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk feels like a winter record. Al Green’s Belle feels like a summer record because he literally says, ‘it feels like summer’ on it. McCartney by McCartney is an autumn record. Courtney Marie Andrews could be for spring.
What is/are your white whale records, something you have your eye on but haven’t been able to get?
I don’t really go looking for records. I let them find me.
Who/what got you hooked on records?
Before records, I really liked collecting cassettes, and most of my early collection was pre-recorded cassettes. I have them in boxes still, although nothing to play them on.
What’s your favorite record to listen to on headphones?
I like having Iris DeMent purr in my ear.
Have you ever bought a record based on hearing it playing in a record store?
Not a record store, but I’ve had to ask DJs a few times what is being played because I want to own it. I remember hearing ‘Small Town Talk’ by Bobby Charles in a country club in East London and asking, and then loving the record.
What’s the last record you played?
Strawberries by the Damned, which now makes it sound like that’s all I listen to!
Darren Hayman is an acclaimed songwriter, musician and artist who began his career in 1996 with Indie Rock group and John Peel favourite Hefner, with whom he climbed charts and toured the world. Following the band’s indefinite hiatus in 2002, Hayman dived deep into synths and samples as a part of The French before beginning a solo career that has eclectic produced albums themed on astronauts, socialist chants, WW1’s “Thankful Villages,” mass transit, the Brat Pack, outdoor swimming pools, caravan holidays, royals, and beyond.
Recently, Hayman returned to his Indie Rock as a part of New Starts,and has been leading painting workshops in his home of London. On June 12th, Hayman is reissuing his Folk album, ‘The Violence,’ as an expanded edition. This 2012 album is about 17th-century English Civil Wars and the Anglian Witch Trials, and its re-release represents a wider effort to digitally distribute the missing back catalogue from his thirty-year career.
