kinsey's blog: December 2013

Tyler Hayes is an up and coming country singer/songwriter hailing from Mobile, Alabama. He plays different venues all over South Alabama and will soon move to Nashville to pursue music full time. Aside from all of this, he is also my cousin. During our family Christmas, I sat down with him to ask some questions about his music and everything it entails. Without further ado, here is my interview with Tyler Hayes.

1. - How did you first get into music?

My dad has always been in music. He's done it ever since he was a boy, since he was about 14 years old. I got involved when I was about eight years old when I got my first guitar. I kinda got out of it for a little while. I started playing baseball and then I got back into it. [My dad] He never stopped, but it's just always something I've been exposed to. Whenever I was about 18 years old, I decided I would pick it back up. I started really enjoying it, working at it, and that's kinda where it sprouted from was just my dad's passion for music. My mom, she's passionate about music too. My dad is old school country and my mom likes southern rock and she loves pretty much all kinds of music and that gives me a huge, wide, variety. I went through a phase my four years of high school into the beginning of my freshman year of college where I was nothing but rock. I wouldn't even listen to country music. No Country. It was all rock and heavy metal. I got invited to a country concert and I did not want to go. I did not want to be there, but I guess it was just a phase. I still love rock music and that is kinda how I like play my country music, with a rock side to it.

2. - What instruments do you play? If you play more than one, do you have a favorite?

I only play the acoustic guitar and I wish I was better at it. I've gotten better over the years, definitely, but it's something that time and a lot of practice is going to help. Really, that's all I've ever done is played guitar. I've always loved to sing, even when I wasn't performing, I loved to sing all the time. So, I picked up the guitar so I would have an instrument to accompany me while I sang. It's something I did that would allow me to play in public.

3. - Do you have a favorite guitar?

YES! [answers very enthusiastically with a huge smile on his face]. It's out there in the truck right now. I just got it two days ago. It's a Gibson Hummingbird Custom and her name is Ruby. She is beautiful and she sounds beautiful. I love it. I had a Takamine and it was a little bit more in my price range whenever I got it. But, just playing this new Gibson is so much more pleasurable. It's so much easier to play. It makes the whole experience so much better.

4. - Do you have any original material?

I do. I have probably eight completed songs and probably fifteen other pieces of songs. The thing about it is I'm my worst enemy and my worst critic whenever it comes to writing music. I write something and I am the hardest person around me. I'm hardest on myself because I'm kinda a perfectionist. Maybe not in all aspects of my life, but in certain areas I'm a perfectionist and I'm really hard on myself when it comes to music. A lot of people around me really enjoy the music that I write. Whenever I do get to record an EP, there will be some of those songs that I have written already that will be on there, as well as some that intend to write in the near future.

5. - What process do you have when you write?

It always varies. My best songs I've actually written on the road. My best song I've written was when I was coming home from Louisiana. I had a line pop in my head, one line: "Time Well Wasted." When it popped in my head I was like "Wait a minute, I can work around that." In a matter of ten or fifteen minutes, I had a chorus and by the time I got home, I had the whole song. I whipped out my phone, turned the recorder on, and recorded the melody and the words that I had on there. It's kinda a process like that. Sometimes it's just a random line will pop in my head. I'll see a word on a billboard or something will inspire me to write about it. Very rarely do I say " Alright, I'm going to write a song about this" and then sit down and write a song about that. It just kinda happens for me. I do have a couple of songs that I've written that I said "Hey, I want to write a song about this topic" and then, it happened. The only time that's happened is when I had to writing partner and that helps a lot.

6. - We're going to back track here for a little bit. Last year, you won your college, The University of South Alabama's, Jag Idol, which is like American Idol. Can you elaborate on that and what you gained from it?

It was really fun. It was the first time that I really got to perform in front of a bunch of people. I had always performed in front of the family and friends and stuff like that. But, I've never been able to perform in front of people I didn't really know. It helped me to grow as a performer and it helped me to broaden my music that I knew. I did know a lot of songs already because I was getting to the point where I wanted to play different venues and wanting to do shows. I had to have a little bit of a song list. I knew a few more songs, which was an advantage in that competition. Overall, being able to perform every week and be in front of a crowd, that really help me to grow as an artist, and it really made me a better performer.

7. - How do you choose which songs you cover?

Oh, man. I don't know. Sometimes, I'll get on a kick and just really like playing a song. I'll enjoy a song that I've learned recently. Sometimes, I'll sit down and I'll just be playing a classic and be like "Hey, I'll throw that one on there!" I try to think about the listeners and what they want to hear and what turns them on as listeners. Recently, I did an Adele cover. I love Adele. She is one of my favorite artist of all time. She's got one of the greatest voices I've ever heard. I figured it would be a cool, little perspective to have, not only a guy singing it, because guys have covered it, but I'm a country, out in the woods guy, that's covering Adele, which is a whole lot different than anything else I've seen. So I figured, just try and make things different and shake things up sometimes. It's very rare that I cover a real mainstream song that's popular right then. Whenever a Luke Bryan song gets real big, I love the song, but I don't just run out and cover it because it's really big. I kinda like to play songs that are on the album that nobody has ever heard before and that'll give people the opportunity to hear it and then they're like "Well, let me see what this is all about!" and they go back and listen to it, and heck, it might become one of their favorite songs. You never know. That's kinda the process I go through.

8. - Even though Country is your main genre, obviously, you've tried other types of music, but what other types of music have you tried?

I love rock music. Actually, my freshman year of college, I was in a rock band. We were called Heroes Highway. We were up in Hanceville, Alabama. We called ourselves Heroes Highway because I-65 in Alabama is called Heroes Highway. Since I was from the southern most part of Alabama and they were from the northern most part, it kinda made sense. It was the link between us. My drummer had this little studio and he was really good at what he did. We recorded some music. We had a really good time and I really enjoyed that. I've dabbled in rock music and I still cover rock music. My voice is better suited for country because of my accent, that I can't help. But I love rock music. One of my dreams would be to do a 12 song album: six of them be normal country songs and six of them be rock. I'm not really sure what style I would go for. Whenever I was in high school, me and my cousin, Dalton, and my sister [Karly], we really got on the Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin kick. If I could do half of an album to sound like a mixture between Breaking Benjamin/Three Days Grace/ maybe a Shinedown type thing, it would be pretty awesome. I think it would be a cool mix-up. There is such a crowd that you could draw. These days you'll see artists that play on [97.5] WABD and 95 KSJ. But, rarely do you see someone played on TK [101.5] and KSJ. It's very rare to see that. That would be an accomplishment for me.

9. - Have you ever thought about auditioning for any national singing competitions like American Idol, The Voice, etc.?

I have. I'm actually signed up to try out for The Voice on February 1st in Nashville. I've thought about it before but I'm trying to get through school and if were to do anything with it, I'd hate to, I WON'T stop school. I'm too close: I've got to get through it. I'm almost 100 percent positive that I am going to try that and see what happens.

10. - What do you want people to learn about you through your music?

Numerous things. I want them to be able to get a feeling for who I am whenever I sing my music: the music that I write, who I am as a person, where I come from. I want them to have more of a broad perspective of me and know that I'm not a one dimensional person: that I can spread out, do anything and be a little bit more of a broad artist that can have a rock song on TK101. I'd love to be that guy. I want people to feel exactly how I feel whenever I write a song. If I write a sad song, I want people to know and feel that it's a sad song. I really want to get my point across as to what I'm feeling and what I'm thinking. It's my biggest goal as a song writer.

11. Who are some of your influences and who are some of your favorites right now?

As far as life influences, obviously my parents. My father, he did his thing in country music for awhile. He's always influenced me and he's always drive me to work harder in the business. So I really admire him. I really admire a lot of the music that he's done. So, as an artist, I also look up to him, not only as a parent, somebody who has provided for me and helped me through my life, but I also look up to him as an artist. He'll take an old country song and put his own spin on it and I think it's a hundred thousand times better. I just love the way he goes about approaching music and how he can make it his own. It's hard not to be inspired by the Waylon Jennings and the Johnny Cashes, the people that just go out there and don't care. I really don't care what anybody has to think about me. If they don't like me, so be it and you can tell me to my face. It's not going to upset me. Somebody out there is going to like me. I don't care if nobody likes me. I wake up in the morning and I play music and I write the music that I like and I say what I want to say and if you don't like it, that's tough. That's the way that I was raised. So I really look up to people who put their foot down like that. Kinda like, in more recent years, Eric Church. He may not have blown up like Jason Aldean, but he's getting there. This day in age, people are really starting to respect not giving a crap what somebody thinks about you. He's really starting to catch up to the Luke Bryans and Jason Aldeans. But he's also on his own little turf because he really just does what he wants to do and believes in what he believes and doesn't let anyone falter his beliefs, he's sound in what he believes. I really enjoy that. As far as inspirations musically, I do look up to Eric Church and Jason Aldean and even Luke Bryan. I love Luke Bryan. I think he's been very versatile. Some people get mad at him because he doesn't stick to country roots, or whatever, but he's versatile. He's country as anybody else. I just think he knows what it takes. He works hard at it and it's impossible not to respect someone like that.

12. - You are playing Soul Kitchen next week with Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton. How did this opportunity come about?

I've met Charlie once. I actually met him for the first time last weekend. But, I've talked to him a bunch. All of us artists talk to each other through Facebook or call each other up on the phone and chit chat, talk about what's going on. it's really kind of a little tight knit community around Mobile. Charlie is from Mobile. He's been up in Auburn and we've just talked and hung out a bit. He gave me a shout a month or so ago and he said "Hey, we're having a show. You wanna come play with us?" and I was like "Yeah. I heard Soul Kitchen's got some great sound and I'd love to play there." So, it's going to be a fun time. I'm excited about it.

13. - What does the future hold for you, aside from what you've already mentioned?

In the future, in my perfect mind, I'll finish up school in May with my mechanical engineering degree.

[Laughs] Engineering? Engineering is your fall back?

That's the plan anyways. As soon as I am done with that, if I get a job, I have to get a job in Nashville, but as soon as I get a job, I intend to move to Nashville, have a day job, maybe part time, use my degree, so I can get up there, have a job, be able to support myself, put a roof over my head, play my music at night, and really be able to chase my dream without having to worry day in and day out where my next meal is going to come from or go up there and be a starving musician that's living out of the back of my truck. There's a lot of people that do it, and I think that's great, but there is nothing wrong with preparing myself and having that fallback plan of an engineer and just getting a job and supporting myself and allowing myself to support my career as a musician. I'm excited about getting up to Nashville to look around, and play a little bit and see what happens. Record an EP and let things go!