You hear it immediately in the way he talks: humble, easygoing, thoughtful, without a trace of ego. You wouldn't guess this country superstar is taking country music by storm.
Following his soulful performance of his new song "Invisible" at the GRAMMY® Awards, the four-time GRAMMY-nominated artist is ready to shine even brighter with his new album, Storyline, out May 6. UGuide sat down with Hunter Hayes as he looked back at his roots, told us about his new album, and looked ahead to a future in which he's sure to be anything but invisible.
The roots
UGuide: What first got you started in music, what got you onto that path?
Hunter: To be totally honest, I have no idea. I get that question every once in a while. Were your parents or family musical? And the honest, humorous answer is this: Not really.
But I grew up in a fairly musical area. Louisiana, South Louisiana in particular. It just absolutely thrives on our Cajun culture. The food, the music, the heritage, it's a very exciting place.
There's a mini music mecca in Lafayette that I’d compare to a much smaller version of Nashville. There's a lot of independent music and Cajun music and heritage music.
I was surrounded by it growing up. My parents loved music and they loved going to festivals. I was introduced to it really early on, and I became obsessed with a couple of different artists that were at every one of these festivals or were always playing at this one restaurant about two blocks from my house. We'd go every Friday night and see the same bands.
Apparently I started picking up things around the house and making musical instruments out of them, or pretending they were instruments. My family noticed this, so my grandma decided to give me a toy accordion for a Christmas present one year. I never really put it down, and it went from there. Musical instruments became the gift for birthdays or whatever. I was clearly obsessed with music.
I learned this one song, and we were at this live music restaurant, Mulate's was the name of it at the time. My dad actually talked to one of the musicians while they were on break and said, "Believe it or not, my son actually knows one of your songs," so they pulled me up onstage. I guess I just had a blast and you could tell. And it was obvious that that's what I loved doing.
The art of listening
UGuide: You've obviously put a stake in the ground with country music, but are there other genres that influence you, or that you enjoy listening to?
Hunter: I love listening to anything. I think that's a responsibility that you have if you're in the creative side of music. That's part of your job, I feel like. If I'm going to make a record, if I'm going to go in and make a record that I want people to check out, what I want people to check out is something different.
I want to be able to put out something with my voice on it. Not just my actual voice but also my musical voice. Whatever listening to 12 different records in a period of time allows me to be introduced to and encouraged by. Whatever that sum of tunes becomes in my own mind, in my own crazy way, that's my sound. And that's what I strive to find in the studio and even onstage and to that extent.
It's a responsibility to take in whatever you can, and take in everything you can and be absolutely blown away by sounds you hear on certain records. And going, "Wow, that's cool. I didn't know you could even do that." Going home to experiment with instruments that you'd never introduced yourself to and things like that. I love that.
Writing "Invisible"
UGuide: What topics are you chasing in this album? Can you give us an example?
Hunter: I think "Invisible" is the obvious, biggest topic on the record.
It was literally the second song I wrote specifically for this record. We got in the writing room — it's a little basement studio that I put together that I call the Beat Cave, because I'm a huge Batman fan. So instead of the Bat Cave, it's the Beat Cave. Really cheesy, I know, but it was late at night when I decided that.
We got together, and we were originally writing a very fun, fast love song. But that didn't happen. We started talking and got on the topic of bullying, and how it relates on a large scale that I think is ignored, honestly, by a lot of people.
The broader scale of how that may change in definition and change words as you go through life, but it still exists. The first introduction to it is in high school, and middle school for me was the most dramatic, and yet absolutely nothing compared to what I know a lot of people go through.
So we started talking about that and one of my co-writers said, "You feel invisible." And I remember looking at her, and her looking at me, and at that moment … one songwriter says something and the other two songwriters look at each other and go, "Should we say that that's the song, or should we just pretend it's not? Should we acknowledge the fact that the song wants to be written?"
We all agreed that "Invisible" was a fantastic topic to talk about. We worked hard to make sure there was a positive message in it, because that was the thing we wanted to convey the most.
We drew on all the things that all of us went through. Speaking for myself, it was being a music geek who really didn't fit in. And quite frankly, I'm still that music geek. It just took me awhile to figure out that's OK, because I had no perspective for a long time. You feel alone, the minute you walk down those hallways.
We just wanted to say the story was obviously so much better on the other side and offer the perspective of, hey, having been through that, I can say that as tough as it is now is as good as it's going to be on the other side. As drastically hard as it gets is as drastically good as it's going to get eventually, so keep the faith, remain yourself. And know that it all gets better and it pays off.
The new album
UGuide: Can you tell us about your new album — the process and approach you've taken?
Hunter: It's gone through so many evolutions sonically. I've wanted to do so many different things over a long period of time, it's actually taken on 20 different shapes.
It's fascinating to me, because obviously it's all a learning process. I feel like the moment it's not a learning process is when I should go home and reconsider some things. I'm so glad that I'm not tempted to think that I actually learned anything from the last record. Rather, I'm asking more questions.
