Something/Anything is out now!
Image: Al Parkinson.
Australian electro-folk singer-songwriter and producer, Hayden Calnin has unveiled new EP, Something/Anything. To celebrate the release, the musician is taking MILKY through the release, track by track!
Have you ever thought about how many songs go unheard? Now imagine all the songs that never even make it into the world at all. Unfinished gems that could be your favourite song but you’ll never know it, because for some reason they never got finished or something else took its place. These songs are by no means going to be that, but are some examples of my own lost songs. They were either cut from my recent album ‘What It Means To Be Human’, or just sitting on my hard drive with no purpose. I have so many of these, but tried to pick a bunch that flowed nicely with each other to feel like one long-lost song. All the tracks float around the same musical key, so it should feel full circle if you listen through. Or so I hope.
UNDERNEATH
For a long time, this was going to be track two on my album, What It Means To Be Human. It was, the song that guided the entirety of that album and I was a little shocked at myself when I decided not to include it on the album at all. Sometimes that happens. Whether it be because it didn’t feel right, the story had already been told, or you have too many tracks to keep people engaged, I made the decision somewhere along the line to give it a pass. I’m glad to finally put this one into the world. It’s a song about looking at things from the inside out, rather than the outside in, people especially.
DREAMER
At the beginning of the pandemic, we were in heavy lockdowns for a long period of time in Victoria, Australia. A friend of mine invited me to be involved in an online ‘writing challenge’ group, where we would meet up on zoom in the morning, pick a theme and some sounds we must try to use, and then spend the day writing a song with that in mind. This song was a result of one of those sessions and it went through extensive re-working and re-mixing, over and over again until it felt it had the right energy for what I was trying to convey lyrically. I have two other versions of this song completely finished as well that will still just sit there too and probably never see the light of day. All of which have different a different feel and energy to them.
ISHMAEL
Outside of making my own music and producing for other artists, I also do a chunk of film/tv scoring. Writing music to the moving image is a process I use a lot in my creative process, but when you are making it for something external to yourself you often get some interesting results. This instrumental piece ‘Ishmael’ is a song I wrote for a film with the same name. When working with any director, you do a lot of back and forth with getting the right feel with the music to achieve the Director’s vision for their film. This version of the song was not the final result which made it to the film, but rather, the song at an earlier stage in its development. Again, a song, more-so a version of a song that would never have seen the light of day.
THE WAY BACK UP FT. NICK ACQUROFF
Nick is a good friend of mine. Sometimes when we catch up, we tend to sometimes have some beers, get a little loose and write a bunch of songs together. It’s kinda just something we do. This was one of the songs we wrote one night. I had completely forgotten about it until I was going through an old hard-drive and found a session file titled ’this is pretty cool maaaate’ and decided to open it up to see what it was. And it was pretty cool, so I thought I’d give it a good mix and add it to this release. Nick and I have about fifteen or more of these. Nick is a total gem, talented beyond belief and an all ‘round great human and it’s nice to put out a song with a mate.
MOTHERCALL
The oldest song of the bunch. It’s years and years old and like some of the others, there are multiple versions of this song that I’ve repeatedly made trying to get it right. It’s still not right, but this is my favourite version of this song and why I chose to include it on Something/Anything. Lyrically, it’s a song about being completely in touch with nature. Use the stars as your map, go exploring with your feet, take a dip in the water that makes up most of this Earth. It’s about remembering your history and holding onto the beauty of existence.
Something/Anything is out now!