Meeting Australian songwriter and producer Hayden James before his show brought even more heat and holiday breeze to already sunny day in Gothenburg. To paraphrase the title of one of his hits – we needed no ‘’Permission to Love’’ him!
– How does coming from Australia influence your music?
I think since the climate in Australia is always quite warm, my music is definitely summery, feel-good and not too dark. I’m lucky enough my folks have their place by the beach so I can just sit at the balcony, with my laptop and keyboard and compose.
Sydney is not too big so there’s a lot of musicians involved in my label Future Classic that live close to each other. That means we can go to each other’s studios and write music together.
– I heard there is “Something About You”. What is it that made you go into music?
I started to listen to the music by the age of 10 with my older brother. The first thing I remember
– How does coming from Australia influence your music?
I think since the climate in Australia is always quite warm, my music is definitely summery, feel-good and not too dark. I’m lucky enough my folks have their place by the beach so I can just sit at the balcony, with my laptop and keyboard and compose.
Sydney is not too big so there’s a lot of musicians involved in my label Future Classic that live close to each other. That means we can go to each other’s studios and write music together. listening to was Daft Punk’s ‘’Around the world’’ from 1996. That’s how I got hooked up on dance music. Then I started to DJ and play a lot and wanted to produce on my own. About 3 years ago I started writing professionally. My brother was also listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and such so yeah, interesting, I could have turned out completely different!
– Is there any kind of music that you personally listen to, but your fans would not guess as an influence on your records?
I love Tame Impala, an Australian band from Perth.
– The video to “Permission to love” ‘has great visuals! How did you come up with it?
The record company Future Classic pitched the idea. The song is about a personal relationship of mine, but instead of making it really serious, they wanted to make it poppy and poke fun of it. The visuals are from an old computer game called ‘’Leisure Suit Larry’’- it’s pretty much a hilarious guy running around and trying to get laid. It’s from the late 80’s so I just missed it as a kid, haha.
– What can we expect from you in the upcoming months?
I’m just 4 shows into my European tour of around 18 performances. I am also planning to release one album by the end of the year, with the first single coming out in the next two months. A lot to be looking forward to!
Credits:
Words by Weronika Pérez Borjas
Photography by Clara Uddman
Special thanks to WOW2015, SJ, ESS HOTELL