Sonically, it's gone through all these phases. But as of right now, it feels like it's going back home, is what I keep saying. Because it feels like it's going back in time to things that I was influenced by when I was a kid.
There is a lot of bluegrass territory on this record, which I'm really excited about because that's something that I've always loved. I've always loved the three-part harmony. I don't know if there will be a lot of three-part harmony stuff on this record, but I'm really going to try. Without trying too hard!
But I do love those sounds. I feel like the sounds have been reintroduced to me in a lot of different ways, and I want to find my own way of using those instruments in a way that maybe I haven't tried yet.
Then again, there is a lot more aggressive electric guitar world stuff on this. It's uncharted territory for me as well. It's a good sweep. I said at the beginning that I wanted it to be more emotional, deeper. Higher highs, lower lows. Luckily, with forgetting about that as a goal, we've achieved that. Because I feel like if you go in with a rule and expectation, that's exactly what ruins a record.
And as a 22-year-old, traveling the whole world and living a dream, as well as just being a 22-year-old and growing up, there's a lot to figure out. There's a lot to talk about. I made my best effort to go ahead and get it all off my chest and talk about it all.
The GRAMMY Awards
UGuide: What was it like playing the GRAMMY Awards?
Hunter: It was pretty phenomenal. Especially with the song "Invisible" that's so personal.
If I am correct, it's not every year that someone gets to introduce a new song at the Grammys. I think for me I was absolutely stunned, shocked, surprised in every way that this year they contacted me: We'd like for you to introduce your song at the Grammys. I was stunned.
Because if that's going to be the first single off this record, what better way to introduce this song to the world, than to introduce the song to the world all at once on music's very hallowed ground.
UGuide: What was it like hitting the stage in front of that audience at such an iconic event? Was there added pressure?
Hunter: Oh, absolutely. I was literally sick to my stomach the entire week. I've never been that nervous in my life. I'm totally cool with admitting that. I do still get nervous before every show. I feel like you kind of have to. Especially before this one, I literally lost so much sleep.
I was a wreck, just because this song means a lot to me, but I don't know what it's going to become. I do have dreams for the song. I do want somebody to attach themselves to this song, and feel this song, and for this song to be their support system…
Knowing that, going on stage is … yeah, that's something. They can't prepare you for that. That's something that you can't even ask a hero of yours, another artist: 1) What's it like? 2) What can you tell me that will help me prepare for it? 3) What else should I know about it? Because the truth is it's different in every scenario. So it was a lot of quick learning that all led to a moment onstage.
As soon as we got onstage, there is sort of that thing that happens where all the nerves, the preparations just absolutely just disappear because there is nothing else that you can do but get onstage and just sing.
You have to just feel comfortable onstage, in the moment, and whatever's going to happen is going to be real. It's going to be live. And there is a bit of excitement that builds at that moment, because you look at your bandmates, everybody is stoked, everybody is excited. It was a thrill. It was an absolute thrill.
But the fact that I got through remembering all my lines, without breaking down into tears, and not getting so nervous I walked offstage … I consider those three things alone to be accomplishments. I'm pretty happy for that.
The live moment
UGuide: What is it like for you playing live in front of all your fans?
Hunter: To me that's the best moment, after you spend months in a studio. I remember my first record — we spent seven months straight solid every day, literally seven days a week, and easily 10–14 hours a day. I know that because even now we're going 14 hours a day, close to 7 days a week if they'll let me.
That can get pretty lonely. You do all that, you write all these songs. I had all these songs that we picked out, but I have no idea who is going to like what. And then the best moment is when you bring it to the fans.
When I get to introduce myself for the first time, that's the best part. Especially when you get to do this last tour we did. The Crazy tour was our headline tour. We got to see a lot of fans that 1) had already been to shows, or 2) had the record and had been listening to it. In this tour we did every single song from the [Encore] record.
They sang along to songs that I wouldn't assume that anybody would listen to. "Rainy Season," which was one of my favorite songs on the original record. Kind of depressing. But they know every word, and they are right there with you every step of the way. And that's where it all makes sense. That's when it's all worth it. My story led to a song and the song led to something in the studio, and it’s led to this and it's introduced me to you. And that's the best part about it.
To the fans
UGuide: Is there anything personal you'd like to say to your fans?
Hunter: Just thank you, thank you, thank you. It is unbelievable the amount of dream-come-true moments I've had, we've had as a team in the last couple years.
And the best part about it all is that the music I love to make is only considered music when someone lets you into their life with your music. They call you a friend through the connection of music, and they find something on a record that they can relate to. That is a pretty serious dream.
If I could speak directly to the fans, I would say, "Thank you for allowing me that opportunity to meet you either through music or actually in person." These last couple years of touring have been absolutely a blast. This record is the next chapter to that. I don't even know what the whole thing is going to sound like yet, but I'm really excited about it. I have a really strong feeling about this record, and I'm ready to take it on the road. I'm ready to see everybody again. Ready to have some fun.