Hayley Sales Shows Her Mature Side
by Kim Davis
Hayley Sales is probably a name you haven't heard before. But the buzz is that she's about to make a big splash on the folk scene with her debut album, Sunseed.
You might assume that this young woman wouldn't have enough life experience to create a lyrically developed album. But this 20-year-old was born into the Washington, D.C., projects, interviewed the Dalai Lama, has traveled the world, and has written and produced her major label debut. She has even been on the road accompanying former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.
Sunseed was primarily recorded in her family's Glass Wing Studios. Sales wrote the songs, chose the musicians, contributed acoustic guitar, piano and vocals and was the record's sole producer.
She grew up in a musical home. Her family maintained a full recording studio in each house they lived in, from her birthplace in D.C. to their house in Portland to their current home, an organic blueberry farm on Vancouver Island.
"I was born in a Washington, D.C., ghetto," she explains, "in a Victorian hippie house my mom had lived in since she was a baby. My father had a basement recording studio where everyone from Miles Davis to rap artists were coming in. Those were the first few years of my life. I was raised with that music, with the beats and the melodies that vibrated the house. They were the soundtrack I danced and sang to."
Artists from all different eras have influenced her, and these influences can be heard on the album. "l remember first hearing Judy Garland when I was 6," she says. "Something in me loved it right away. I trained myself to sing listening to her! As a kid, I also listened to 1940s jazz, reggae and 1960s music until middle school, when I realized there was modern music, too. I've fallen in love with lots of musical styles, and now they are all mixed in together into my own."
During her time in Oregon she attended Northwest Academy, a performing arts-based secondary school, where she graduated two years ahead of schedule.
After finishing school, she moved from the fast-paced city to the sheltered and quiet desolation of Vancouver Island. She felt that the change was shocking, but it proved to be another point of inspiration for her work.
"I was 16 and went from going to school in downtown Portland to being on an island where it was basically me alone with myself," she says. "I initially hid away and worked on my music, and focused on spending time in the studio. I didn't have any friends at first; I just played piano and guitar all day and night. Music was my only confidante for a while."
Her family always supported her talents and allowed her to work in the home studio, but her father insisted that she learn things the hard way. "He would set me up and say, 'Go record yourself,' but he would never tell me what to do. I was so annoyed by that initially, but he told me, 'I will not teach you; you need to find out for yourself.' I totally respect that to this day, because I got to sit in the studio from 8 at night until 8 in the morning, playing around with the drums, keyboards and guitars. As a result, on Sunseed I was able to co-mix, do the recording, producing and engineering. Having those skills is really an empowering feeling. I made the album exactly the way I wanted to."
She admits that her time on Vancouver Island has also affected the sound and style of her music. "Sitting on a beach and watching the waves, I'll write a completely different song than I would anywhere else," she says. "There's a magic to it, I think. Transferring that inspiration not just through my songwriting but also into the studio, I'd have to say that my music sits back and rides the wave more. Since I have become more relaxed, I realize that there's a different way to live life, to take it easy and live in the moment, to try and look past the superficial things and figure out what makes you tick as an individual."
Even in the absence of a completed album, Sales has collected awards for her music, including Female Vocalist of the Year at the Vancouver Island Music Awards.
As a young artist, she struggles with having her work recognized as "mature," but she is confident she can win over the skeptics. "Music is an exchange of energies, and I love the exchange," she says. "It makes me feel good and inspires me to write music that I hope makes other people feel good."
Sunseed is available now and features the single "What You Want." For more information, visit www.hayleysales.com.
