Darren Hayman

Darren Hayman (born 1 December 1970) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the writer, lead singer, and guitarist in Hefner. Since Hefner disbanded in 2002, Hayman has embarked on a prolific solo career releasing twelve albums under his own name and appearing on albums by Papernut Cambridge, Rotifer and The Great Electric. He has regularly worked with The Wave Pictures, producing an album for them, directing three of their music videos and briefly employing them as his backing band. In January 2011 Hayman recorded and released a song every day in the month of January, working with many collaborators. Hayman also paints and has exhibited his work at exhibitions about animals in space and racing dogs.

Hayman first made a name for himself as the lead singer and main songwriter in UK indie rock band Hefner, who were big favourites of the late John Peel. The band split in 2002, their discography numbering four studio albums as well as a number of compilations and a live album.

Hayman's first works after Hefner were an album with The French and an EP with The Stereo Morphonium. Both were electronic projects. Hayman stated afterwards that he "spunked his career up the wall spectacularly" by following Hefner with the electronic The French.

Hayman's debut solo album Table for One was released in 2006 by Track & Field, receiving a five star review in The Guardian. It was followed in 2007 by Darren Hayman & the Secondary Modern, his second solo album, featuring a new backing band. The album featured guest appearances from singer-songwriter John Howard and Pete Astor (of The Loft and The Weather Prophets fame). Hayman employed The Wave Pictures as his backing band for a short tour in 2007, resulting in the live album Madrid, credited to Darren Hayman & The Wave Pictures.

In 2008 Hayman fronted self-proclaimed "East London bluegrass" outfit Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee, releasing an eponymous album recorded around Hayman's kitchen table over two days. The band is named after Dave Watkins from Hayman's band The Secondary Modern, John Lee from B-Monster and Simon Trought (spelled Trout here) from Tompaulin. However, Lee and Trought do not appear on the album, which instead features David Tattersal from The Wave Pictures and fiddle player Dan Mayfield.

Also in 2008, Hayman released the compilation Great British Holiday EPs, which collects the EPs Caravan Songs (2005), Ukulele Songs from the North Devon Coast (2006), Eastbourne Lights (2006) and Minehead (2007) which were recorded in the EPs' titular locations by Hayman during holidays. Hayman states that the collection is about "a love of days gone by". This was followed by the release of a further EP called Songs For Harmonium And Drum Machine for the p572 label in Canada, with all the songs titled after and written about the Brat Pack members Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.

In 2009, Hayman released the first part of his "Essex Trilogy", Pram Town, named after Harlow, in Essex, which was given the Pram Town name by the Daily Mirror in the 1950s. The album is a 'folk-opera' concerning a relationship between a man and a woman who is out of his league, Hayman stating that the album "is a set of songs about someone who doesn't escape. It’s about how pride can lose you love. It's about high and low ambition and the gap between".

Essex Arms, the second installment in the "Essex Trilogy", was released 2010, his first release on the Fortuna Pop! record label. It is an album concerning Essex on a larger scale than Pram Town, with songs about factories closing, dogging hot spots and the littered countryside, featuring guest appearances from Emmy the Great and Fanfarlo.