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Iron Hayden
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The Toronto folk rocker gets bugged
by JOHNSON CUMMINS
 Folky
T.O. heartthrob Hayden is getting near the end of his “phoners”
when the Mirror rings him up, and the poor guy is plain talked out.
Before our interview even begins, a peppy Universal rep is on the line,
making introductions and chirping, “Okay, guys, enjoy the interview.”
As soon as the rep gets off, a very audible groan comes from Hayden’s
end of the line. He seems pleasant enough, but you can’t help but
be endeared with a guy who is bored silly talking about himself.
Hayden even tries to toss me some standard quotes to use, about his
home studio, his new U.S. indie label deal, his previous, sub-major
label Outpost going tits up, how his new record is different from his
other record—but almost starts laughing at how mundane his own
answers are. When I ask him what the most irritating question he’s
been asked all day was, he says, “For some reason, everybody wants
to know why I made a record that sounds like the country when I live
in the city.”
After I cross that off my list of questions, I ask him what he would
like to talk about. “Well, I just bought a Volkswagen van in Montreal.”
Uh huh, so Hayden decides to fly his folk flag high, running around
the country with his acoustic guitar packed in the back of his VW van—now
that’s an angle I can run with! “Actually, I’m not going
to tour in it. I’m renting an Econoline.” Drat!
Time is ticking until that weird Universal guy gets back on the line
to conclude our interview, so I pipe up and ask him if he’s sick
of the major label press routine, and if he just wants to get in his
VW van and ride off into the indie sunset. “Over the last three
years, I was thinking of a lot of things, but in the end I figured I
was pretty lucky to be able to play to people and I should just get
over my aggravations with the music industry, make it work for me and
just get through the crappy things.” Y’mean like phoners,
Hayden? “Yeah, I really don’t like doing interviews—does
anybody?” :
With Jordi Rosen
at Théatre Outremont tonight, Thursday, Feb. 7, 9pm, $17.50,
all ages
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