By
Over the pond in America, Hunter Hayes has been praised for leading a youth resurgence in popularity for country music since breaking through in 2011.
The star has been nominated for Grammy Awards, bagged two Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 as well as claiming four Top 10 hits on the US Country Chart.
This week, the 23-year-old officially launched his bid to charm the UK with his new single 'Tattoo', with ambitions to become an international name.
Considering all the success you've had in America, it must be quite strange coming over to the UK and starting all over again?
"It's kind of nice. Not nice… I don't know how that sounds, but I don't care! There's nothing scary about it, I guess. It's nice to get back to the music, but to be reminded of the things that keep you connected to music. To shake hands with somebody and go, 'I really hope you like this'. And you know, to be able to say that and for people to know that it's coming from a sincere place. To say, 'I have no idea how anybody's going to receive this and I just hope it's good'."
What are your expectations coming over to the UK?
"I don't know if I have any. I don't know if I have enough knowledge to have expectations, which is a good thing, I like that. I like being clueless, because I worry a lot, and so I think that in my cluelessness, you can make up your own sort of confidence. But in doing the research or whatever, I don't know. We did a special version of 'Tattoo', as you know. It didn't lose the heart and soul of what it is - the sounds that I love and the spirit of the record - and there's no different vocal performance - it's the exact same vocal performance, the exact same riffs and parts, just a couple of things thrown in along with it, which is nice that a lot of really cool sort of signature things are still intact."
Your new single 'Tattoo' is more pop-rock than we've heard you before. How was that process in the studio for you?
"For one, I had to give it away. I had to just hand it off and say, 'I want to collaborate, but I want you to do your thing first'. And we went through several different rounds, there were several different versions, as there should be. As was the case with things like 'Invisible'. Got recorded, finished, mixed and sent off to mastering before we realised, 'We've gone a bit too far with this. This is not real any more.' And you take it back and you start over, start from scratch. You have four days to make a record again. Which forces you to simplify. "
Moving into pop is something Taylor Swift has done with huge success in recent years. Did she give you any advice when you were on tour with her?
"She was really cool obviously the whole time. Just really welcoming and open if advice was needed. But it was more about just watching a show every night and studying it. Taylor's an awesome live performer with a really fun live show. Getting to see ten shows in a row, studying it every night and noticing the nuances and differences and if there are any changes, what do they mean, where did they come from? That's a really fun game for me to play and I love learning by example, I love watching her interaction with her fans. I love watching the live show and how every song takes on a new shape. And then as well, just learning from a vulnerable songwriter, from a songwriter who bares the soul and says, 'This is life, this is the journal and this is me'. And not being afraid of that."
Do you have any boundaries when songwriting? Are there things that you maybe wouldn't write about because it's so personal?
"Sometimes. It's amazing because just when you think you do, you end up writing about those things and they surprisingly become more comfortable. It's kind of that thing where you're always afraid to say something until you've said it and then it's like, 'No, this doesn't seem so weird'. I think 'Invisible' is a good example of that. That's not something I would have expected to write about and/or release necessarily in the States, but obviously it was a single. I was very adamant about having it on the record. I had no idea that it would be a single. And I think that honestly kind of caught me off-guard. In fact, I don't know if I was ready to talk about it when we released it. And it's still kind of hard, it's still kind of weird. I find myself kind of stepping back away from it every now and then just because of its vulnerability. But that's a good thing and that's kind of as you said, your boundaries sort of knock themselves over in a way."
And then to perform 'Invisible' at the Grammys as well... What a way to get it out there!
"Yeah, I was sick to my stomach that whole week, I really was. The nerves of being on the Grammys are enough, but the nerves of having your first on-stage full performance of a song by yourself with a song that nobody's heard before. They have enough faith in you to let you premiere a song that has never been released and you're doing it by yourself and you know, gosh, what a way to test the nerves, man."
When you are looking out into a Grammys audience, do you actually see anyone famous or are the stage lights too bright?
"Yeah, well, that's the problem. The curtain comes up and you make the mistake. You're like, 'I'm not looking'. Like, do that kind of quick glance. And the first person I saw was Bruno [Mars] and I was like, 'Forget it, I'm not looking at anybody'. I just stopped, I just couldn't. And I knew from rehearsals that when I'd end the song, I'd end it right up front in the centre and you know, in front of... Yeah, in front of Sir Paul [McCartney], of all people. So it's like, 'Forget it, I'm not looking at the audience'. I can't, I was too nervous. I had to look at the sky, look at the cameras, look at something else, the lights."
We need to touch upon the fact that you can play over 30 instruments. That's incredible.
"OK, I don't know if you can really say 'play'. That's always a weird thing for me, because it's like... I don't know. I don't consider myself to be a proper professional musician on any of them really."
Which one do you find the hardest?
"The hardest? Oh, there's tons of them. I don't know, drums is always hard. Now I do a lot of drum-related stuff in the show, but I was always careful. I was always sort of hesitant as to put that in the show. But just recently we have found what I feel is a natural way to incorporate it in our shows that's just fun and sort of playful. But up until then, I didn't play drums a whole lot, so it's always the hardest to go back to in the studio and start playing again. Even in the shows sometimes it will be a week between them and I'll go to do that moment and it's pretty hardcore. It's a bit of an exercise. It's a great cardio workout!"
Because you can play a load of instruments, can you kind of experiment more so than other artists?
"Yeah, it's nice to be able to sit down in a room and build a demo and kind of flush out an idea before anybody else has to hear it."
What's the most surprising Hunter Hayes song that we haven't heard yet that you've kind of experimented with?
"I've got a few things that caught me off guard. Just recently actually, I took this bluegrass approach on this song that I've had for a while and I really wanted it on Storyline, the second release in the US, but it didn't really fulfil anything musically that would contribute to the record. Whatever I was trying to do with it seemed to be a bit out of place. And then I just developed this mad obsession with bluegrass music. It seemed to be a bit odd, honestly, the amount that I've listened to it lately. But I'm absolutely obsessed with it and I always have been. I think it's just kind of a return to it.
"So I did this one song where there's just mad modulations everywhere. And it's a straight-up bluegrass arrangement. It's a mandolin, it's a banjo, an acoustic, and a cello, and an upright bass, and a couple of other pieces. I added a fiddle solo from a friend of mine and some vocals and some really cool harmonies and it was the most musically experimental thing I've ever done. I did it on my own without any plans of releasing it, but now I think it goes on our vinyl release of Storyline here pretty soon. So that was the most experimental musical project I've ever done."
Hunter Hayes' 'Tattoo EP' is out in the UK now.
