When we were based in Chester, many years ago, we booked a band called Chupa Cabra, and befriended vocalist, songwriter and mult-instrumentalist Hayden Hughes, who continues to write and create in different parts of the world now that band is done. Here, we catch up with Hayden to discuss what they’ve been up to in the years since…
Now then! How are you?
I’m alright, getting there.
S] A lot has happened to you over the last few years – where are you at the moment?
I’m in London paroosing the creative scenes.
S] Talk me through the evolution of your sound over time?
I wanted to start a psych-ey freakbeat band but everything I wrote sounded quite punky. I would shout lyrics, in a way similar to Pixies and the Birthday Party (I thought). I think this was a lack-of-confidence thing, I’ve always sang, since I was small, but something stopped me in the Chupa Cabra days.
They’re two different dimensions of expressing yourself. Both can convey intensity, but only one can convey different levels of emotion. Shouting gets tiring after a while and the delivery style limits what I may write about, to an extent.
The guitars are still fuzzy and I do still yell, but I sing more now. I’m still performing the old songs so I need a period to sit and write for myself, outside of my songwriting service project.
I’m a solo musician so I use a drum machine and a drone pedal. My sound has had to adapt to that. It’s always the material conditions you find yourself in, a process of becoming. If musicians felt content with anything they did they would stop making art altogether.
S] How have your motivations changed as an artist?
I do what I want to do now. I focus my energy and concentrate it. I don’t need to gig all the time, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy it. I get a lot from performing, personally. If I want to turn on my heel and focus on some bedroom recordings or DJing or painting then I will; one should not get in the way of the other. It should be fun, but that needs to be a conscious process so you may cultivate it properly, like a fruit bearing tree.
I still enjoy organising (gigs, music releases, merchandise) but I work with people I know, or those mutually enthusiastic as I for an idea or project.
S] Would you say you’re challenging yourself in new ways, how?
It’s difficult not to worry if what you are doing is perceived as ‘good’. Some of the best art really divides people and even pisses them off. I don’t think the old adage ‘you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ does not encapsulate it properly: you don’t even need to please people per se. Imagine saying that line to Van Gough – what good is it pleasing everyone after you have died?
I took up painting during lockdown and I am less fluent in that than I am in music but it is very pleasing to have your idea totally realised, visually and aurally.
S] Your visuals are always interesting, how much thought do you put into that aspect of your work?
I think it’s quite easy considering the amount of images everyone is bombarded with daily. Everyone has some degree of literacy there. I visit galleries often and study critical theory on my Sociology course so I can say it’s something I think about a lot.
It needn’t be all serious though, my next release is a cassette bundle featuring a piece by me called ‘FAUST’. I’d always talk about my ‘son’ at parties and the stories became quite absurd, in places it was dark, so I thought I would depict the subject of these stories. He has two toes on each foot, his sailor suit is the colour of ciggy packets (supposedly scientifically proven to be the least appealing colour) and his fingernails are just out of control. They’re like talons. Very unappealing. Glad he’s my son.
S] What would you like your legacy as an artist to be, if you consider that?
I just want there to be more art in the world
S] Talk me through the desire to do this live album from Paris, and accompany it with the essay you’ve done?
I love Paris and the appreciation for culture in France. They make you feel very welcome. There is always a pull to France for me. I love French music, French films, the food, the lot. I met someone selling cassettes at the merch stand, and he just so happened to be recording my gig (I was pleasantly surprised) so we cut the obvious deal.
I have things to say and I’m getting creative with getting messages out there. The essay can help the listener understand my approach. Only read it if you want to though, there really isn’t much need for it, but it is there if you want to read my stream of consciousness scrawlings. It is a manifesto of sorts. I feel like the South London music scene has become stagnant and I try to describe what I mean by this, and then to understand how we got here and where we may go from here.
S] Do you miss Chester, and the time you spent with Chupa Cabra?
I lived there for two years and I really grew to love the place! It was just on the cusp of becoming somewhere half-interesting for musicians as I lived there. Now you’ve got the likes of Off The Tracks putting sick bands on at The Live Rooms, where once there was only overpaid tribute acts and underpaid local bands.
I’m still very happy with the music I released under Chupa Cabra and still play the songs in my live set. I am glad we could put music on actual records and see so many places together, but it’s easy come, easy go. I am happy with what we achieved and we had some laughs. I suppose I think about the Chupa Cabra days sometimes, but I mustn’t dwell.
S] How do you reflect on the person you were then, now?
I seem to have grown since then. I was still working out a lot about myself and other people, as many young adults do. It’s not like you turn 20 and become perfectly versed in manners and social nous. I channelled that into my art mostly, that which I could recognise. I did not recognise some aspects of my personality until quite recently. I am more conscious now, but that does not make a person happier. I do what I want to do, now.
S] What else have you got coming up?
I’m in the studio in January so keep an eye, but currently I’m doing this songwriting commission thing where you pay me £20, show me a prompt and a genre, and I write a song for you. Like an AI but actually half-good at writing actual songs. I’ve written a song about doughnuts and one about road rage upon the request of my fine, fine patrons, previously.
S] Is there anything else you’d like to plug before we finish?
Just keep an eye on my Instagram to see what I’m doing!
S] Deep question to finish, are you happy?
I am happy in moments, ecstatic even, but I am not a particularly cheery person. I am optimistic because you have to be. I know what I want and I enjoy what I do, that is enough. The rest follows.
S] What is the message you have for your supporters, and those who have followed your career?
Genuine love. I feel it from you all the time. Hope my new stuff still does it for you. Hope I see you soon.
