Chris Hayes Takes His Next Big Step
By Chris Manson August 28, 2003 Issue

Chris Hayes fancies himself a solo artist, but by the time you read this piece, that label will only apply to his onstage persona. When I spoke to Hayes, he was preparing to wed his longtime love Tamela Soule, the inspiration behind the title of his CD, Eyelids. “Eyelids is her nickname. She’s got really big eyes. When she blinked I said, ‘You’ve got the most beautiful eyelids’ as I was falling off the bar,” he recalled.

Hayes almost put Soule’s doodling on the front cover—the drawings now appear inside the booklet on the CD itself—but opted for a painting by childhood friend Olek Brzeski that depicts a teardrop falling in slow motion. The painting was inspired by what Hayes calls a “really crappy poem” he wrote years ago called Your Tears Reach Mine.

Born in Cleveland, but raised in London before he was old enough to walk, Hayes still sports a British accent. He discovered a guitar in the attic at age 13 and quickly taught himself songs by his favorite group. “It’s all about the Beatles, always has been. When you see black and white footage of all the girls screaming, I’m screaming right with ‘em!”

Three of Hayes’ “Five Desert Island CDs” (subject to change) are by the Fab Four—Abbey Road, Rubber Soul and Revolver. The other two slots belong to David Gray’s White Ladder and the soundtrack to The Graduate. “Simon and Garfunkel were a big influence, too. Paul Simon writes songs that are like guidebooks for songwriters.” Hayes insisted that I let him add Sting’s Ten Summoners Tales to his short list, too, along with Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Hayes does a choice rendition of Coldplay’s In My Place at his gigs, along with purely acoustic songs by Gray, James Taylor and Crowded House. He was pleased when I compared his singing on Eyelids to Crowded House vocalist Neil Finn.

“A lot of people ask for Cat Stevens and Dan Fogelberg, but I don’t know them. I like to make the songs my own, mostly because I need to put them in my singing range and I like my own way of presenting songs. I might make a slow song more uptempo to give it more energy—thrash my guitar and break strings. Dave Matthews I love, I just haven’t been able to do any of them yet. He’s annoying me with his brilliance.”

The set lists are generous with Chris Hayes songs, too. Hayes’ 11-track CD was released in June, and it wasn’t long before patrons were begging him to play She’s the One, a tune that first saw the light when Hayes performed it at the old Stowaway Lounge. “Now people come in knowing every song, asking if they could sing them with me. Amazing!” Hayes said. Eyelids is available for purchase at the website chrishayesmusic.com and at Hayes’ gigs.

Hayes describes his shows as “drunk fests. It’s all about fun. The words ‘Shooter time’ come up a lot followed by ‘Up yours!’ I can sing the songs blindfolded, but one thing I learned from (KJ’s owner and musician) Jim Couch is how to talk about crap and still be entertaining. Jim is the master of that.” Hayes will continue to appear at Harry T’s throughout the fall Friday nights from 7-11. And look for him at KJ’s on Thursdays—“around 10:30 or whenever I show up”—and the Swizzle Stick Lounge in Okaloosa Island’s Best Western Saturday through Monday starting at 9:30 p.m.

At the time of our interview, Hayes was looking forward to his honeymoon and a chance to catch up with old mates in England. He hopes to see the guys from The Aardvarkz, the ‘60s revival band he formed in high school.

“I think they’re still going on after all these years playing in pubs. That was interesting, being on stage not knowing any chords, singing Yardbirds and Stones songs. But already then, I was irritated that we weren’t doing our own songs, so I started writing, getting prolific, learning the art of it.” He also plans to see childhood pal Ben Thorne, who co-wrote some songs on Eyelids.

After the honeymoon, Hayes plans to devote time to writing new material and promoting Eyelids as much as possible. “Getting radio play is the goal. That would be really nice,” Hayes says. Hopefully, well-crafted and beautifully rendered songs like Only Embers and United States of America will win over music directors. And then there’s Josephine, the only tune from the CD that Hayes doesn’t perform live. “It’s my ‘French porno soundtrack song.’ I get lots of comments that the song is really good to have sex to.” (Top)

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