Gemma Hayes Singer/Songwriter (lyric, alternative, dance, house, debut album)

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Alternative talented Irish Singer/songwriter, Gemma Hayes.
GEMMAHAYES - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

Sometimes a melody and a chord change just break your heart and thereís no words to describe that. And when you do use words it seems to make it into a square box again.

When Gemma Hayes talks about her music she shines. The hazelnut flecks in her blue eyes seem to dance with a pure passion born from almost total immersion in musicís myriad possibilities. For her it's about passion, a form of escape, a source of strength, a spiritual high and an expression of those thoughts and feelings that just canít be put into words. It's about those small moments in time where everything becomes clear. Moments of understanding that we all experience.

Itís these small moments that Gemma presents in her own songs. Whether through lilting acoustic calm, or through frenetic white noise tension, she manages to capture the essence of universal experience. Not the stuff of your average singer songwriter. But then again, Gemma Hayes is anything but average.

Gemma grew up in the secluded village of Ballyporeen, in Tipperary, Ireland. She was always surrounded by music. Whether being played by her dad who was a keyboardist in a local band, or by the variety of sounds which would come blaring out of her brothers' and sisters' bedrooms. There were eight kids in total. Eight kids, each with different musical tastes. Which made for one eclectic cacophony.

'You'd have Davey Spillaine coming from one room, Fleetwood Mac from another and AC/DC from another, and it would all just meet as a huge mush. And I would hear melodies that I liked all of the time, without really knowing who it was, or what kind of music it was' explains Gemma between sips of water.

'Ballyporeen is basically a village of about 500 people, one road, a few houses and a shop. There was no place to go. You've your bedroom and you've got your television room where your dad sits there smoking all day. And you donít want to be there. You've got your kitchen where your mother is all day and thereís this other room with a piano so I'd end up sitting there playing around, trying to relieve the boredom'.

If this sense of suffocating isolation wasn't bad enough in the wide-open spaces of her hometown, then when she was placed into the strict regime of boarding school in County Limerick, it became intolerable. Inevitably Gemma truly immersed herself in her music. It became a way of getting outside of her everyday life.

When Gemma enrolled into University in Dublin she found herself sharing accommodation with a girl who owned a beautiful Guild guitar. Gemma was captivated by the instrument and quickly started missing lectures just so she could play it. A battle between studying for a degree and playing guitar soon raged and in the end there could only be one winner. Gemma left University.

'The only thing I loved in life was music and I realised I had to make a choice to go with it', she explains.

For the next few years she took a job in a launderette by day, and honed her songwriting skills playing the Dublin circuit by night. Despite audiences and critics instantly warming to her gorgeous melodies and haunting songs, she gradually grew tired of the restriction of the acoustic guitar and started to put together a band. Her vision to combine the singer songwriter elements of her acoustic work with the layered harmonic discord of her favourite artists like My Bloody Valentine. Itís been this aim to combine the opposing forces of fragility and chaos that has remained central to her work since.

Gemma eventually signed to Source Records early in 2001. As if mirroring Gemmaís career path to date, her first two EPs revelled in the extreme forces at work in her music. The debut '4:35am' displayed her in a chilled acoustic setting. Songs like 'Evening Sun' and the title track capturing the contemplative melancholia of the darkness before the dawn, and drawing immediate comparisons between Gemma and female songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.

Such comparisons however couldn't be further from the truth as the follow up EP, ìWork to a Calmî proved. Here she could be found with full band exploring layered distorted harmonics. Indeed if there was an argument against her being placed in the role of the stereotyped image of the female songwriter, it comes on the stunning opener 'Tear in My Side', in which she repeats the same lyrical refrain over and over, subsequently underpinning the full force of the melody. Itís a mood song which paints a picture more vivid than the storyteller ever could.

I'm not really a storyteller. That's not what I do. I don't even use imagery; it's just kind of like how it is, about small moments, those
feelings that everyone has. she says, 'For me music has always been about taking myself elsewhere. It's never been about celebrating the moment that I'm in then and there, but celebrating the moment when it's past.'

The 'Work to Calm' release displayed the full force of her band at work. However it is with the Gemma Hayes live experience that the finer nuances of the full band's power becomes clear. With tours of Ireland in support of Beth Orton, Rufus Wainwright and David Gray, and last year's UK tours with both Sparklehorse and Zero 7, the band won over audiences and critics alike. Providing people with a glimpse of what to expect from the debut album.

With the release of the album 'Night on My Side' the Gemma Hayes picture can be seen and heard in all of its multi-hued glory. The theme, if there is one, is of the journey of self-discovery. Whether that's the life changing journey which ends in regret as on the opening 'Day One' and the following 'Hanging Around', or the journey to resolution as on 'Back of My Hand' and 'Let a Good Thing Go'.

Musically, the album's beautifully crafted songs turn any notion of what a female songwriter should do on its head. From the aching celebration of life in the face of impending loss that is 'Dartmouth Square' (one of the album's two hidden tracks) to the soaring, ether bound flight of 'Lucky One', Gemma pushes ideas to an extreme, tapping into the deepest human emotions.

The album was produced by Gemma Hayes with David Odlum and Dave Fridmann (Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips,...), and mixed by Mark 'Spike' Stent (Massive Attack, Bjork...). As a complete work 'Night On My Side' is as assured a debut album as you're likely to hear. No doubt due to Gemma's definite vision of how she wants her music to sound.

Gemma Hayes is a strong woman. She seems like she wouldn't suffer fools gladly. She's articulate, opinionated and enthralled by music. And when Gemma Hayes talks about her music - she shines.

By Martin James
more info about the artist
http://www.gemmahayes-makingwaves.net/