Local Talent: Alex Haysler

In the internet age, new artists can often find their voice drowned out in a sea of like-minded competitors. Warwick engineering student Alex Haysler has successfully embarked on the first steps towards musical recognition, with his latest album Intents and Purposes making its way to Spotify and iTunes in recent months. Following the album’s release, Sam Carter caught up with the student troubadour to discuss writer’s block, studio recording, and Nando’s chicken.

Boar Music: Hi Alex, how are you?

Alex Haysler: It’s going OK since Intents and Purposes has started to come out now, so now I’m trying to get the whole gig side of thing sorted. This phase is about getting everything out there; I’ve never been one to push myself. I’ve been working on the album for the past two years so all my focus has been towards that and suddenly it’s shifted. I think a lot of bands do it completely differently. I gigged through secondary school but I decided I wanted to concentrate on writing music back then.

BM: Has writing always been a priority for you?

AH: It did help because two of the people who recorded with me are people I’ve been playing music with since I was twelve – we were already there as performers anyway. We found it quite easy once I’d written the stuff for them to come in and play bits and pieces. [Drummer] Dave Asafu-Adjaye, who I knew from secondary school, came to Leamington and recorded the whole album in six hours.

BM: So you’re close to the people who helped you record the album?

AH: The guy who produced it with me, Matt Fargie, is an absolute whizz with ProTools and things, and he’s an absolute genius. I wouldn’t know how to do it without him; you tend to pick these things up though. He’s been really good, and we’ve been best friends since secondary school. And I have other people who I know quite well on the album too [Another of Alex’s collaborators is Verity Pitts, who recorded backing vocals on a number of songs].

BM: That must be helpful as a solo artist.

AH: It’s easy to get sucked into doing your own thing and become too inward-looking when you’re doing a solo album. It’s easy to block everything else out, so I wanted to keep other influences and ideas coming in.

It’s easy to get sucked into doing your own thing and become too inward-looking when you’re doing a solo album.

BM: When you write, do you bring your music to your collaborators?

AH: Generally, I pitched ideas to them and they brought their own take to things. With Dave, I’d say how I wanted it to sound, and he’d add bits in and we’d decide what sounded good. It was a lot of fun to do writing-wise because I tend to keep a pad of paper within my reach most of the time. I’m not one for sitting down and allocating time for writing, but the downside of that is I’ll write at ridiculous times. 3 AM is a common time, so I probably owe a lot of apologies to people in first year for playing late at night!

BM: Do you tend to write lyrics and music separately?

AH: I find if you don’t try and fit things to a certain melody you can express yourself with a bit more freedom. Whenever I have writer’s block, I pop a piece of paper down and tell myself I have to write for two minutes non-stop. Normally you get to the end of two minutes and think: “oh my god, this looks rubbish!” But you can usually cherry-pick a few lines that sound interesting.

BM: That seems like something that holds a lot of people back.

AH: Yeah, it’s easy to get a couple of lines in your head and try to force the issue too much. If I find I’m trying to force lines, I stop myself and put it to one side before coming back to it later. Especially when you’re starting out, you feel like you need to complete a song as quickly as possible but it doesn’t necessarily sound as good. I often find myself going back to my early attempts and thinking: “I could have said this instead.”

BM: I listened to your stuff on Soundcloud earlier and found it hard to pin down. What would you call your style?

AH: This is really hard – I suppose I need someone else to define what I am. A few people have said it’s a bit of an eclectic mix of styles. I do enjoy classic stadium anthem rock but I also enjoy a nice acoustic melody. I self-taught guitar but I did have lessons in classical guitar with nylon strings, which is where some of the more melodic parts come from.

Dave said it sounded a bit like a prog band called Porcupine because of some of the offbeat rhythms. There will always be a place for steady beats, but I enjoy the odd bit of experimentation.

BM: I wasn’t expecting the level of production you used on the vocals.

AH: My friend knew me from before, so he had an idea of what I was after. There was a degree of telepathy, I suppose; he’s really hot on the production side of things. I’m lucky to have a friend called Edwin Malins, who’s a brilliant vocalist and provides quite a few of the backing harmonies [Malins also co-wrote album track ‘Wonderful Day’]. Harmonies are something I’d like to do live – with acoustic songs it’s quite easy to become flat in your delivery, so I want to avoid becoming one-dimensional.

BM: What kind of live shows have you aimed at?

AH: I’ve done a couple of UnPlucked shows, which are great for getting stuff out there. It was interesting to see how my new material sounded live, and I’ve also tried rapping. I started to wonder: “can I actually pull this off?”

BM: Ed Sheeran does it!

AH: Exactly! It’s a bit of a trend now, and I enjoyed doing it. At the last UnPlucked I did a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Bitch Don’t Kill my Vibe’ and I mashed it up with Eminem’s ‘Beautiful’ – that was a lot of fun to do live too.

BM: How did you get your stuff on Spotify?

AH: I went through an external company which was quite helpful. It meant that I could keep 100% of the royalties if I payed a one-off fee. The plan is to give all the profits from the album’s sales to leukaemia research. It’s been quite an important charity throughout my childhood, so I felt like I should give something back.

BM: Has this been a recent development?

AH: The album was officially released on the 26th of January, but it went on iTunes first. It was quite a good package. To anyone who’s looking to get their stuff out there, don’t just rest on targeting individual companies separately; have a look at these package deals because they’re set up to enable independent artists to get their stuff out there.

Music videos are in the works but they’re not here yet. If you want, you can even set up your own Vevo account and your own label. It’s a great opportunity to have; you can kickstart your music career, especially because it can initially seem like a huge wall has been put up in front of you.

The plan is to give all the profits from the album’s sales to leukemia research. It’s been quite an important charity throughout my childhood, so I felt like I should give something back.

BM: So where do you go from here?

AH: I’m trying to get as many live shows as I possibly can. I’ve had quite a busy January, most of my energy up until now has gone into getting the album out there. Now that I’ve done that, I can concentrate on getting as many live shows as possible and trying to do more around campus to get recognised more.

BM: How have you found balancing work with music?

AH: It’s been a challenge and part of the reason is that it’s taken the best part of two years from writing the first song to recording and releasing the album. I suppose it’s been quite useful for time-management skills and things like that too. I think in hindsight I could have had a quicker turnaround, but it’s always going to take a little bit longer first time around.

BM: So you can use that experience for your next release.

AH: I think that’s a key thing for me. With the way I write music, I’m never going to have periods of four or five years where I’m not writing. I’ll always be writing regardless of live shows. I’ve already written 6 or 7 new songs – in their early stages of course.

BM: So another album is on its way then?

AH: Yeah, exactly – that’s the hope anyway. I’ll keep on writing because that’s what I enjoy; any time I’m not doing anything else, I’m just looking forward to getting all the university stuff done. Once I’ve finished exams, I’ve got June and July to try and play some gigs and get some more exposure.

BM: And finally: Nando’s or Wagamama?

AH: I’m going to have to say Nando’s. Wagamama is really nice but my heart lies with Nando’s chicken!

For more information on Alex Haysler, check out his Facebook page.