HAYDEN at Trinity St. Pauls Centre (427 Bloor West), Friday (April 15), 8 pm. $25-$35. masseyhall.com. See listing.
Haydens 1995/96 debut album, Everything I Long For, made a big splash with young people in Toronto and beyond, whod heard grunge before but nothing quite like it at least not from someone in their backyard. (Some called him Canadas Beck.)
It was the yearnings of a young man captured mostly acoustically on a borrowed four-track in his bedroom at his parents house in Thornhill. Confessional, intense, romantic and raw, it proved you could make a powerful and often funny record with just a few ingredients.
Twenty years on from the bidding wars that saw Neil Young phone Hayden up to invite him to be on Vapor Records (he ultimately signed with Outpost), EILF has gold certification and celebrates its 20th anniversary with a limited-edition vinyl reissue on his own Hardwood label.
Heres what some friends and fans told NOW about its lasting impact:
He showed us with this record that a suburban semi-depressed romantic kid with an acoustic guitar could be heard around the world. He did it independently and on his own terms. It was incredible to witness.
The thing that made me pay attention to Hayden was his willingness to dive into all the gloomy, awkward ache of romance. The clumsy and humiliating stuff that always comes with love and desire usually arent written about very honestly.
Hayden and I do not know one another, but his album Everything I Long For and I were close friends in the mid-90s. That album and his voice left such an imprint on me. His voice is like a glorious low melodic fog horn that can guide you through rough waters.
I had borrowed Haydens electric guitar for a tour and lent him my acoustic. In Vancouver we got our van broken into and they stole his guitar. When I told him he was like, Oh man, what am I going to do? Thats the guitar I play. And Im like, Well, if it means anything, you can keep my acoustic guitar. So he started writing songs on that and thats how he became who he became. Otherwise, he wouldve done everything on electric. And then he borrowed my four-track. I remember getting pissed off that he returned it three weeks late. But probably that time was essential for the creation of the album.
I released a solo album around that time, as Noahs Arkweld, with Jason Darby on drums and Feist on bass. I have a hidden song on the album with the lyrics, Excuse me if this song is too Haydenesque. He was very influential on that album.
He was like the Second Coming, he was such a big deal. Everything I Long For was the first record I identified with that was stripped down and acoustic and still really moving and powerful. Im still trying to write something like Stem so beautiful and sincere. I tell him that all the time and he hates it, but Stem is just perfect. I would sit and stare at the back cover, just a shot down a suburban street, and it felt like, God, thats my street. He was speaking to me from his moms basement, and talking about living in his parents house. With this particular record, I did a lot of headphones, bedroom, staring at that shot of the road. It would just take me away, which the best records do.
I saw him play at the Eclipse in Oshawa, and in those days [Haydens] thing was you had to sit on the ground. I was trying to be a hero and impress my girlfriend. There were these window ledges deep enough that you could sit on, so we got up on one and had this perfect sightline for the Hayden show. Then people starting standing up and Hayden made a comment about it. You know, come on, everyones got to sit down. It helps people to see. But what was happening was a water main had burst and the floor was starting to flood. Then he leaves. He had to stop the show for a sec. He said, We may have to cancel. But this is how crazy loyal his following was: I swear to you, everyone sat back down in the water and chanted for him to come back and finish the show. Thats still one of my fondest and favourite shows Ive ever seen, for so many reasons.
When Everything I Long For was released I was living in Fort McMurray. On my next trip to Edmonton I phoned up Blackbyrd Myoozik, asking if they had any copies of EILF in stock, only to find out that, though they were sold out, Hayden would be there for a show that night, just a few hours after I was to head back home. As a young kid, it wasnt in the cards for me to change travel plans. I read multiple glowing reviews about the show, and years later people I know in Edmonton still talk about how amazing it was. I finally got my own copy of the album and have seen Hayden play many times since, but that first show where I missed him by mere hours is one of my few true show regrets.
Everything I Long For hit me like a ton of bricks. Skates is one of the most hauntingly beautiful love songs Ive ever heard and makes me well up to this day. I honestly think of Hayden as a national treasure and would put him up there with the likes of Leonard Cohen.
music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahegreene
