Hailey Calvert has come a long way from listening to what she considers “bad music” such as the Spice Girls.
Hailey will launch her EP, ‘After Your Heart’s Gone Home’, in Brisbane this weekend. This will be followed by a string of shows around Australia, finishing at the Woodford Folk Festival. “I’m very excited. I was [at Woodford] two years ago, and I was over the moon [when I found out I’d be playing at Woodford],” she says. “I’m pretty sure I cried, which was a bit similar this year. It is just such a cool festival.”
Beginning her songwriting career at 18, Hailey combines different genres of blues and folk to produce a rich and soothing sound accompanied with a fluent guitar. “[When] I started writing my own stuff it was pretty bad to start off with, but as you get more experiences in life you get better at talking about them.”
The recording of the new EP took place with a few sessions over three weeks. “It was a really fun and comfortable experience. It was not as stressful as I usually find recordings. I just had a collection of my thoughts and just hope people like it.
“[The EP] doesn’t really have a theme. I just had a collection of songs that needed a home. I’m probably writing about similar subjects [from my last EP], but this one has a lot of strings on it which I’m really excited about, so it has more of a lush sound to it.”
Hailey manages to maintain a career as a full-time musician by balancing personal performances with cover shows. “You’ve got to manage the really cools gigs where you play your own songs, then you have to do a couple of cover gigs. I’m pretty lucky, I don’t do any really awful gigs as far as cover [gigs] go, they’re [usually] pretty relaxed. I like playing cover gigs and putting my own spin on other people’s songs.”
Having performed in London, Ireland and New York, Hailey was surprised at how different the crowds were overseas. “It was different. You don’t realise crowds are going to be different, you just think people are the same everywhere.
“In Ireland it is very much in the basement of pubs where you just play unplugged and everyone will be really quite. It’s like storytelling. I definitely want to play more overseas. I guess when I was a teenager I did have that dream [of being famous]. Now I like travelling along and getting people involved. The more you play the more people will come to your shows. I like that steady climb.”
Even with this ambition, Hailey loves the Australian music scene with its intimate atmosphere. “People complain about Brisbane, but I think we do all right and we are getting better. We’ve got so many cool venues coming up now. The more you work at it the more you can get people to come along to your shows. It’s a smaller scene. Brisbane is bit more intimate.”
Written by Laura Kirkwood
Hailey Calvert Tour Dates
Sun Nov 30 - Black Bear Lodge (Brisbane)Fri Dec 5 - The Newsagency (Sydney)
Thu Dec 11 - The Old Bar (Melbourne)
Sat Dec 13 - The Old Church On The Hill (Bendigo)
Sun Dec 14 - The Porch Sessions (Adelaide)
Sat Dec 20 - The Loft (Gold Coast)
Sat Dec 27-Jan 1 - Woodford Folk Festival (Sunshine Coast)
