EMQ’s With Grace Hayhurst
EMQ’s With Grace Hayhurst
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Progressive Metal solo artist, Grace Hayhurst. Huge thanks to her for taking part.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
I’m from London, and the Metal scene here is fantastic! I used to have a lot of fun turning up to the smaller venues and taking a punt on random bands. That led me to discovering Voyager who went on years later to take a run at Eurovision! What a change of pace. There’s never a night in London where you can’t find a great Metal band playing somewhere, and despite what people say now about Camden being overrun with tourists, and “it’s not what it used to be”, it’s still the heart of Metal in the city for me!
Tell us about your new album “The World Is Dying”. What’s the background on its creation?
A few years ago, I was getting very frustrated with the state of the world. Oligarchs and billionaires waltzing around telling everyone what to do, democratic votes failing and being influenced by those with money, a lack of critical thinking of parts of the population making them susceptible to falling for these lies. I truly do believe that ‘The World is Dying’, and that it’s our fault. Look around you, are we really heading for a prosperous society? Or is wealth just further congealing at the top of the food chain…
Who have been your greatest influences?
Some sort of an amalgamation between Opeth, Rick Wakeman, Steve Hackett, Rammstein, Haken, Gershwin, Rabea Massad, and Mastodon. I’m not sure that all of those artists necessarily surface in my work, but they’ve all been incredible inspirations throughout my music upbringing so to say.
What first got you into music?
My dad! I used to borrow his MP3 player and listen to Cutting Crew, Blue Oyster Cult, The Buggles,, and Yes on repeat whilst wandering around Cornwall. Simpler times. I’m sure my enjoyment of Steve Hackett too is from many years of him playing his music in the car whenever we’d go anywhere together.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
I think I’m very particular about who I work with, as I like putting all the parts of a song together myself (except for drums!). Perhaps someone very left-field like Henrik Linder would be great to work with as I’m sure he would show me something I could never ever have thought of myself that I’d fall in love with straight away!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Download, as obvious as it may sound. I’ve been 4 times, and it’s just such hallowed iconic ground of the greatest in the genre. Seeing Sabbath, Maiden, Slayer, Rammstein, Metallica, and more there really solidified in my brain that Metal is just the greatest music genre out there. Playing on that hallowed ground even just once would be the ultimate treat.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Someone recently made me a mug of my brain! And while it’s definitely the weirdest, it’s also my favorite (so far…).
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Buy artist merchandise, and support your favourite artists on Patreon! It’s painful and expensive out there to make your own music, and do it properly – especially as a solo artist with no one to split the costs with!
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Oh man. Chris Cornell might selfishly be the obvious choice as I love Soundgarden and never got to see him sing live. He was taken from this world far too soon.
If I’m allowed a second, Randy Rhodes… Freddie Mercury… David Bowie… Chris Squire… Taylor Hawkins… Cliff Burton… Oh, I got carried away!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
The joy of being on stage. I’m gigging quite frequently at the moment as a live keys player, and there’s something really special about making loud noises in a room full of people excited to have a good time. Made even sweeter when people come up to you afterwards and have nothing but nice things to say!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Streaming services have thoroughly devalued music. I’d love to see them actually pay out fairly! £10/month for all the music ever made is simply too cheap. Triple the cost, and distribute the royalties evenly to what people actually listen to on Spotify rather than having the money in a giant pool.
I’ve actually just recently cancelled my Apple Music subscription entirely with no real plans to go back. Even though the royalties are better for artists through that platform, it still just feels icky. Back to buying CDs directly from the artist for me!
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Opeth, Blackwater Park. No question that it has had a profound impact on me.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Objectively CDs, because of their high quality, and versatility with the ability to rip to any device, having a compact-ish form factor, still containing liner notes, and don’t suffer so greatly from tape degradation. I have almost a thousand of them in a giant shelf display at home!
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Well there’s only been a handful, but I think playing Fiddlers Elbow a couple of years back was the best treat for me. I was absolutely dying from abdominal pain (and ended up having emergency surgery in hospital a few days later…), I was stressed out my mind, I had no guitar patches changing so everything was on maximum gain, but – it was my first ever hometown show playing my own music, to a room full of faces that were excited to see what the hell would happen with no expectations.
A lot may have gone wrong that evening, but I’ll never forget it – because a great deal went right too.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Being depressed? My entire life is music. I’d opt to say photography here as I’m very good at that, but within the context of shooting bands playing at shows and festivals! Ah well.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Steve Hackett, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Tony Banks. And I would do my bloody best to convince them to just perform one final show together of exclusively 70s Genesis material! I don’t think it would work though…
What’s next for you?
I’m aiming to do some live shows and bring this album on the road a little bit, but budgets may limit that. We shall see what happens!
What social media/website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://facebook.com/gracehrst
https://instagram.com/gracehrst
https://www.youtube.com/c/GraceHayhurst?sub_confirmation=1
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-world-is-dying/1799176928?i=1799176929
https://gracehrst.bandcamp.com/track/the-world-is-dying-2
https://open.spotify.com/album/3EqFaSqX6081d5QOcNKPbL
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Just to encourage anyone reading this far into the article to take a chance on a band or artist you’ve never heard of before. The big players aren’t always everything!
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